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These three photographs are not included in Century, yet
the book rightly went on to receive the Illustrated Book of the
Year Award in the UK. It also received wide acclaim
internationally.
Bruce Bernard
worked as picture editor with various British magazines, notably
The Sunday Times Magazine (1972-80) and the Saturday Independent
Magazine (1988-92). He spent several years working on a book
that was to have images of the 20th century. The first version
was produced in 1999. It was a monumental work; the task of
selecting roughly 10 images for every year was daunting, and the
book weighed a monstrous six kilograms. It had 1,120 pages and
was divided into six sections that were classified as per
moments of historical significance, especially those of periods
of conflict. They were: High Hopes and Recklessness (1899-1914);
Self-Inflicted Wounds Remain Infected (1914-33); Rise and Fall
of the Unspeakable (1933-45); Atomic Truce Walks a Tightrope
(1945-65); Vietnam to the Moon to Soviet Collapse (1965-85); and
Chaos and Hope on a Burdened Planet (1985-99). The book under
review is a later edition, published last year. It is in a much
smaller format and weighs far less.
What it loses in
weight, it more than makes up in content, with the addition of
The Final Chapter (1999-2001) where the late editor’s
associates have put together the final images of the last
century. The original pictures have been selected by Bernard’s
trained, though rather random, roving eye. The effect of the
juxtaposition of various photographs on the pages of the book
varies from paradoxical to quixotic.
Thus, there is a
photo of Russian workers toiling on the Trans-Siberian Railway
in 1901, while on the opposite page American railroad magnate
Andrew Carnegie’s henchmen gorge themselves at a giant rail
section table in Pittsburgh.
Then there is the
photo of a German mother, widow of a Nazi, who, in 1945,
murdered her children and killed herself afterwards, and on the
facing page Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke presents an OBE to
Major Allah Mohammed for his fighting the Japanese in Burma. One
wonders how the two are related.
For sheer shock
value, the 1952 photo of a smiling South Korean displaying the
head of a guerrilla from the North scores over the rest. It is
interesting that both this and the photo of the German mother
are by Margaret Bourke-White, the pioneering and award-winning
American woman photojournalist who is considered to be one of
the hundred most influential women of the century
This reviewer
found the 1964 photograph of two Turks killed by Greeks in
Cyprus evocative of varying, indeed contrasting, human responses
to the same situation. There is a picture, taken by an unnamed
press photographer of a British soldier looking at the bodies.
The soldier is aloof and calm, looking at the corpses with
quizzical interest. On the facing page is a photograph taken
minutes later by Don McCullin. It shows a wailing woman and
other shocked family members. Same incident, but different
realities.
While the pictures
speak for themselves, at times the captions fail to provide more
than banal detail. But to be fair, the notes on historical
background are pithy word sketches that help in bringing
perspective. However, credits for the photographs should have
been given with each work of art and should not have been dumped
together at the end of the book. Indian readers will have to be
see Margaret Bourke-White’s famous picture, Gandhi at his
Spinning Wheel, elsewhere.
At times humour
and a bit of glamour break the monotony of the horror that
marked the turning points of the century that has just gone by.
These visual images of the last hundred years will prompt much
cogitation as readers dip into this vast compendium from time to
time. The book will definitely occupy a place of pride on
bookshelves and the new format makes it complete, as well as
more manageable. It is just 1.5 kg.
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