Book Review: David Friend’s ”Watching the World Change”

Vanity Fair editor and former photography director at Life David Friend’s 2006 book Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11 is in no sense of the word light reading. It is draining in both volume and content.

Friend’s intention with the book is ambitious: discussing in detail the week of September 11 through 17, 2001, it seeks to show how digital photography and electronic news-gathering came of age during that period, how photographs helped shape our understanding of...