What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time
What Matters asks: What are the essential issues of our time? What are the pictures that will spark public outrage and spur reform? The answer appears in 18 powerful, page-turning stories by the foremost photojournalists of our age, edited by The New York Times best-selling author/editor David Elliot Cohen (A Day in the Life and America 24/7 series), and featuring trenchant commentary from well-recognized experts and thinkers in appropriate fields. Photographer Gary Braasch and climate-change guru Bill McKibben provide “A Global Warming Travelogue” that takes us from ice caves in Antarctica to smoke-spewing coal plants in Beijing. Brent Stirton and Peter A. Glick examine a “Thirsty World,” chronicling the daily search for clean water in non-developed countries. James Nachtwey and bestselling poverty expert Jeffrey D. Sachs look at the causes of, and cures for, global poverty in “The Bottom Billion.” Stephanie Sinclair and Judith Bruce present the preteen brides of Afghanistan, Nepal, and Ethiopia.
Sometimes the juxtaposition of photographs can be startling: “Shop ‘til We Drop,” Lauren Greenfield’s images of upscale consumer culture, starkly contrast with Shehzad Noorani’s “Children of the Black Dust”—child laborers in Bangladesh, their faces blackened with carbon dust from recycled batteries.
The combination of compelling photographs and insightful writing make this a highly relevant, widely discussed book bound to appeal to anyone concerned about the crucial issues shaping our world. What Matters is, in effect, a 336-page illustrated letter to the next American president about the issues that count. It will inspire readers to do their part—however small—to make a difference: to help, the volume includes extensive “What You Can Do” sections with a menu of web links and effective actions readers can take now. This year give What Matters.
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Cohen, creator of the photojournalism book America 24/7, edits this socially conscious collection of haunting photographs and disappointing essays that focus on the unchecked ravages of genocide, global warming, AIDS, child labor, extreme poverty and compulsive consumerism. While the pictures—especially the chilling Images of Genocide and Stephanie Seymour's portraits of child brides—disquiet with their beauty and horror, the accompanying text from such luminaries as Jeffrey Sachs and Bill McKibben is unfortunately hollow and anodyne, particularly Cohen's introduction (do something... even something small... to help repair the world), but Omer Bartov's statement that Iconic photographs both record the deeds and potentially anesthetize us to them provides a powerful caveat for this collection. (Sept.)
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Review
Hard to see, impossible to turn away - Issues and images combine in 'What Matters,' a powerful and passionate new book
"Great documentary photojournalism, squeezed out of mainstream newspapers and magazines in an age of shrinking column inches, has had a hard time gaining traction in other venues... But nobody has told the 18 photographers in What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time. These are photo essays by some of today's best photojournalists following the great tradition begun over a hundred years ago with the exposés of New York tenement life by Jacob Riis. Through the doggedness of these photographers—who are clearly committed to stirring us out of complacency—all the power and passion of the medium is evident in this book... Some of the pieces will break your heart, some will anger you. All will make you think. To channel your thoughts and feelings into action, the book ends with an appendix "What You Can Do," offering hundreds of ways to be a part of the solution to these problems." - Chicago Tribune Book Review, http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/chi-david-elliot-cohen-06sep06,0,5288041.story
"Must viewing."- San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/17/DDGB12K49R.DTL
Photographs that Can Change the World
"David Elliot Cohen’s new book, What Matters, which hits bookshelves today, is a collection of photo essays that explore 18 distinct social issues that define our time. Shot by the world’s most renowned photojournalists, including James Nachtwey, who has contributed to V.F., the photographs explore topics ranging from genocide and global warming to oil addiction and consumerism, offering a raw view into the problems that plague our world. Each photo essay is accompanied by written commentary from an expert on the issue. Cohen hopes the book will inspire people to work toward resolving these problems. “Great photojournalism changed the world in the past, and it can do it again,” Cohen says. “I want people to see these images, get angry, and act on that anger. Compelling images by the world’s best photojournalists is the most persuasive language I have to achieve this.”
- vanityfair.com, http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/09/what-matters.html "Changing the world might sound like a lofty goal for a photo book, but that’s what the new book, What Matters, The World’s Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of our Time edited by David Elliot Cohen (Sterling Publishing, $28, 2008), hopes to do. Citing the power of socially conscious photographers over the last 150 years, the beautiful collection of 18 photo-essays by some of today’s prominent photojournalists hopes to “inform pre-election debate and inspire direct action." Regardless of what side of the political fence you sit on, this collection of heartbreaking and powerful stories and images is guaranteed to get you thinking."
- Popular Photography, http://flash.popphoto.com/blog/2008/08/book-review-wha.html
Those doubting the power of photojournalism to sway opinion and encourage action would do well to spend some time with this book. In 18 stories, each made up of photos by leading photojournalists and elucidated by short essays by public intellectuals and journalists, this book explores environmental devastation, war, disease, and the ravages of both poverty and great wealth. The photos are specific and personal in their subject matter and demonstrate how great photography can illuminate the universal by depicting the specific. Cohen has a goal beyond simply showcasing terrific photography. In his thoughtful introduction, he makes explicit his aim to connect the work compiled here with the great tradition of muckraking photography that helped to change conditions in New York tenements and to end child labor at the turn of the last century. A terrific concluding chapter directs readers to specific actions they can take if they are moved to do so by the book's images, and it's hard to imagine the reader who would not be moved. Highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries supporting journalism and/or photography curricula. (a starred review in Library Journal generally means the book will be acquired by many libraries.)
- Library Journal, http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6598644.html Powerful photos, insightful commentary fill the compelling 'What Matters.'
What Matters is about big questions and big problems that beg for big solutions.
- Florida Times Union (Jacksonville), http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092808/lif_337282446.shtml
About the Author
DAVID ELLIOT COHEN is co-creator of the renowned Day in the Life and America 24/7 series of photojournalism books. Four of these volumes were New York Times bestsellers. Several others were national and international bestsellers. A graduate of Yale University, Cohen has appeared on most major US news programs. His award-winning books have been featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek, in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today among many other periodicals worldwide. His pro bono books have benefited victims of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, AIDs education programs in Africa and most recently, AIDS orphans in Uganda.
Customer Reviews
Brilliantly done. Highly recommended. 
When I saw this book on the shelves at the library, I was first intrigued by its bright blue spine. When I took it down, the cover photograph really took my breath away and I knew I HAD to see what this gorgeous book had to offer me. I can't tell you how happy I am that I took it home because, WOW, was this book phenomenal.
The book's description above really captures the essence of What Matters so definitely go back and read it if you haven't already. The book is a compilation of some of the most fantastic photojournalism I've ever seen, done by people who are genuinely concerned about these issues, and have put together a book that they hope will make a difference in some of these issues and inspire people to think about said issues, and even better, do something about them. The book flows excellently from pictures to text and back - it's put together similarly to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth (which I also loved). The photographs are, of course, magnificent, but the writing itself is also pretty fantastic. The way the authors (of both the written pieces and the photographs) made these issues come to life, made them so clearly EVERYONE'S problems and not "their" problems, the way they made them so personal with stories and pictures, it was just amazing. I am doing an awful job of describing what I loved about this book because I found it to be so important and really just a necessary read. It is hard sometimes for me to articulate my thoughts when I feel so strongly about something like I do this book - it has made me somewhat speechless.
But really, I'm shocked that I hadn't heard of What Matters before; I think it can easily be considered one of the best nonfiction of 2008, and I'd really, STRONGLY encourage everyone to go pick it up. I will totally be buying this one when it comes out in paperback (hopefully, it does), because it's definitely something I'd like to have in my collection to read again and share with others.
Please read What Matters. You will not be sorry that you did.
Too Much Death, Dying and Destruction
After reading a review of the book I was excited to order it. I thought it would be a thought-provoking photo-journalistic depiction of human nature, that would illustrate, or at least start people thinking about, what is truly important in our lives. I expected photos depicting wars, death and hardship. However, I didn't expect such an emphasis on the atrocities of humankind. Proportionately, there was far too much of the dark and dismal. And many, many of the photos, simply put, were of poor quality. The idea is great, but the book needs severe editing. And it needs more examples of what lifts us up, less of what tears us down.
A new text book
After reviewing this book, and giving it as a gift. It will now be used as a supplement reading for a college course.
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