What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time

By David Elliot Cohen

For more than a century, photography has revealed truths, exposed lies, advanced the public discourse, and inspired people to demand change. Socially conscious pioneers with cameras transformed the world--and that legacy lives on in this eye-opening, thought-provoking, and (we hope) action-inducing book. Like Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives , Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , and Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth before it, we believe that What Matters will fundamentally alter the way we see and understand the human race and our planet. What Matters asks: What are the essential issues of our time? What are the pictures that will spark public outrage and spur reform? The answer appears in 18 powerful, page-turning stories by the foremost photojournalists of our age, edited by The New York Times best-selling author/editor David Elliot Cohen ( A Day in the Life and America 24/7 series), and featuring trenchant commentary from well-recognized experts and thinkers in appropriate fields. Photographer Gary Braasch and climate-change guru Bill McKibben provide "A Global Warming Travelogue" that takes us from ice caves in Antarctica to smoke-spewing coal plants in Beijing. Brent Stirton and Peter A. Glick examine a "Thirsty World," chronicling the daily search for clean water in non-developed countries. James Nachtwey and bestselling poverty expert Jeffrey D. Sachs look at the causes of, and cures for, global poverty in "The Bottom Billion." Stephanie Sinclair and Judith Bruce present the preteen brides of Afghanistan, Nepal, and Ethiopia. Sometimes the juxtaposition of photographs can be startling: "Shop 'til We Drop," Lauren Greenfield's images of upscale consumer culture, starkly contrast with Shehzad Noorani's "Children of the Black Dust"--child laborers in Bangladesh, their faces blackened with carbon dust from recycled batteries. The combination of compelling photographs and insightful writing make this a highly relevant, widely discussed book bound to appeal to anyone concerned about the crucial issues shaping our world. What Matters is, in effect, a 336-page illustrated letter to the next American president about the issues that count. It will inspire readers to do their part--however small--to make a difference: to help, the volume includes extensive "What You Can Do" sections with a menu of web links and effective actions readers can take now. This year give What Matters .

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402758340
• ISBN13: 9781402758348
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Sterling
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 3.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.3" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

The Globally-Aware Citizen: A Primer

The stories in this book could serve as a primer for being a globally-aware citizen in an evolving world. Despite the grim nature of some of these photos, the book's message is not one of despair, but of hope, as evidenced by the thorough "What You Can Do" section in the back. Some of the most interesting work in the book is from photographers under most people's radar. Shehzad Noorani's Children of the Black Dust and Stephen Voss's Economic Miracle, Environmental Disaster both examine underreported issues with excellent photos and strong writing. The book's impact comes not just from the photographs, but the excellent writing that accompanies them. I highly recommend What Matters as a hard-hittng and opinionated book that is both journalistically-sound and passionate.

The Still Image Still Matters

This book is a testament to a simple truth: the still photograph still matters. The stories here are carefully chosen to give the reader an intimate and truthful look at the most pressing issues of our time. The accompanying writing both complements and extends the story-telling ability of these images and the essays are excellent across the board, from Pulitzer-Prize winning author Samantha Power's passionate and vivid description of the genocide in Darfur to Jeffrey Sachs' story about a village in Malawi that accompanies James Nachtwey's images of poverty. From a technical standpoint, the photographs are brilliantly reproduced and sequenced well, in a way that most poignantly and directly tells the story. This book is highly recommended both as a great read and a visual document of our times.

Chicago Tribune Book Review 9/6/08

Hard to see, impossible to turn away Issues and images combine in 'What Matters,' a powerful and passionate new book By Michael Zajakowski Chicago Tribune Book Review September 6, 2008 Great documentary photojournalism, squeezed out of mainstream newspapers and magazines in an age of shrinking column inches, has had a hard time gaining traction in other venues. Although it has found new life on web sites and in books, the age of the topical visual long form is in remission. But nobody has told the 18 photographers in "What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time." These are photo essays by some of today's best photojournalists following the great tradition begun over a hundred years ago with the exposés of New York tenement life by Jacob Riis. Through the doggedness of these photographers--who are clearly committed to stirring us out of complacency--all the power and passion of the medium is evident in this book. David Elliot Cohen, who co-created the famous "Day in the Life" series of photojournalism books, had a keen eye in selecting the photo essays and coupling each with cogent commentary from writers such as Samantha Power, professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government; Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute and Columbia University professor; and Elizabeth C. Economy, director for Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. The book is an engrossing journey from pristine wilderness to glittering Rodeo Drive boutiques with stops along the way focusing on genocide, global jidad, child labor and AIDS victims in Africa, to name a few. In a provocative bit of editing, James Nachtwey's searing photo essay about global poverty, "The Bottom Billion," is jarringly followed by Lauren Greenfield's "Shop til We Drop," a vivid but embarrassing look at another extreme, which is only slightly less shameful than the first. Some of the pieces will break your heart, some will anger you. All will make you think. To channel your thoughts and feelings into action, the book ends with an appendix "What You Can Do," offering hundreds of ways to be a part of the solution to these problems.

Among so many, this is one book that stands out...

Issues on topics such as global warming, genocide, disease, famine and poverty have commonly been seen in weekly news magazines in all their grainy, black & white horror. Sometimes it seems that the individuals who are producing those stories have an angle that they want to support through their work, which an audience may question. But What Matters cuts through that. You cannot argue with the lifetime works and objective viewpoints of so many eminent photojournalists and writers. The author has done a masterful job of pulling together recaps and insights in to many major events that occurred over the last 50+ years, that we all should have learned from, but, amazingly, still seem to be repeating. This is a very well produced book, thought provoking in its intensity, and supported by an A-list of expert contributors.

Remarkable Book Demands Change

What Matters is an emotionally stunning book that challenges its readers to make a difference. It uses remarkable photography to expose issues like rampant consumerism in the US and China, child marriages in Afghanistan, the grim realities of AIDS in Tanzania, the roots of oil addiction in Nigeria and the lasting effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. While a wide-ranging book about essential global problems may be a daunting read, in the end it is also a testament to humanity's capacity for change. What Matters includes an extensive "What You Can Do" guide in the back, so maybe it can be a catalyst for the change that so many of us are hoping for.