num_pages: 415
description: Due to its ability to freeze a moment in time the photo is a uniquely powerful device for ordering and understanding the world. But when an image depicts complex ambiguous or controversial events--terrorist attacks wars political assassinations--its ability to influence perception can prove deeply unsettling. Are we really seeing the world as it is or is the image a fabrication or projection? How do a photo's content and form shape a viewer's impressions? What do such images contribute to historical memory? About to Die focuses on one emotionally charged category of news photograph--depictions of individuals who are facing imminent death--as a prism for addressing such vital questions. Tracking events as wide-ranging as the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake the Holocaust the Vietnam War and 9/11 Barbie Zelizer demonstrates that modes of journalistic depiction and the power of the image are immense cultural forces that are still far from understood. Through a survey of acentury of photojournalism including close analysis of over sixty photos About to Die provides a framework and vocabulary for understanding the news imagery that so profoundly shapes our view of the world.
language: English
title: About to Die: How News Images Move the Public
publisher: Oxford University Press