I just took a long, pleasing look at a new book out by
National Geographic called "Wide Angle: National
Geographic Greatest Places," by Ferdinand Protzman (National Geographic Books, $30, 504 pages). The book is
the third in a series of amazing photo books put out by the company. the prior two were "Greatest
Photographs" and "Greatest Portraits". Wide Angle encompasses the globe, providing gorgeous shots from
Asia to Africa to both of the poles, and they provide more than a century in photos from the Nat Geo archives. Many are
published here for the first time.
What may be most interesting about the collection here is what you don’t
see. If these are photos that were regarded as "unworthy" before, what still lies inside those archives now
that we haven’t see? Except for Protzman’s introductions, there is little text to distract from the compelling images,
which explode with color, or offer moodiness and reflection, and every one of them offers some snatch of insight into
the human condition.