David JoblingREVIEW | History of the world in photographs
October 29th 2008 10:25
The Encyclopaedia Britannica/Getty Images
“History of the world in photographs”
published by Black Dog & Lev,
distributed by Bookwise International,
RRP $59.95
The Encyclopædia Britannica was born in 18th-century Edinburgh during the Scottish Enlightenment. Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, decided to create an encyclopedia to serve the new era of scholarship and enlightenment. They formed a Society of Gentlemen to publish their new reference work, hiring twenty-eight-year-old scholar William Smellie to edit it. The first edition of the Britannica was published one section at a time, in fascicles , over a three-year period, beginning in 1768. The three-volume set was completed in 1771 and quickly sold out.
Mark Getty co-founded Getty Images, Inc; in 1993, with Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein. Getty Images are a leading provider of imagery and related products and services which means they generate salable visual content for the advertising, graphic design, news, publishing and entertainment industries; however this book is deservedly marketed as a fine resource for anyone with an interest in history, photography or journalism from students to academics including mum & dad.
Together these publishing giants have created a massive storage facility of images that may be can browsed, including photographs of such luminaries as writer Anton Chekhov in 1901 (CD ROM) or actor Humphrey Bogart facing the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 (Book). Additional to the actual photographs which range from black and white to full color, there is a chronological time line throughout the book written in text and displayed on the header and footer of each page.
The chronological time line text has been prepared by the editors and writers at Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Design Team has created an uncluttered look, brimming with an average of five images per page. Graphic icons are used to signify different keywords such as History, the Arts, Business & Commerce, Religion, Philosophy and Technology. One may take the non-linear approach and browse any individual year; and or refer to the completely chronological linear notes at the top and bottom of the page. Identifying numbers correspond beside the photographs on the central area of the page with linear notes at the top or bottom of the page it is logical and easy to understand in design terms. The Graphic icons direct the attention to ‘streams’ i.e. the Arts; the text is concise and is intended to directly inform the image if related to an image, otherwise it is related to breakthroughs in imaging and capturing images.
The CD ROM serves as a gateway to Jamd on line, a remarkably large on line collection of photographs. The Book and CD ROM contain over 20,000 photographs taken between 1850 and the present day. The combination Book and CD ROM are published in 2008; a solid 150 year span of capturing that essential picture that may tell a thousand words. By linking via hypertext to Jamd where there are “Millions of pics, vids and music, jamd into one place ” the amount of images available seems impossible, but it’s true.
The CD ROM itself is a searchable picture library set out with a non-linear no nonsense interface that provides options to view thumbnail, small or large sized images from the collection stored within it; and it provides the link which will automatically open your internet browser and deliver it to the ‘consumer oriented web suite on line’ Jamd URL.
Over all this is a striking, accurate and great collection of work; a fascinatingly enjoyable book to go over again and again.
David Jobling
“History of the world in photographs”
published by Black Dog & Lev,
distributed by Bookwise International,
RRP $59.95
The Encyclopædia Britannica was born in 18th-century Edinburgh during the Scottish Enlightenment. Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, decided to create an encyclopedia to serve the new era of scholarship and enlightenment. They formed a Society of Gentlemen to publish their new reference work, hiring twenty-eight-year-old scholar William Smellie to edit it. The first edition of the Britannica was published one section at a time, in fascicles , over a three-year period, beginning in 1768. The three-volume set was completed in 1771 and quickly sold out.
Mark Getty co-founded Getty Images, Inc; in 1993, with Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein. Getty Images are a leading provider of imagery and related products and services which means they generate salable visual content for the advertising, graphic design, news, publishing and entertainment industries; however this book is deservedly marketed as a fine resource for anyone with an interest in history, photography or journalism from students to academics including mum & dad.
Together these publishing giants have created a massive storage facility of images that may be can browsed, including photographs of such luminaries as writer Anton Chekhov in 1901 (CD ROM) or actor Humphrey Bogart facing the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 (Book). Additional to the actual photographs which range from black and white to full color, there is a chronological time line throughout the book written in text and displayed on the header and footer of each page.
The chronological time line text has been prepared by the editors and writers at Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Design Team has created an uncluttered look, brimming with an average of five images per page. Graphic icons are used to signify different keywords such as History, the Arts, Business & Commerce, Religion, Philosophy and Technology. One may take the non-linear approach and browse any individual year; and or refer to the completely chronological linear notes at the top and bottom of the page. Identifying numbers correspond beside the photographs on the central area of the page with linear notes at the top or bottom of the page it is logical and easy to understand in design terms. The Graphic icons direct the attention to ‘streams’ i.e. the Arts; the text is concise and is intended to directly inform the image if related to an image, otherwise it is related to breakthroughs in imaging and capturing images.
The CD ROM serves as a gateway to Jamd on line, a remarkably large on line collection of photographs. The Book and CD ROM contain over 20,000 photographs taken between 1850 and the present day. The combination Book and CD ROM are published in 2008; a solid 150 year span of capturing that essential picture that may tell a thousand words. By linking via hypertext to Jamd where there are “Millions of pics, vids and music, jamd into one place ” the amount of images available seems impossible, but it’s true.
The CD ROM itself is a searchable picture library set out with a non-linear no nonsense interface that provides options to view thumbnail, small or large sized images from the collection stored within it; and it provides the link which will automatically open your internet browser and deliver it to the ‘consumer oriented web suite on line’ Jamd URL.
Over all this is a striking, accurate and great collection of work; a fascinatingly enjoyable book to go over again and again.
David Jobling
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