Ferdinand Protzman

Work

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Work: The World in Photographs

Released August, 2006

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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. Here are cowboys and clowns, shepherds and shopkeepers, street musicians and artists' models all plying their assorted trades; on one page, a lone fisherman casts his net in the silent solitude of a Pacific lagoon, and on another, a South African gold miner bores into a rock face. A London businessman, checking his watch speaks to the time pressures of the white-collar world.

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.
 
 
Work: The World in Photographs, was released on Aug. 29, 2006. You may order it from  Amazon,   Barnes and Noble, or find it at other fine book stores.

Selected Images

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Steve McCurry
Coalminer taking a cigarette break
Pul-i-Kumri, Afghanistan 2002 

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Robert Madden
Spot-checking welds, Hanford nuclear plant construction
Washington, USA 1981

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James P. Blair
Fisherman poling a raft past karst formations on the Li River
China 1981 

David Alan Harvey
Dangerous work: matador and charging bull
Madrid, Spain 1977
 

 
Ferdinand Protzman is an award-winning cultural writer and author.