Watching the World Change

From Barnes & Noble

The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon was the most universally watched news event in human history. Most of us will never forget the photos and footage that we saw that day. In fact, the pictures are so riveting that we often forgot the dedicated photographers who risked their lives taking them. Watching The World Change takes you behind the camera to reveal the stories of the professionals and bystanders who recorded that day of horror and heroism.

Garrison Keillor

A brief review can’t do justice to Watching the World Change, a lucid, thoughtful and wide-ranging book. In truth, Friend’s excellent writing conveys more of the truth of the day than photographs can. The picture of the three firemen raising an American flag over the ruins, which became an icon of 9/11, is not nearly so gripping as the story he tells of the exploitation of the picture, the feelings of the photographer, Thomas Franklin, and the stoical refusal of the three firemen to be lionized (though they did approve plans for a bronze statue of themselves, 18 feet tall on a 12-foot marble pedestal).
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Friend, a former director of photography at Life and currently editor of creative development at Vanity Fair, writes: "For many of us, photos are the glue we use to hold in place the disjointed bits of fiction and fact that make up the stories of our lives." In this important analysis of how images of 9/11 and the "war on terror" have altered our understanding of power, world politics, religion and identity, he successfully merges reportage and analysis as he interprets the images of falling towers, panic in Manhattan streets and prisoners at Abu Ghraib that have been burned into our brains. But Friend elevates the book to a higher level with his iridescent commentary on the broad political and philosophical implications of 9/11 photography. For example, he recognizes the need to identify victims of a disaster as well as the Orwellian impulses in potential federal programs to create national photo ID cards. And he takes on such complicated issues as self-censorship in the media and how the Bush administration quickly learned how to use images to kick-start and maintain the war on terror. Lucidly written and urgently argued, this essential book is a valuable addition to literature on contemporary media and current politics. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Friend (creative development editor, Vanity Fair) uses his background in photography and visual analysis to explore over 40 photographs documenting the horrific events of 9/11 in New York City. He addresses how his selected images, some iconic and others newly published, have impacted the process of photojournalism, and he explores the meanings such images have conveyed for mourning and remembrance, as well as for historical documentation. He also presents intensely personal and poignant stories of the photographers who captured these often harrowing images. Detailing the uses and abuses of the images, Friend roams across politics, philosophy, and critical theory but always ties his thoughts back to the pictures in question. Although he focuses only on the 9/11 events in New York City, acknowledging but not providing images of the events elsewhere, this is an important book. It will be an asset to any library collection. (Index not seen.) [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/06.] Melissa M. Johnson, Lynn Univ. Lib., Boca Raton, FL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A photojournalist (formerly of Life, now Vanity Fair) examines the images of 9/11-from the iconic to the lesser-known-and discusses photography's pervasive presence in that disaster and in contemporary culture. Friend first tells the stories of those photographers, amateur and professional, who had cameras pointed at the World Trade Center on that crisp fall morning, then moves into a fascinating description of the use of photography in the aftermath. He talks about photos taken from an NYPD helicopter; the video of George W. Bush in that Florida classroom, as an aide whispered to him the news; the photos and X-rays used to identify victims' remains; the proliferation of posters featuring the images of missing loved ones; efforts by galleries and museums to display artifacts and photos; the anger many felt when images of the catastrophe (and of Ground Zero) were sold for profit. He explores the efforts of the electronic media to cover the crisis. He discusses the possibility that a video of Osama bin Laden released just before the 2004 election helped Bush defeat John Kerry. He tells of people who claimed to see images of angels and devils in the clouds of smoke billowing from the buildings. Friend introduces a fireman's widow who ate her meals looking at a large photograph of her husband positioned in a chair across the table. He examines the role of photography in the lead-up to and execution of the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, including Colin Powell's presentation at the U.N., the "imbedded" photojournalists, the president's "Top Gun moment" on the carrier Abraham Lincoln, Abu Ghraib and more. Friend ends with the complex story of what became a symbol of Ground Zero: thecelebrated image of three firemen raising the American flag-a la Iwo Jima-in the rubble. An informed and intimate account-accompanied by some disturbing photos-of one of the worst days in American history.