At the Edge of the World

by Jean Mohr, John Berger

Swiss photographer Jean Mohr has traveled the globe documenting the lives of the dispossessed, the marginalized and the overlooked for over forty years. In 1996, while convalescing from a serious operation in the mountains near Geneva known locally as "The Edge of the World", Mohr realized that he had come close to the edge of his own existence. Having recovered, he was inspired to revisit places that had struck him as being at the edge of the world in the course of his long career, places which were remote in terms of both common experience and geographical location.

Each set of photographs in this book "from the edge" is introduced by a short text written by Mohr himself. Spanning 40 years, his photographs take us to such disparate venues as Romania, Lapland, Pakistan, Greece, Algeria and Nicaragua. Mohr's longstanding collaborator John Berger describes his life in a portrait that sheds particular light on the theme of this book.

Genres: Photography

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Fiona Rennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked the almost surface level insight into the accompanying photography, it gave enough information without sounding like an artist trying to justify his work, he just told the story of how they came about, or why he took them, or an experience that surrounded them. At times I would have enjoyed a little more reflection, or a dip into his feelings around them, but nonetheless I enjoyed them as they were too. I got the feeling that there was nothing superficial about the accompanying text, which can often happen with a boon of photography and it's accompanying texts.

[flea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice read...awkward ending

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I like Mohr better as a writer than as a photographer - but even at that, the essays here are too short to be truly engaging. Just when the essays start to get good, they end. And too many of the photographs are dark, murky and grainy, with the subjects too obscured. There are some striking images here - just not enough of them.