From Digital Camera World · · 2m
A century of National Geographic
A stunning new book gathers 700 images from National Geographic's archives to tell the visual story of America, state by state.
In brief
A stunning new book gathers 700 images from National Geographic's archives to tell the visual story of America, state by state. Film photography captured something irreplaceable about American life across a century, and this book proves what we've gained and lost in the digital shift. Originally reported by Digital…
700 images, one nation
A new book from TASCHEN gathers over 700 photographs from National Geographic's archives to create a visual history of America, organized state by state across a century.
From the Mayflower to digital
Launched for America's 250th anniversary, the book opens with a 1957 cover shot of the Mayflower II sailing into New York Harbor and spans from 1920s autochromes through the digital age.
Surfers and steel mills
The collection captures everything from surfers waiting for waves at Mākaha Beach in Hawaii in 1961 to Ford factory workers at the River Rouge Plant in Michigan in 1944.
One frame, one chance
A 1932 photograph of Philadelphians at City Hall uses a single hanging lightbulb as its main compositional element, showing how film photographers had to get it right the first time.
Technology changed everything
A 2006 Utah canyon photograph by Michael Melford was only possible because digital cameras offered forgiving exposure latitude and the Colorado River had been dammed.
Kodachrome's golden years
The book truly resonates during the Kodachrome era from roughly the 1940s through the 1970s, when film stock delivered saturated, hard-edged color that nothing else could match.
“I'm not saying I'm about to go out and score a vintage camera right now. But I'm certainly very tempted.”
Jazz survives Katrina
A 2007 photograph shows trumpeter Kenneth Terry and the New Birth Brass Band performing at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.
“What we do in New Orleans you can't find anyplace else. The jazz we play comes from the soul.”
Nearly 800 pages of history
At almost 800 pages packed with pictures, the book serves as a reference for how light, film stock, and editorial decisions evolved across a century of one magazine.
What film taught us
The collection reveals how much visual storytelling changed when photographers moved from one frame, one chance to digital's unlimited takes and forgiving technology.
The short version
Film photography captured something irreplaceable about American life across a century, and this book proves what we've gained and lost in the digital shift.
