Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs [Hardcover]

Hal Buell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1999

This book offers readers a dramatic visual chronicle of our times.

These are unforgettable moments in history-five Marines raising the US flag in

Iwo Jima in 1945, Babe Ruth's final salute to Yankee stadium in 1949,

Lee Harvey Oswald wincing in pain as he is shot in 1964, President Ronald Reagan

being tackled into his limousine after the 1982 assassination attempt. Captured by

the lenses of top photographers, these 98 Pulitzer Prize winning photographs-combined with photo-timelines-paint a dramatic and memorable montage of each year, from World War II to the last days of the 20th Century.

Etched with emotion, fury and passion, each photograph transports the reader back in time to cry with the victims or cheer with the heroes. A detailed narrative along with the timeline that pictures and notes the most significant events of each year fills in the historical background, the photographer's thoughts, the events leading up to the captured moment as well as the aperture opening and shutter speed.

All photographs are rendered in duotone or full color, producing

clear and crisp images.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Chances are that a fair number of these honored pictures will be familiar to you, many of them viscerally so, from Joe Rosenthal's triumphant Iwo Jima flag-raising to Stanley Forman's brutal image of a busing-era flag attack on a black Boston lawyer; from Babe Ruth's farewell to Kevin Carter's grisly shot of a vulture eyeing a starving Sudanese baby. This book resembles Sheryle and John Leekley's 1978 collection of Pulitzer photographs, also called Moments. But the new one takes the story 20 years further and offers more technical and anecdotal background about how the pictures were achieved--with Speed Graphic or digital camera, by accident, or after a days-long stakeout. Buell, longtime head of the AP's photo services, presents all the prize's winners (1942-99), including follow-up about how the photographers felt after winning the award or whether they ever met their subjects again. The book might have been improved by interviewing the surviving subjects on how these images altered or haunted their lives. Because most of these images are already included in a variety of other sources, this is recommended for libraries that want the images all in one place.
-Nathan Ward, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Pulitzer Prize. These words have come to represent excellence and the pinnacle of achievement in journalism. In 1942, the Pulitzer board, recognizing that photographs provide the lasting images that serve as benchmarks in our lives, began awarding Pulitzer Prizes for photojournalism. Moments: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographs collects every photograph that has been honored with this award--from 1942 through 1999--into one remarkable and profoundly moving volume.

The Pulitzer Prize photographs have borne witness to courage, as evidence in Joe Rosenthal's moving image of American GIs raising the nation's flag on Iwo Jima; national shock, as in Bob Jackson's photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald; compassion, as seen in Nick Ut's moving image of a young Vietnamese girl, her body burned with napalm, fleeing her devastated village; and to an appeal to conscience, as in Kevin Carter's heartbreaking photograph of a starving Sudanese child being trailed by a vulture. The Pulitzer Prize photographs capture moments of joy, moments of terror, and moments of introspection. Particularly with regard to the images from World War II and Vietnam, these images have become icons of our shared consciousness.

Hal Buell, drawing on interviews with the photographers and his experience as The Associated Press's head of photoservices, provides an engrossing description of the story behind the photograph. In addition, four essays by Buell examine the developments in photographic technology and their effects on photojournalism. An illustrated time line throughout the book features historic and cultural events that occurred during the year each Pulitzer photograph was taken, providing additional context from which to view the pictures. A foreword by Seymour Topping, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes and Professor of International Journalism, rounds out this engrossing compendium. A riveting collection of news photography, these incomparable images are testament to the power of the photograph to provoke, compel, and inspire.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579120784
• ISBN-13: 978-1579120788
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 10.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,492,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Made me cry, December 28, 1999

By 

LeeAnne (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs (Hardcover)

My husband gave me this book for Christmas and I couldnt wait to start reading (?) it. It is a collection of the pulitzer prize winning photographs of the last 50+ years. The book begins with mostly World War images but ends on a light note with Clinton and his saxophone. The pages lead you through history through pictures, not so much words and by the end I was crying so hard I couldn't see the print. It really made me think about some of the inhumanities that people have lived (and not lived) to tell about. I loved this book until the last few pages when 1999 ended with photographs of Bill & Monica. It turned sour at that point because every other picture held a noble meaning. This book is worth the money for the hours that you will spend flipping through the pages.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, and there are others, too, August 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs (Hardcover)

Hal's done a great job of behind-the-scenes reporting for this book. The photos are good, too. But if you want a look at a museum-quality catalogue of these photos, try going to Newseum.org and looking at the online store for their book, The Pulitzer Prize photos...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More stories than written., March 14, 2000

By 

Dennis Beall "Tsalla Apopka" (Pine Ridge, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs (Hardcover)

Beautifully done book with very interesting photos and most importantly stories about the photos. An interesting fact is that the cover(1957 photo) photographer, Bill Beall, was a marine photographer in the same outfit as the photographer that took the Iwo Jima picture(1943 photo) and just by chance landed on the other side of Iwo Jima Island.