Things As They Are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955

This paperback edition of the bestselling and award-winning survey, Things as They Are presents the story of photojournalism over 50 years, from 1955 until today. It takes us from the golden era of the illustrated press–the heyday of Life and Picture Post magazines and the moment of The Museum of Modern Art’s defining Family of Man exhibition–to the explosion of digital media in the twenty-first century. This history is told through the presentation of 125 photojournalistic features shot and published around the world. The stories are presented in context–reproduced from the pages of the newspapers and magazines where they originally appeared, as their contemporary public would have experienced them. In this way, Things as They Are reveals how the events of the world, the fine art of photography, and the interests of publishers and the press converged on the printed page. It traces how photojournalism has developed over time alongside changing technology, media, fashions in photography–and a changing world. Includes landmark photo-essays by W. Eugene Smith, Sebastiao Salgado, Mary Ellen Mark and James Nachtwey, among others, each accompanied by expert commentary.