Customer Reviews

Five Thousand Days: Press Photography in a Changing World

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Press photographers have long been the source of some of our most dramatic photography: simply pick up any newspaper any day and see the tragedy of the latest tsunami, the devastation of the war in Iraq, the coverage of the viscera of sports events, and more.

The British Press is less scrutinized for public acceptance than is the American Press and the result is a closer, unedited view of world events that populate the pages of this enormously interesting book. In his forward Harold Evans explains the differences between British and American photojournalists and invites the viewer to gasp and be prepared for some of the grisly events as well as to be exhilarated by some of the more joyous ones.

FIVE THOUSAND DAYS: PRESS PHOTOGRAPHY IN A CHANGING WORLD covers the period from 1990 to 2004 - 14 years of events that justifies the content from the revolution in Prague to the winning of the Gold Cup. In this melange we see the battlefields of Chechnya strewn with corpses, devastated homes, soldiers on the front lines, terrorists from Moscow down to the Middle East - sites of suffering and misery that could never be staged except by war-driven means. But just as quickly we are given many close-up views of British Royalty in both traditional and unsanitized form: there is a picture of Margaret Thatcher in garishly white makeup after the close of her regime! Likewise the photojournalists have celebrated the masses of common folk in the stadiums of sport games, extraordinary in-action shots of the boundless energies of sportsmen at work/play, and even an extended look at the world of the Arts and Fashion.

This is one of those books that intrigues the eye and the mind, for between these two covers exists a relative short period of time so full of events, casualties, political upheavals, and celebrations that 14 years seems a lifetime. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, January 2005

Yaaawn. Yet another news photo book. Without accompanying texts these photos are as boring as any other you would find in your shoe box. Alas, these photos don't have any accompanying texts.