Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism (Crime & Justice: a Review of Research; Crime & Justice: a Review of Research) [Paperback]

John G. Morris (Author)

Book Description

Series: Crime & Justice: a Review of Research; Crime & Justice: a Review of Research | Publication Date: June 15, 2002

How do photojournalists get the pictures that bring us the action from the world's most dangerous places? How do picture editors decide which photos to scrap and which to feature on the front page?

Find out in Get the Picture, a personal history of fifty years of photojournalism by one of the top journalists of the twentieth century. John G. Morris brought us many of the images that defined our era, from photos of the London air raids and the D-Day landing during World War II to the assassination of Robert Kennedy. He tells us the inside stories behind dozens of famous pictures like these, which are reproduced in this book, and provides intimate and revealing portraits of the men and women who shot them, including Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and W. Eugene Smith. A firm believer in the power of images to educate and persuade, Morris nevertheless warns of the tremendous threats posed to photojournalists today by increasingly chaotic wars and the growing commercialism in publishing, the siren song of money that leads editors to seek pictures that sell copies rather than those that can change the way we see the world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I am a journalist," says John G. Morris, "but not a reporter and not a photographer." He is a picture editor--the person who selects which photos get used in a newspaper or magazine--and he's worked for some of the top names in the industry: at Life under Henry Luce, for Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee at the Washington Post, and for Abe Rosenthal at the New York Times, where his bold page-one use of a photograph by Eddie Adams of the execution of a Vietcong suspect by Nyugen Ngoc Loan became one of the Vietnam War's most enduring images.

Morris, who also served as the first executive editor for the Magnum photojournalist press agency, looks back at his career in this lively memoir. Among the colleagues who turn up in anecdotes are Alfred Eisenstaedt, Lee Miller, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Robert Capa; the book leads with a grainy Capa photograph of the D-day landing, 1 of only 11 shots that survived a freak accident in the London photo labs of Life as Morris and his team raced against the clock to get images to America in time for the next issue. There are over 100 other powerful photographs, taken at the Japanese-American internment camp at Manzanar, the Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek, and the front lines of the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, and other locales. In addition to being a dynamic storyteller, Morris is also steadfast in his determination that photojournalists should be given the freedom--both in resources and lack of censorship--to provoke us into a new awareness of what is happening in the world. --Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"Photographers are the most adventurous of journalists. They have to be. Unlike a reporter, who can piece together a story from a certain distance, a photographer must... be in the right place at the right time. No rewrite desk will save him." Morris wasn't on the front line, he was the guy who sent the photographers out and decided on what came back. And he did it for the best in the business. In this enlightening memoir, Morris traces his half-century career from the mail room at Life, and subsequent promotions there, to Ladies' Home Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times, and as executive editor at the famed Magnum photo agency. Morris worked with and knew as friends the greats of photojournalism, from W. Eugene Smith to the Turnley brothers. His colorful anecdotes have the authenticity of the insider, and photo buffs will finally learn how three rolls of Robert Capa's D-Day film was ruined, leaving only 11 usable shots. Morris also describes his own run-ins with such powerful bosses as Katharine Graham, Henry Luce and A.M. Rosenthal. His book is at its best when he is at the picture desk, making the later chaptersAafter he moves to Paris in 1983 to become a writer and criticAseem much less interesting. Morris could have said more on, say, the impact of newspaper color on photojournalism, but it's enough that he offers a behind-the-scenes look at the glory days before the immediacy of television changed the purpose and impact of the field. And of course, it's supplemented by 115 b&w photos. (June) and Flash!: The Associated Press Covers the World (Abrams).
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 351 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226539148
• ISBN-13: 978-0226539140
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #800,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting the Picture, June 27, 2002

By 

Linda Deak (Wassenaar Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism (Crime & Justice: a Review of Research; Crime & Justice: a Review of Research) (Paperback)

This is a well-written rolicking ride through the last century and the history of photojournalism in the American media. It has an index that reads like the Who's Who of the century with anecdotes and insights galore on the movers and shakers of photojournalism and history. I enjoyed every word and I recommend it highly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more than a history of photojournalism, and sometimes, less, March 19, 2005

By 

Donovan G. Rinker "donoglen" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism (Crime & Justice: a Review of Research; Crime & Justice: a Review of Research) (Paperback)

One imagines John G. Morris as the sort of grandfather with a thousand amazing stories, whom everyone in the family has asked to write a book for years and who finally sets about the task.

As a sequence of compelling snapshots, Morris selects and arranges his tales into a layout that explores unresolved questions, ambivalences, regrets, hopes, thrills, and humor.

For anyone interested in photojournalism, as a profession, its personalities - the lives, loves, and losses of those standing on the other side of the camera while celebrities splash across the pages - this book is an excellent starting place. His 'editor's eye' view of the profession turns the camera back upon the photographers, telling tales behind pictures generally left untold. By disclosing the various photographic negatives, he discloses a positively fascinating image of the origins of modern imagemaking.

3 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic novel through the eyes of a great man, May 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism (Hardcover)

I just finished reading this novel and I must admitt it is one of the best novels I have read this year. It really is an exciting travel through the 20th century, through the eyes of a man who's carreer made him involved with major political and social events. I would say this is a must to anyone interested in photography and journalism, and a recommended for anyone with a heartbeat. I really loved this book.