Work (Art of the World) - Hardcover

Ferdinand Protzman is an award-winning writer, culture critic, and contributing editor to Art News magazine. He is the author of Landscape: Photographs of Time and Place (2003), Wide Angle: National Geographic Greatest Places (2005) and Love (2008). His essays, reviews, and features have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and The Harvard Review.

Adult/High School–The enormous variety of things that people do for survival and sustenance is impressively represented in this book. Neither doctor nor lawyer is included, and only a small number of white-collar jobs make the cut. Instead, readers see clover collectors in Yemen, bootblacks in Portugal, ice fishermen in Russia, coal miners in West Virginia, and salt miners in Ukraine. The volume is arranged in geographic sections: Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East, Americas, and Islands. Interspersed among them are three thematic portfolios: agriculture, extraction (mining), and manufacturing. Protzman contributes engaging and helpful introductions to each geographic section, as well as brief notes introducing the thematic portfolios. With few exceptions the photos are captivating and of high technical quality. Most were taken within the past 20 years, although some are historical, including a few early-20th-century images by Lewis Hine. Many of the images display poverty, hardship, and oppression (especially of children). A few are whimsical, including a workhorse keeping cool in Spain with the aid of a tiny umbrella. The message that work can be tedious and dangerous, as well as rewarding and enjoyable, is thoroughly established.–Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA
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