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Photography Books - Social and Historical Photography
Photography books dealing with social and historical documentary photography, and the history of photography itself. |
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 100 Photographs That Changed the World
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Nominated through on-line votes and selected by Life editors, the 100 images in this compendium cover unforgettable moments in "The Arts," "Society," "War & Peace" and "Science & Nature." The photographs are all striking -whether visually or viscerally, artistically or emotionally-but many are difficult to look at.
As Gordon Parks writes in his introduction, "these images helped push us toward a change." And so it's possible to revisit the moments when a white crowd in Indiana cheered at the hanging bodies of two black men, when grieving members of AIDS activist David Kirby gathered around his deathbed, when the 1937 bombing of Shanghai left a train station destroyed and a single bloody child alone amidst the wreckage.
There are a few lighter moments-the Beatles arriving at JFK in 1964, the American Olympic hockey team celebrating their 1980 landmark victory over the "Soviet machine"-but over all, this gathering of photos shows our darker hours. |
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In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits
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'In Focus' draws upon the National Geographic magazine's complete archives to raise intriguing questions about how editorial choices help define our understanding of the world. For example, in 1981, National Geographic published Sam Abell's elegiac portrait of Rosa--the last of the Yahgan Indians of Terra del Fuego--wreathed in atmospheric smoke against a dark background, in the stately tradition of Edward S. Curtis. We also see one of Abell's unpublished photos of Rosa in her modest home, grimacing as she stands in the blue light of her TV, next to a poster commemorating the restoration of Chile's constitution in 1980.
The gallery of portraits in this splendid book includes many memorable faces, from the unnerving grin of the Wodaabe tribesman in Niger (who wears colorful makeup as part of a courtship ritual) to the sunny self-possession of a child in Murmansk who holds up four tiny fingers to indicate her age. Beautiful women abound--they have helped sell the magazine from its earliest days. As the decades go by, people everywhere seem more at ease being photographed. But they remain as fascinating as ever, perhaps because we'll never know what they were thinking when the shutter clicked. |
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National Geographic Photographs Then and Now
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National Geographic began publication in 1888 and so can rightly boast of more than a century's penetration of American homes, waiting rooms, and libraries. This handsome volume displays the cream of its enormous collection of images from early black-and-white photographs to those produced with today's digital technology. The collection is broken down into natural geographic sections, commencing with North America and ranging continentally through to the polar regions. Each picture has an excellent caption that provides explanation and insight. The photographer's name, the year the picture was taken, and location are included. A sort of super issue of the magazine itself, the book offers a satisfying variety of visual wonders. There are extraordinary aerial shots of the world's great cities by night, religious services of many varieties, celebrations of all sorts, presentations of diverse cultures and sceneries, and many vivid forms of portraiture. A stunning array of photographic history. |
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Strange Days, Dangerous Nights: Photos from the Speed Graphics Era
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Driven by the desire to fill newspaper pages with sensational images, press photographers shot everything, day and night: automobile accidents, fires, murders, all the cop news that fought for a hot spot on the Front Page. And they covered uncounted numbers of social affairs -- pictures called 'grip-and-grins' in the trade: school events, sports, celebrities, oddities both of nature and humanity.
Veteran journalist and mystery writer Larry Millett has unearthed over 200 of the best photos from the archives of the St Paul Pioneer Press and the St Paul Dispatch for 'Strange Days, Dangerous Nights'. Included are the sensational stories behind the photos and biographies of some of the top press photographers of the day. An evocative look at another time, this is a visual history like no other, a feast for fans of photography and photojournalism, crime buffs, and urban historians -- and a testament to the craft of those photographers who documented their era one shot at a time. |
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Through the Lens: National Geographic\'s Greatest Photographs
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Since the 10.5 million images in National Geographic's
possession won't fit in a book, the 250 in this moderately glossy, minimally costly collection will do nicely.
Through the Lens is a stunning collection of photos judiciously apportioned to represent the regions of the earth, the sea, and outer space; humans and nature; and even the history of the medium--a few historic black and whites contrast dramatically with the eye-popping modern color shots that dominate the book. As ever, the esthetic key to their impact is the use of big, emotional pictures with witty little captions, and whenever possible, startling juxtapositions.
Often, what's striking is the juxtaposition of ideas. An Arctic wolf making an impossible leap between ice floes arcs in midair, only its reflection hitting the frigid water. A 1935 Model T "surfs" a steep dune in White Sands, New Mexico. Chorus lines of stuffed cane-toad corpses with surreally clothespinned snouts perform on a taxidermist's shelf. Newborns are lined up like bread loaves in Shanghai. A woman in a white chador sits in the Tripoli airport, the white lines of fluorescent ceiling bulbs radiating behind her head like a saint's halo. |
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