Within a Sky Full of Earth

«First comes the photo, and then morality.»

«If your pictures aren’t good, you haven’t been close enough.»
ROBERT LEBECK

Self-conscious and impolite, that’s the way press photographers talk about their difficult trade. They are working at the front line, not only in times of war. They condense contemporary history’s events and everyday life situations, they tell stories in pictures which are meant to state what is essential on just a few pages.

Photojournalism has existed for 150 years. Even though its artistic ambitions have to play a secondary role, it is one of the most impressive chapters in the history of photography.

What readers throw away after a short while, an observant contemporary has picked up and kept: photojournalist Robert Lebeck owns an important collection of magazines which documents the history of photojournalism. The illustrated broadsheet of famous photo reports extends from new railway stations in the 19th century to legendary photo series on the war in Vietnam, from Roger Fenton to Robert Capa, from the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung to USSR in Construction, from Life and Vu to Stern magazine.

"Kiosk - A History of Photojournalism" by Robert Lebeck, Bodo von Dewitz
STEIDL • ISBN: 388243791X • HARDCOVER