false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165871746m/9099.jpg 9099 1 Through the years, <I>National Geographic</I> magazine's staff photographers have often elevated stock depictions of "exotic" cultures into haunting glimpses of other lives. <I>In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits</I> presents a century of captivating images of ordinary people from around the world--280 photographs of pleasure, grief, stoicism, shyness and sheer endurance. In thoughtful essays, five photographers frankly assess changing notions of authenticity and discuss their own methods of capturing a stranger's personality on the run. In the beginning, the magazine showed people stiffly posed in their native costumes, viewed as anthropological specimens. Advances in camera technology created a greater degree of intimacy and spontaneity. Then came color film, which ushered in an era dominated by corny themes and perkily posed subjects in brightly hued clothing. The 1970s marked a new honesty in portraiture, a willingness to go beyond the superficial to investigate the small moments that make up daily life everywhere. </p> <I>In Focus</I> draws upon the magazine's complete archives to raise intriguing questions about how editorial choices help define our understanding of the world. For example, in 1981, <I>National Geographic</I> published Sam Abell's elegiac portrait of Rosa--the last of the Yahgan Indians of Terra del Fuego--wreathed in atmospheric smoke against a dark background, in the stately tradition of Edward S. Curtis. We also see one of Abell's unpublished photos of Rosa in her modest home, grimacing as she stands in the blue light of her TV, next to a poster commemorating the restoration of Chile's constitution in 1980. The gallery of portraits in this splendid book includes many memorable faces, from the unnerving grin of the Wodaabe tribesman in Niger (who wears colorful makeup as part of a courtship ritual) to the sunny self-possession of a child in Murmansk who holds up four tiny fingers to indicate her age. Beautiful women abound--they have helped sell the magazine from its earliest days. As the decades go by, people everywhere seem more at ease being photographed. But they remain as fascinating as ever, perhaps because we'll never know what they were thinking when the shutter clicked. <I>&#151;Cathy Curtis</I> 11985 1 10 2004 In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits total:56|5:29|4:22|3:4|2:1|1:0| 56 247 83 4 3 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 22 13:40:29 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 22 13:41:11 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 15:28:47 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 09:11:43 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 12:11:02 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 15:39:06 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 08 08:11:56 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 08 08:15:00 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Sat Nov 14 20:31:32 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 14 20:31:32 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Wed Nov 11 05:54:59 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 05:54:59 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Nov 04 23:14:02 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 23:14:02 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Nov 01 08:56:40 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 08:56:40 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 05 18:35:18 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 19:02:25 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Oct 04 19:59:47 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 19:59:47 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 02 07:42:54 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 07:42:54 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Aug 18 12:29:11 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 12:29:11 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 14 17:25:08 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 17:25:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 07 09:48:19 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 09:49:51 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Jul 28 15:40:03 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 15:40:03 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jul 25 09:01:02 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 09:01:02 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jul 23 11:45:13 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 11:45:13 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Jul 07 00:54:12 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 00:54:12 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Jun 27 18:49:56 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 18:49:56 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Jun 06 08:43:33 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 08:43:33 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=9099