Book Review: In Focus
I have to make this one short, we’re on our way to the Halloween Carnival at Sid’s school. In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits by the National Geographic Society is book forty-four in 52 weeks. It’s a detailed history of portraits that appeared in National Geographic from the time they started publishing photographs to the present.
I’ve always loved portraits in National Geographic. Unlike the nature shots that are always astounding, the portraits that go along with their stories have a real-world feel to them. There are so many times that it’s a picture of someone eating breakfast in a small town that anyone could have taken, but it illustrates the story perfectly and shows a small part of what makes that part of the world unique.
I’m fascinated by so many of the portraits that were taken of different native people from around the world. Some, an editor say, that had never seen a camera, and sometimes had never seen anyone of European descent.
The book collects the photographs into sections, then has an editor explain why they’re important, how the photographer was there taking them, and what it contributed to the magazine. These aren’t a quick explanation rolled into a small paragraph, it’s all very detailed and each section usually has five or six pages of great history of what was going on at the time, both with the magazine and in the world.
Amazon has a gallery of a few of the portraits from the book.
B
Other people reading 52 in 52.
- Jaime reviews Sway by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
- Heliologue reviews Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander
- Nick reviews The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross
Also, don’t forget Maw Books blog. I thought Natasha was doing 52 books in 52 weeks, but she’s on track to do something like 10,000 books in 52 weeks (a small exaggeration).
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