How do photojournalists get the pictures that bring us the action from the world's most dangerous places? How do picture editors decide which photos to scrap and which to feature on the front page? Find out in Get the Picture, a personal history of fifty years of photojournalism by one of the top journalists of the twentieth century. John G. Morris brought us many of the images that defined our era, from photos of the London air raids and the D-Day landing during World War II to the assassination of Robert Kennedy. He tells us the inside stories behind dozens of famous pictures like these, which are reproduced in this book, and provides intimate and revealing portraits of the men and women who shot them, including Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and W. Eugene Smith. A firm believer in the power of images to educate and persuade, Morris nevertheless warns of the tremendous threats posed to photojournalists today by increasingly chaotic wars and the growing commercialism in publishing, the siren song of money that leads editors to seek pictures that sell copies rather than those that can change the way we see the world. "His best stories from the field are not tagging along with Capa and Hemingway...or having drinks at the Ritz in Parts with Marlene Dietrich; they are his less flashy but moving descriptions of the Japanese internment camps in California." - Leslie Cockburn, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Reviews
"An exciting, revealing trip through the intricacies of picture publishing in its truest light." - Gordon Parks, author of Half Past Autumn; "Going through Morris's book of memories, I felt I was sitting in front of a magic lantern." - Henri Cartier-Bresson; "During his long and eventful career, John G. Morris operated at the heart of 20th-century photojournalism, working as a picture editor for Life, Magnum, The Washington Post, The New York Times and National Geographic....[H]e weaves photographers, anecdotes, players, history and a credo or two into an engaging and informative tale." - Rosemary Ranck, New York Times Book Review



Book Information
ISBN 9780226539140
Author John G. Morris
Format Paperback
Page Count 351
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 510g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm