Rangefinder Magazine
December 2006
Book Review: Work by Oliver Gettell
The World in Photographs
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Patrolling the fence of Tembe
Elephant Park, South Africa, 2000; photo by
Chris Johns
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Women collecting clover for cattle, Republic
of Yemen, 1997; photo by Steve McCurry
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Work never stops,”
writes awardwinning
cultural
writer Ferdinand Protzman.
“It is a common human endeavor
that began with the ascent of
man and is now omnipresent on
Earth and extends into space.”
In WORK: The World in Photographs,
National Geographic
explores the world at work
through images by some of the
world’s finest photographers.
WORK presents nearly 200
images selected from National
Geographic’s own archives as
well as other prominent collections.
The work spans 150 years
and circles the globe; images
from photography’s early days in
the 19th century are juxtaposed
with those from the dawn of the
new millennium. Photographs
of the Eiffel Tower under
construction and a young girl
working in a cotton mill share
pages with images of modernday
stock traders and air-traffic
controllers.
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Dangerous work: matador and charging
bull, Madrid, Spain, 1977; photo by David Alan
Harvey
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The book is arranged geographically,
with chapters devoted
to Europe, Asia, Africa,
the Middle East, the Americas
and the Islands. The scope of
the images is stunning, as is
the variety of labor. A man in
Turkey hand-carves the ribs
of a Black Sea fishing vessel;
commuters await the metro
in New York City; young men
in Costa Rica harvest turtle
eggs; a scientist in Antarctica
stores ice cores; workers
process chicken in a factory
in China; an Aymara woman
herds llamas in Chile.
In addition, WORK contains
three portfolios, sections exploring
a particular type of work the
world over. These photographic
essays survey agriculture, extraction (of
coal, precious metals, oil, etc.) and manufacturing.
Some of these efforts are carried
out with high-tech machinery, others with
nothing more than bare hands. To a large
extent, this is the work that the global
economy depends upon, and these portfolios
also serve as visceral reminders of the
daily toil that so many experience.
The photographers featured in WORK
comprise a laundry list of talented artists.
Some 80 photographers are represented,
including Steve McCurry, whose image
of men stilt-fishing off the southern coast
of Sri Lanka graces the cover (opposite
page, bottom). Other contributors include
Bill Allard, Jodi Cobb, Sam Abell, Reza,
George Steinmetz, Lewis Wickes Hine,
Sebastiăo Salgado, Henri Cartier-Bresson
and Edward Burtynsky.
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Along the way, Protzman’s prose considers
the role of work and how it affects
our society, our world and ourselves. The photographs, he writes, “speak of wealth
and poverty, pain and violence, joy and
sorrow. We see the dignity, despair, courage
and perseverance of those depicted.
In this great conversation, we learn how
much all human beings have in common.”
Protzman is an award-winning cultural
author whose work has appeared in The
Washington Post, The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal, The International Herald
Tribune, Forward, The Harvard Review and
Zeit-Magazin. WORK is his fifth book for
National Geographic.
WORK will be published in the U.S.
and six other countries: Bulgaria, France,
Hungary, Italy, Japan and Turkey. Visit
www.nationalgeographic.com for more
information.
WORK: The World in Photographs is
by Ferdinand Protzman (hardcover, 352
pages, National Geographic Books, $35).
Oliver Gettell is an associate editor at Rangefinder
magazine.
