Bruce Davidson has roamed

the world, Working as amem- |

of Magnum Photos, he
lias’ brought the plight of the
weak ¢ downtrodden, the -
visible members of

orn into the light with his -

frank photographs. But his
‘work has also raken him into
5 of the rich, the...

us, and it is these
wai characters that fill

and the shotographer. ;
The 59 images Davidso:
has selected span his career,

” sity of subjects he has pho-

tographed. From Aaron

- Copland conducting at:

Carnegie Hall in:1958 to Brad >
tt in Los Angeles in 1998,

“Davidson cuts through the

. prec cept and mak

‘contact with the people;

» behind the hype: His subjects
ase comfa’ ‘table with his pres- .
ence and yreet the camera
with’a refreshing honesty.

photos, this latest book by
Williara Eggteston challenges
the viewer with its images. -
Made up of 45 photos with
No captions, we arc lef to
draw our own conclusions on
his subject matter. Abandoned
cafes, cars, signs and more

~ have attracted the photogra-°

pher. The coiours are both
warm and subtle.

John Szarkowski, curator
of MOMA, has said of
Eggleston’s work, “a quality
central to Eggleston’s work is
a lean, monocular intentness
that fixes the subject as sharply
as if it were from cidetic mem-

” There is a simplicity to
these photos which increases .
the sense of mystery around
them. Eggleston wrote in his ’

. book, The Democratic Forest,’
: “What they really want to'see ©
-is a picture with a figure or an -

object in the middle of it.
They want somcthing obvious.

~The blindness is apparent

when somicone lets slip the

word ‘snapshot.’ Ignorance
_can always be covered by’ -
“snapshot.” The word has
never had any meaning. Iam
at war with the obvious.”
Like finding a photograph

_ on the street, viewing this

’ book will bring you unan-
swered questions that will
replay in your head, pulling
you back again and again.-

Bl Life: Oser Century in
Pictures, edited by Richard
Stolley, Bulfinch Press, 424
pages, $81.

Life magazine brought the
events of the world to the
’ public primarily with extraor-
dinary pictures taken by the
best photo; ographers. Digging :

ep into

then Life axchives and others.
over 50,000 images were
examined. Richard Scolley has:
directed the efforts of many to
|, produc: ¢ this memorable book.
* The stories that these pict
tell brings out the heights and:
depths of the century. Page." ©
after page of powerful photos
explore the circumstances that

"shi history.

¢ chapters are divided
not by decades but rather by _

the events that set the course, |.

such as the nwo chapiers.on
-” the World Wars, or the section.
"on the culrural changes that
“occurred from 1964" 1975..

Opening each chaprer i is an

essay analyzing the period, fol-.

treasure chest of h

Ja the growing assortment
of books examining the
tieth century, this one stands *

i Socrates Fortiow has been -

“out of prison for nirie years
bur the 27 years he spent,
inside are with him every da
an invisible cage he carries

' with him. Like his two-legged

dog, Killer, he fights against“
” his condition but a better fife
always seems out of reach.

._ Mosley takes us deep

‘ this troubled man, as he trics

Socrates? struggle to exami
the conflict that the modern