What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time [Hardcover]

David Elliot Cohen (Author)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Sterling; First Edition edition (Sep 2 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1402758340
ISBN-13: 978-1402758348
Product Dimensions: 26.2 x 21.2 x 2.9 cm
Shipping Weight: 1.4 Kg
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #176,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Hard to see, impossible to turn away - Issues and images combine in 'What Matters,' a powerful and passionate new book
"Great documentary photojournalism, squeezed out of mainstream newspapers and magazines in an age of shrinking column inches, has had a hard time gaining traction in other venues... But nobody has told the 18 photographers in What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time. These are photo essays by some of today's best photojournalists following the great tradition begun over a hundred years ago with the exposés of New York tenement life by Jacob Riis. Through the doggedness of these photographers—who are clearly committed to stirring us out of complacency—all the power and passion of the medium is evident in this book... Some of the pieces will break your heart, some will anger you. All will make you think. To channel your thoughts and feelings into action, the book ends with an appendix "What You Can Do," offering hundreds of ways to be a part of the solution to these problems."

- Chicago Tribune Book Review, http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/chi-david-elliot-cohen-06sep06,0,5288041.story

"Must viewing."

- San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/17/DDGB12K49R.DTL

Photographs that Can Change the World
"David Elliot Cohen’s new book, What Matters, which hits bookshelves today, is a collection of photo essays that explore 18 distinct social issues that define our time. Shot by the world’s most renowned photojournalists, including James Nachtwey, who has contributed to V.F., the photographs explore topics ranging from genocide and global warming to oil addiction and consumerism, offering a raw view into the problems that plague our world. Each photo essay is accompanied by written commentary from an expert on the issue. Cohen hopes the book will inspire people to work toward resolving these problems. “Great photojournalism changed the world in the past, and it can do it again,” Cohen says. “I want people to see these images, get angry, and act on that anger. Compelling images by the world’s best photojournalists is the most persuasive language I have to achieve this.”
- vanityfair.com, http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/09/what-matters.html

"Changing the world might sound like a lofty goal for a photo book, but that’s what the new book, What Matters, The World’s Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of our Time edited by David Elliot Cohen (Sterling Publishing, $28, 2008), hopes to do. Citing the power of socially conscious photographers over the last 150 years, the beautiful collection of 18 photo-essays by some of today’s prominent photojournalists hopes to “inform pre-election debate and inspire direct action." Regardless of what side of the political fence you sit on, this collection of heartbreaking and powerful stories and images is guaranteed to get you thinking."
- Popular Photography, http://flash.popphoto.com/blog/2008/08/book-review-wha.html

Those doubting the power of photojournalism to sway opinion and encourage action would do well to spend some time with this book. In 18 stories, each made up of photos by leading photojournalists and elucidated by short essays by public intellectuals and journalists, this book explores environmental devastation, war, disease, and the ravages of both poverty and great wealth. The photos are specific and personal in their subject matter and demonstrate how great photography can illuminate the universal by depicting the specific. Cohen has a goal beyond simply showcasing terrific photography. In his thoughtful introduction, he makes explicit his aim to connect the work compiled here with the great tradition of muckraking photography that helped to change conditions in New York tenements and to end child labor at the turn of the last century. A terrific concluding chapter directs readers to specific actions they can take if they are moved to do so by the book's images, and it's hard to imagine the reader who would not be moved. Highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries supporting journalism and/or photography curricula. (a starred review in Library Journal generally means the book will be acquired by many libraries.)
- Library Journal, http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6598644.html

Powerful photos, insightful commentary fill the compelling 'What Matters.'
What Matters is about big questions and big problems that beg for big solutions.
- Florida Times Union (Jacksonville), http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092808/lif_337282446.shtml

Product Description

For more than a century, photography has revealed truths, exposed lies, advanced the public discourse, and inspired people to demand change. Socially conscious pioneers with cameras transformed the world—and that legacy lives on in this eye-opening, thought-provoking, and (we hope) action-inducing book. Like Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and Jonathan Schell’s The Fate of the Earth before it, we believe that What Matters will fundamentally alter the way we see and understand the human race and our planet.
What Matters asks: What are the essential issues of our time? What are the pictures that will spark public outrage and spur reform? The answer appears in 18 powerful, page-turning stories by the foremost photojournalists of our age, edited by The New York Times best-selling author/editor David Elliot Cohen (A Day in the Life and America 24/7 series), and featuring trenchant commentary from well-recognized experts and thinkers in appropriate fields. Photographer Gary Braasch and climate-change guru Bill McKibben provide “A Global Warming Travelogue” that takes us from ice caves in Antarctica to smoke-spewing coal plants in Beijing. Brent Stirton and Peter A. Glick examine a “Thirsty World,” chronicling the daily search for clean water in non-developed countries. James Nachtwey and bestselling poverty expert Jeffrey D. Sachs look at the causes of, and cures for, global poverty in “The Bottom Billion.” Stephanie Sinclair and Judith Bruce present the preteen brides of Afghanistan, Nepal, and Ethiopia.
Sometimes the juxtaposition of photographs can be startling: “Shop ‘til We Drop,” Lauren Greenfield’s images of upscale consumer culture, starkly contrast with Shehzad Noorani’s “Children of the Black Dust”—child laborers in Bangladesh, their faces blackened with carbon dust from recycled batteries.
The combination of compelling photographs and insightful writing make this a highly relevant, widely discussed book bound to appeal to anyone concerned about the crucial issues shaping our world. What Matters is, in effect, a 336-page illustrated letter to the next American president about the issues that count. It will inspire readers to do their part—however small—to make a difference: to help, the volume includes extensive “What You Can Do” sections with a menu of web links and effective actions readers can take now. This year give What Matters.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.7 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Still Image Still Matters, Sep 8 2008

By ConcernedPJ - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time (Hardcover)

This book is a testament to a simple truth: the still photograph still matters. The stories here are carefully chosen to give the reader an intimate and truthful look at the most pressing issues of our time. The accompanying writing both complements and extends the story-telling ability of these images and the essays are excellent across the board, from Pulitzer-Prize winning author Samantha Power's passionate and vivid description of the genocide in Darfur to Jeffrey Sachs' story about a village in Malawi that accompanies James Nachtwey's images of poverty.

From a technical standpoint, the photographs are brilliantly reproduced and sequenced well, in a way that most poignantly and directly tells the story. This book is highly recommended both as a great read and a visual document of our times.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable Book Demands Change, Aug 20 2008

By Rose Whtimore "Rose Whitmore" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time (Hardcover)

What Matters is an emotionally stunning book that challenges its readers to make a difference. It uses remarkable photography to expose issues like rampant consumerism in the US and China, child marriages in Afghanistan, the grim realities of AIDS in Tanzania, the roots of oil addiction in Nigeria and the lasting effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. While a wide-ranging book about essential global problems may be a daunting read, in the end it is also a testament to humanity's capacity for change. What Matters includes an extensive "What You Can Do" guide in the back, so maybe it can be a catalyst for the change that so many of us are hoping for.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Chicago Tribune Book Review 9/6/08, Sep 8 2008

By David E. Cohen "Author" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time (Hardcover)

Hard to see, impossible to turn away
Issues and images combine in 'What Matters,' a powerful and passionate new book

By Michael Zajakowski
Chicago Tribune Book Review
September 6, 2008

Great documentary photojournalism, squeezed out of mainstream newspapers and magazines in an age of shrinking column inches, has had a hard time gaining traction in other venues. Although it has found new life on web sites and in books, the age of the topical visual long form is in remission.

But nobody has told the 18 photographers in "What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time."

These are photo essays by some of today's best photojournalists following the great tradition begun over a hundred years ago with the exposés of New York tenement life by Jacob Riis. Through the doggedness of these photographers--who are clearly committed to stirring us out of complacency--all the power and passion of the medium is evident in this book.

David Elliot Cohen, who co-created the famous "Day in the Life" series of photojournalism books, had a keen eye in selecting the photo essays and coupling each with cogent commentary from writers such as Samantha Power, professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government; Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute and Columbia University professor; and Elizabeth C. Economy, director for Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The book is an engrossing journey from pristine wilderness to glittering Rodeo Drive boutiques with stops along the way focusing on genocide, global jidad, child labor and AIDS victims in Africa, to name a few.

In a provocative bit of editing, James Nachtwey's searing photo essay about global poverty, "The Bottom Billion," is jarringly followed by Lauren Greenfield's "Shop til We Drop," a vivid but embarrassing look at another extreme, which is only slightly less shameful than the first.

Some of the pieces will break your heart, some will anger you. All will make you think. To channel your thoughts and feelings into action, the book ends with an appendix "What You Can Do," offering hundreds of ways to be a part of the solution to these problems.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 13 reviews 4.7 out of 5 stars