Photojournalism, over 100 images.

"Reuters, the international news agency, provides a historic and invaluable account of how the war against Saddam Hussein unfolded in its latest book, Twenty-One Days to Baghdad: A Chronicle of the Iraq War.

Award-winning photographers paint a unique and unbiased picture of the military campaign described by General Tommy Franks as "unlike any in history." Vivid text and precision graphics complete a compelling narrative of the conflict.

A day-by-day chronicle assembles more than 100 gripping pictures--from the decks of American aircraft carriers in the Gulf to the heat of battle in the Iraqi desert and finally to the streets of Baghdad and Saddam's collapse. ..."

"Philip Jones Griffiths, for a record five years the President of Magnum Photos, created in Vietnam, Inc. a record of the war there of almost Biblical proportions. No one who has seen it will forget its haunting images. In Agent Orange he has added a postscript that is equally memorable.

In 1960 the United States war machine concluded that an efficient deterrent to the enemy troops and civilians would be the devastation of the crops and forestry that afforded them both succour and cover for their operations. Initial descriptions of the scheme included "Food Denial Program", later adapted to "depriving cover for enemy troops". They gave the idea the name "Operation Hades", but were advised that "Operation Ranch Hand" was a more suitable cognomen for PR purposes.

The US had developed herbicides for the task. The most infamous became known as Agent Orange after the coloured stripe on the canisters used to distribute it. The planes that carried the canisters had 'only we can prevent forests!' as a logo on their fuselages. They were right. It was very effective.

Unfortunately the herbicide also contained Dioxin, probably the world's deadliest poison. In Agent Orange Philip Jones Griffiths has photographed the children and grandchildren of the farmers whose faces were lifted to the gentle rain of the poison cloud.

Some maintain that the connection between the maimed subjects of Griffiths' photographs and the exposure to Agent Orange is not scientifically established. However, the compensation payments made by the herbicide manufactures to those Americans sprayed in Viet Nam refute this assertion.

Historians will find it sufficient to say that there will always be collateral damage, that useful PR phrase, in war and that Philip Jones Griffiths should understand the consequences of martial endeavours. He most certainly does. He has catalogued here a pitiless series of photographs, and there can be no doubt that they should and will be recognized."

Baghdad Blues: A War Diary,
David Turney
2003, Vendome Press
10.25" x 8", 160 pp.
List price: $25.00

LIFE: The War in Iraq,
Walter Cronkite
2003, Time
11" x 9", 176 pp.
List price: $24.95

"In well-considered words and vivid pictures, the editors of LIFE create another definitive document of a critical event in American history. As they did with the best-selling ONE NATION. Remarkable pictures from the Gulf, drawn from sources worldwide including Reuters and all the wire services, The New York Times and all the newspapers and news magazines (including many from Europe, providing several shots not yet seen in America), as well as those taken by today's best independent photographers who have an intimate association with LIFE, will tell the history--and be accompanied by a dramatic, authoritative timeline of events."

Naked City,
Arthur Fellig, Weegee
1975, DeCapo Press
243 pgs.
(used copies available)

The ultimate collection of Weegee's shocking tabloid photographs, from the ultimate tabloid city. For Naked City, his first collection, Weegee cruised the streets of 1940s New York in the wee hours in search of the sensational. Lewd, louche, licentious but always brimming with life (except when brimming with death), Weegee's photographs have endured decades of modern art criticism and are again enjoying a much-deserved cult revival. - Soft bound edition available - 2002, DaCapo Press, list price: $17.00

Former Life photographer records the blizzard of ‘47, the Louis-Walcott fight at Madison Square Garden, the "dimouts" of WW II, the burned-out hulk of the Normandie, etc. 162 photographs. Introduction and captions.

"The companion to a major exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., Propaganda and Dreams contrasts the official photographic programs of the Depression-era American New Deal with the Soviet Five-Year Plans of the same period. This shockingly astute comparison reveals unmistakable similarities in style, content, and method, while at the same time fleshing out the differences that would drive these two massive nations into the Cold War. Many well-known photographers like Rodchenko and Dorothea Lange are included alongside more obscure practitioners."
Text by Philip Brookman

Rethink: Cause and Consequences of September 11,
George Baravalle
2004, de.MO
10.18" x 9.2", 584 pp.
List price: $86.00

RETHINK, A de.MO Project, is a book about history and politics, a book about our lives and about our world, and what we are trying to accomplish in it. RETHINK confronts our diversity, our stupidity and cleverness, our preoccupations and rage, our laughter and desperate tears, our need for justice and love, our thirst for blood and power, our need to nourish and be nourished, our need to breathe, close our eyes and dream.

Investigation of the historical, political and moral aspects of such a tragedy, the events that may have fostered it and its political consequences creates a new viewpoint. de.MO believes that ignoring explanation and questioning can foster new catastrophic events.

The contributors to RETHINK had the freedom to create their own voices and were encouraged to respond in a manner that would acknowledge the historical events and causes that brought us to September 11th. Their varied responses create a document of great interest at a time when politics and values are in tremendous flux.

RETHINK can be used as a weapon or as a treasure, and readers are invited to handle it with care. In RETHINK, we are forced to be open-minded, to review all opinions and issues with the possibility that we might emerge with a new perspective and personal ideology."

"When shots ring out, photographers shoot back. Their images can startle, inform, and serve as witness. Mundane and profound, gruesome and compelling, crime photographs are, for better or worse, part of our world. Featuring many rarely and never-before-seen images, this heavily illustrated book sheds new light on the role of crime photography in our history and in our culture.

These are pictures we see once and never forget: an autopsy photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald; the bodies of Lizzie Borden's parents, photographed in the room where they were slain; mug shots of celebrities such as Larry King and Bill Gates; and O.J. Simpson pictured wearing shoes that match the footprints at the murder scene."

 top of page

War. USA, Afghanistan, Iraq,
VII, et al.
2004, de.MO
12.75" x 11.36", 416 pp.
List price: $96.00

"WAR reveals the true story of what our country has faced since that fateful Tuesday in 2001. Featuring 223 photographs, insightful vignettes, and three thought-provoking major essays, WAR is a powerful collaborative effort from VII, a cutting- edge photo agency co-operatively owned by nine elite photojournalists. The three full-length essays, written by eminent journalists Peter Maass, Remy Ourdan, and David Rieff, discuss the three major crises of the 21st century from a social, political, and militaristic standpoint and further illuminate the powerful photographic images in WAR. The photographers of VII — Christopher Anderson, Alexandra Boulat, Lauren Greenfield, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, and John Stanmeyer — are used to witnessing, up close and in person, events of international turmoil. That is the duty of a photojournalist — to bear witness and to document history — and few would dispute that these photojournalists are the world’s very best.

Nachtwey was one of the few photojournalists who managed to record the destruction at Ground Zero. Rushing towards the place from which crowds of people were fleeing for their lives made perfect sense in the inverted logic of my profession, recalls Nachtwey. He produced some of the most memorable photographs taken that day, several of which are featured in WAR.

In addition to documenting the experience of 9/11, WAR takes an incisive look at the images from Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, as well as the airstrikes and US occupation of Iraq. In WAR, the photographers of VII have created a shockingly intimate portrait of US foreign policy and the most critical moments of American history in the beginning of the 21st century. What you see here will stun you."

"Operation Iraqi Freedom commanded the interest and ignited the passions of people of every political stripe around the world. The War in Iraq, which draws on the work of dozens of international photographers -- many of whom risked their lives to get the shot -- collects 250 of the most compelling images taken during the conflict.

From the heroes braving desert combat to the demonstrations of support and protest around the world, from the eerie and blinding sandstorms of the Iraqi desert to the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad -- here are the unforgettable images that tell the story, including many that have never been published before. The result is a historic collection, a spectacular visual chronicle of every aspect of the first full-scale war of the twenty-first century: at once a journalistic record of the realities of battle, and a vivid and eye-opening portrait of the cultural turmoil -- and, in many quarters, jubilation -- that followed the fall of Saddam.

Capturing the dramatic impact of the war at every scale, from the epic to the intimate, The War in Iraq offers a vivid window onto Operation Iraqi Freedom in all its tragedy and triumph -- and a sterling showcase for the talented photographers who braved the battle in pursuit of truth.

"An effective little compilation of some of Weegee's most famous images... skillfully reproduced on fine paper."

Weegee's World,
Arthur Fellig, Weegee
1997, Little Brown & Company
12.75" x 10", 256 pgs.
(used copies available)

Witness Iraq: A War Journal, February - April 2003,
Marcel Saba
2003, powerHouse Books
12.84" x 9.22", 208 pp.
List price: $35.00

Margaret Bourke White
Susan Goldman Rubin
1999, Harry N. Abrams
10.30" x 10.16", 96 pgs.
Lisat price: $19.95

Margaret Bourke-White Photographer,
Margaret Bourke-White
1998, Bullfinch
9.86" x 12", 160 pgs.
(used copies available)

 top of page