Histories Are Mirrors: The Path of Conflict through Iraq and Afghanistan [Hardcover]

John Burns (Author), Ian Fisher (Author), Tyler Hicks (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

From the devastation of the World Trade Center in 2001, through the mountains of Afghanistan, to the battle for Iraq, New York Times photographer Tyler Hicks’ images have made history as well as recorded it. Hicks presents the stark but dignified realities of everyday life during the conflict and its aftermath coexisting with pathos and grace.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tyler Hicks, born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, graduated from Boston university with a degree in photojournlism. he worked at the Troy Daily News in Ohio and the Wilmington Morning Star in North Carolina before moving to The New York Times. Following 9/11, he photographed in Afghanistan for The Times and Getty Images. His awards include a 2003 Pictures of the Year Award of Excellence for a New York Times piece titled "Iraqi Prison Guard" and the 2001 International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Photojournalism for his coverage in Afghanistan. As a New York Times staff photographer since 2002, he has covered the ongoing Iraqi conflict from Baghdad. Though constantly on assignment, Hicks retains his residence in New York. John F. Burns has served as the bureau chief of The New York Times in Baghdad since the United States began bombing in March of 2003. He has received the Pulitzer Prize twice: in 1997 for his reporting on the Taliban in Afghanistan and in 1993 for his coverage of strife and destruction in Bosnia. Burns has been with The New York Times since 1975 and since that time he has been a bureau chief in New Delhi, Toronto, Peking, Moscow, and Johannesburg. He lives in London. Ian Fisher graduated from Boston University in 1987. He worked at The Lowell Sun in massachusetts until 1990, when he joined The New York Times as a clerk. After being promoted to reporter in 1992, Fisher covered the Bronx, Albany, and Washington, D.C. He became the New York Times East Africa bureau chief, based in Kenya, in 1998 and the Eastern Europe and Balkans chief in 2001. Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11 he was based primarily in Iraq and the Middle East. In August of 2004 he became the New York Times bureau chief iin Rome, where he currently resides with his wife and two children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Umbrage Editions (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884167446
• ISBN-13: 978-1884167447
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,248,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tyler Hicks is an Extraordinary Photographer as is the book, October 6, 2006

By 

Robert A. Black (Toronto) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Histories Are Mirrors: The Path of Conflict through Iraq and Afghanistan (Hardcover)

Contrary to the first reviewer's misinformed and erroneous comment about "are the photographs faked," Hicks is one of the world's finest, most authentic and reliable photojournalists. This magisterial book is a good entrance into the world of his extraordinary visual testimony about the world's events. It is not necessary for me to add more than what Ms. Hegland has already contributed villifing the outlandish accusations promulgated about Hick's work. We, unfortunately, live in a time of easy words and radiant mistruths spread with electrical velocity. If only the hard-won expression of what passes in this life were so easily and readily available to be swallowed and digested.

I recommend this book and the entire scrupulously honest work of Mr. Hicks.

It is magisterial and breath-stealing. Allow yourself this wind-swept moment: by swallowing Hick's photographs, you shall be transformed.

cheers,

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pictures of a changing world, February 9, 2005

By 

Michael Kamber (West Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Histories Are Mirrors: The Path of Conflict through Iraq and Afghanistan (Hardcover)

People talk endlessly about how the world has changed since 9/11. In his new book, "Histories are Mirrors," Tyler Hicks doesn't talk about the changes, he records them in some of the most riveting photographs I've ever seen.

This book may be the best document to date of what has happened in our world since the World Trade Towers came down. From the Hicks's earliest pictures, taken at ground zero immediately after the attack, through the invasion of Afghanistan and on to Iraq, the viewer is taken step by step through world-changing events and the resulting hope, euphoria, death and destruction.

Hicks is one of the world's leading war photographers. Sometimes it seems barely a bullet was fired that he was not there to record. His pictures of the execution of a wounded Taliban soldier-previously splashed across the front page of the New York Times where Hicks is a staff photographer-are gut-wrenching. And there are many more like that: Marines in close-quarters combat in the cemetery in Najaf, Saddam's soldiers searching for downed Americans along the Tigris, bleeding Northern Alliance soldiers an arm's reach from the lens. The pictures of Iraqi prisoners fleeing the open doors of Abu Ghraib are alone worth the price of the book

But Hicks has another, more empathetic side as well. He goes into the homes of grieving families; he shows the funerals and the hospital wards, the parents who have lost children, the children who are now orphans. The viewer feels the human suffering that results as world leaders solve political problems with guns and bombs.

There are many talented, committed photojournalists working today. Two characteristics separate Hicks from the crowd. One is his persistence-he was one of a handful of journalists who remained in Baghdad during the US bombing campaign. The second is his artistry. Simply put, he understands how to make a riveting, often haunting picture in the quiet moments when there is no action.

Robert Capa, Eugene Smith and Larry Burrows are recognized as the preeminent war photographers of the twentieth century. All were brave beyond belief (Capa and Burrows died in Vietnam). Yet they are remembered as much for their artistry, and for the humanity in their photos. Tyler Hicks follows in their footsteps.

Michael Kamber

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Histories Are Mirrors, February 11, 2005

By 

Gary Fabiano "Gary Fabiano" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Histories Are Mirrors: The Path of Conflict through Iraq and Afghanistan (Hardcover)

Our world is in a very tumultuous state. To many, the words "Iraq" and "Afghanistan" are just that... Words. Tyler Hicks' "Histories Are Mirrors" is an important record for our time. He offers the viewer a glimpse of what our global neighbors have to do to survive and exist. War is not pretty. And to those who live in comfort in countries free of continuous conflict, the idea of war is as foreign a concept as the land that they take place in. In my opinion it is the responsibility of all to seek out, view and to try and understand the issues at hand. Some people may consider a few of the photographs difficult to look at... But we must. Mr. Hicks' book is a testament to all those whose paths he has crossed on his journeys. Look at the photographs and look into the eyes of those affected.