VII Photo member James Nachtwey has, reportedly, worked for the past 18 months on a "shocking and underreported global crisis". And he is about to unveil it to the world in a "spectacular" fashion.

Today, his images will be projected on buildings across the world, on all seven continents (yes, even in Antartica...) In London, the photo reportage will be projected on the tower of the National Theatre of London from 19h30.

The winner of the 2007 TEDPrize says: "I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it, in a way that provides spectacular proof
of the power of news photography in the digital age.”

In New York, the story will be shown on Times Square as well as at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle. Time magazine will publish the reportage in his week-end issue. Other locations include Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Sydney, Toronto, Port Elizabeth in South Africa, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Seoul, Berlin, Amsterdam, Milan, Zurich, and at the Research Station of the British Antarctic Survey in Rothera.

You can get more details on the TEDPrize site.

Now, the question that's being asked is whether this "spectacular" launch is overdoing it? The photography industry has long complained about the lack of space in magazines and newspapers for photo reportages. Speaking to BJP, photographer Stanley Greene says that he sometimes struggles to win funding. 'I have to beg, borrow and steal to survive. My credit card is maxed out, the electricity has been cut off in my apartment in Paris.'

Now, should photographers take control of their stories and publish them on their own? It's not the first time such high-profile event has been organised. A few years back, MediaStorm turned Paul Fusco's photographs of Chernobyl into an online multimedia presentation. "18 million people saw it in the first week," says Getty photographer Brent Stirton. "How much money could you make if you charged each person $1 or even 20 cents? We're mishandling this thing. We need to get better at attaching value to our images".