Work: The World in Photographs

by Ferdinand Protzman, Steve McCurry (Photographer), Sebastião Salgado (Photographer)

Culled from National Geographic's vast photographic archive as well as other important collections, this fascinating, wide-ranging volume presents a wonderfully varied group portrait of people at work—in great cities and tiny villages; in 19th-century China and 21st-century New York; in fields, factories, food carts, four-star restaurants, and just about everywhere else we earn our keep. We see cowboys and clowns, dancers and dog groomers, miners and models. On one page, drill sergeants bark orders to U.S. Navy recruits; on another, young Tibetan monks study Buddhist scriptures; and on another, Kenyan women spread coffee beans to dry.

Work is a subject that is both worldwide and personal. It is a shared endeavor at the very core of our identity. From the glamour of a Parisian fashion show to the grit of an African diamond mine, there are countless ways to make a living. The book illuminates scores of them—many in never-before-published photographs—offering revealing glimpses into various eras and cultures and engaging the reader with entertaining text and informative captions.

With a wonderful mix of the utterly unexpected and the instantly familiar, this vivid panorama takes an essential human activity and shows us myriad ways in which work is at once universal and delightfully, unforgettably unique.

Genres: Photography, Travel, Art, Nonfiction, Art and Photography

352 pages, Hardcover

First published August 29, 2006

Reviews

[Metin Yılmaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okudum değil, baktım diyelim. İnceleme daha iyi olur belki. Fotoğraf kitaplarını, fotoğrafçılığa olan ilgimden dolayı takip etmeye, okumaya çalışıyorum. Fotoğraf gözünü geliştiren çok fazla çalışma oluyor. Bu çalışmalardan biri de National Geographic’in Çalışanlar adlı çalışması. Fakat bu çalışmanın düşündüğüm kadar kapsamlı olmadığını, seçimlerin ve sayının az olduğunu düşünüyorum. Daha kapsamlı ve daha çok fotoğrafçının yer aldığı bir çalışma daha iyi olabilirdi.

[Çetineus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emek dünyadaki en kutsal şeydir...

[David Highton · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful photography, illustrates working life across the world and across decades, especially workers in poverty level jobs

[Jim Goeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great perspective

[Cordelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Photos viewed, text not read

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 3.5, really, because I'd hoped there would be more information about the jobs themselves. I was thinking this would be sort of a work-focused version of the fabulous food-focused book What the World Eats. Besides, the photo on the cover captivated me. But the book, while neat, is almost all images; the pages of text wax philosophical about work in general or talk about the composition of the photos, rather than talking about the work going on in them.

However, I did learn from this book about photographer Lewis Wickes Hine, whose work I'm now looking into. And I learned that shark-hunting dogs exist. So there's that.

[Matthijs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not so much a book to read, but to flip through every now and then. All these photo's cmmbined around the theme Work (sometimes stretching to fit the category) make a great collection of absolutely stunning pictures.
Not so much a book to read once, but to come back ever so often to get impressed by its visual richness.

[Juha Niittynen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the photographs but would have liked to read more stories behind (individual) pictures. The photographs range from early 1900s to first decade of 2000s, but I was disappointed by the heavy focus on 1990s and 2000s, would have liked to see more of the old photos.

Maybe I went in with "wrong" expectations.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkable collection of photos from around the world, showing work as an eye on a wide variety of cultures and lifestyles.

[Charlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love, love, love this book.

[Bistra Ivanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of the photos of this work-collection are stunning but some are not...
it's really nice to browse the book though

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures, only lacking the five star rating as it didn't hold any from my favorite countries, and it combined the Americas into one chapter (as opposed to North and South).

[Micah Anderson]

Trying to guess what country the photo is from makes a good drinking game for the roommates.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only is the idea excellent, but the prose by Protzman almost manages to match the jarring quality of the images.

[Margarite Baltruweit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Survival and sustenance are impressively represented in this book.

[Julie Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed getting a glimpse at people from all over the world doing the work that allows them to survive.

[Sundry · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting photo book. Love the subject matter, though the text wasn't compelling to me personally.