Work: The World in Photographs

Cultural writer Ferdinand Protzman explores some of the world's finest images of men, women and children at work, packing in almost two hundred images spanning some 150 years from the beginnings of photography to modern times. Eighty top photographers from around the world are featured - and some aren't even affiliated with National Geographic, either - making for a collection celebrating all kinds of work situations from farming and bullfighting to begging and snake charming and beyond. A powerful tribute to the world of work makes for an exceptional celebration. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL BOOK WITH INCISIVE COMMENTS BY PROTZMAN ABOUT HIS FANTASTIC CHOICE OF PHOTOS.

WORK: THE WORLD IN PHOTOGRAPHS is another in the fine series of National Geographic books that gathers a group of phenomenally beautiful and touching and tender and humorous photographs from around the globe with the center subject being 'work' - man at his labors. While this may not sound as though it would be an artistic creation, the photographs contained in this large book are some of the finest color images you will see from our global neighborhood. Ferdinand Protzman has curated these dramatic depictions of the various forms of work, both familiar and esoteric, and with great care has placed them in a non-judgmental sequence. The photographs include vistas of bleak desert hunting scenes, water labor such as fishing (one image of men on stilts surrounded by water is especially lyrical), American sports events, and forms of labor from what seems to be every country in the world. The pleasure of this book, aside from the exquisite photography, is the manner of presentation. All forms of work are examined as universal means of supporting life. This is a collection of images that will resound with any viewer and will serve as an emotional attachment to the brotherhood of man. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, September 06

If a picture can tell a story better than a thousand words here you have the ultimate and more fascinating treat about the different shapes that this human activity that we call work can take. A wonderful and wide-ranging collection of photographs from the incredible National Geographic's collection. Here you will find the most comprehensive assemblage of images that portrait people at work in all kind of situations, places, geographic locations, and from different social, economic, political, and racial composition. You will travel in time from the 21st-to the 19th-century while being transported all over the world from one picture to the other. Ferdinand Protzman bring us again a marvelous collection. A truly most have if you liked his previous work (also from National Geographic): "Wide Angle: National Geographic Greatest Places" (2005) and "Landscape: Photographs of Time and Place" (2003).