Selected Reviews of Love
Much of love's established, contemporary iconography comes from photography—Brassaď's couple embracing in a Paris cafe (included here) or Alfred Eisenstadt's post-WWII Times Square embrace, but in this beautiful volume, love is conveyed in both predictable and surprising ways. Images by famous photographers—inside and outside of National Geographic's stable—capture the emotion from across the decades and around the globe. Here love's iconography is expanded to include a heart-shaped balloon floating over the city of Jaipur and three babies crawling in a row across colorful, plaid blankets. The emotion's darker side is touched upon, as well as love between parents and children—a child kisses its mother's nose in Milan—and siblings. In some of the book's most surprising images, lovers pull the viewer's attention into the background of a picture that otherwise calls one's attention to discord or isolation. An essay by ARTnews contributing editor Protzman adds context to and commentary on some of the images, but the pictures speak for themselves. Though the point may be that love is expressed the same way in every culture, time and place, it's the differences among this broad range of settings and eras that keep one interested. A strong choice for any coffee-table. 150 color and b&w plates. Publishers Weekly, 12/3/2007
Selected Appearances for and Reviews of Work
October 9, 2006 Cover to Cover KPFA RADIO. 94.1 FM Pacifica Radio/Berkeley, CA
October 4, 2006 The Beat KUOW, 94.9 FM, Puget Sound Public Radio
September 24, 2006 Work with Marty Nemko KALW, 91.7 FM, NPR affiliate in San Francisco, CA
September 3, 2006 CBS Sunday Morning
This collection of nearly 200 exquisite images from around the globe, combined with writer Protzman’s compelling narrative, sheds a beam of illumination on the multitude of ways humans earn a living. American Profile
"Work has no conscience, memory, or morals," writes Ferdinand Protzman in this collection of nearly 190 photographs, taken over some 150 years, of the world at work. The images record what Protzman calls the "existential struggle in which people do whatever they must to keep themselves and their families alive," including drudgery as well as joy. The Boston Globe
The images here suggest that work gives rhythm and structure to our days. A photo of a Buckingham Palace guardsman reminds us that work is a kind of meditation, an effort to focus our considerable energies in a particular direction. Nor is the book without humor -- the geisha on the car phone, the elderly woman at the slot machines. "Work" is organized in sections that take us around the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It also features portfolio sections on agriculture, extraction and manufacturing. There is no denying that the photos of agricultural workers have a more human scale (in spite of the timeless, luminous landscapes, particularly in Asia) or that the extraction industries (beginning with Sebastiao Selgado's photo of gold miners in Brazil) seem the most degrading. But as the text by Ferdinand Protzman skillfully reminds us, there is a tendency to see the work of other cultures in such a light. There is also the tendency to romanticize certain types of workers-- female weavers in Eastern Europe, say, or reed weavers in the Middle East. They seem to have so much more community in their lives than the economist at the Shanghai stock exchange. Indeed, the photos that show workers with the products of their labor have a particularly satisfying energy: the boy selling oranges on a burned-out police car in Afghanistan, the Egyptian woman with her unbaked loaves of bread, the fisherman on a Bikini Atoll beach with his catch. The Los Angeles Times
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 ... 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. Bookwatch
The National Geographic takes us on a round-the-world trip to observe the workers of the world, be it Sebastiao Salgado's photographs of gold miners manually dragging soil to the surface in Brazil, Steven McCurry's dancers applying make-up before a performance at an Angkor temple or Robert Azzi eavesdropping on the governor of Riaydh hearing petitioners. This book does what the National Geographic does best, showing the world in all its
diversity - and in all its familiarity. Everyone here, hopeless, helpless, or happy in their work, is doing the same thing: keeping body and soul together, getting on with their lives. A surprisingly moving selection. The Sunday Telegraph
Work: The World in Photographs offers a global perspective on a subject that occupies most of us most of our lives. ... Writer Ferdinand Protzman guides us through the disparate photographs,
discussing them in terms of art, work, the environment and society overall. Of Burtynsky's photograph, he writes: "An environmentalist might ... think of the vast quantities of waste the chickens produce and how it can contaminate China's streams, like the Li River, which are already suffering from growth-related pollution. A vegetarian might argue that the grain fed to the fowl would be more efficiently used if consumed by humans. "Burtynsky's picture doesn't resolve such conflicts. It embraces the beauty and the beastliness and leaves us to decide which we feel is more important." The Gazette (Montreal)
Under the unifying theme of labor, writer and cultural critic Protzman has collected 190 large, lush photographs from National Geographic 's archives and other major collections of people at work around the world. The book documents an incredible variety of "occupations"-from gold miners in South Africa to air-traffic controllers in the United States; from salt-mine workers in Ukraine to snake charmers in India; from a geisha talking on a cell phone in Japan to a broom merchant in Syria; and from a welder in Washington to a timber poacher on the Ivory Coast. Library Journal
Reviews of Wide Angle
"...dipping anywhere into this volume offers a feast for the eyes and introduction to parts of the world most are unlikely ever to visit." Publishers Weekly
"A lovely book to savor forever." Booklist
Reviews of Landscape
"Protzman shows us a world developing, changing, retreating, and advancing–a landscape of every hue and every human emotion and condition." Oberlin Alumni Magazine
"This book will surprise you. At only 9x9 inches, it looks like any other “run of the mill” photography book. That is until you open it." Apogee Photo Magazine
