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an original commission with the final decision on the book's coverage and titling.
A further sign of inadequate editing is the absence of any indication of the sources of these images of the past. Beyond stating on the inside rear of the cover that the photographs were "carefully culled from press archives of the time” (my italics), a rather inexact and fairly unhelpful statement, the book itself is totally without any list or acknowledgement of sources. For a work which is sub-titled “A History in Documentary Photographs" and is part of an interesting series which up to the time of this book's publication had issued volumes dealing with Russia, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire around the same period.
and one clearly intended to be a historical record this major omission is surprising as well as disappointing. It is to be hoped that the other books in the series are more useful in this regard.
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China, A Photohistory 1937-1987 Introduction by Jonathan D. Spence, Edited with Commentaries by W.J.F. Jenner (London, Thames and Hudson, 1988).
It is a relief to turn to this very elegant and thoroughly scholarly book so carefully compiled and edited by William Jenner and so compassionately and accurately introduced by Jonathan Spence. No need to worry about sources, or to find fault with the introduction, summaries and captions to the photographs. It is altogether a more thoughtful production which makes one realize what a great opportunity was missed with the other, whose images are equally striking and evocative but are not properly supported by the accompanying text.
The 153 photographs reproduced here are by persons from or connected with the well-known Magnum international photographers' cooperative. Jonathan Spence's fine Introduction sets the scene for them and explains how "surprisingly large portions of the Chinese story are still not available in any visual form' in the West, through not having been covered by Western photographers. For instance, little is available from 1949 to 1956, when from that year until mid 1958 Hiroshi Hamaya took pictures and Marc Riboud "produced a stream of photographs during his travels in China at this time".
There is not space to do justice to all the facets of this collection, nor to the quality of Spence's commentary. However, his comments on