About to Die : How News Images Move the Public Paperback / softback

Due to its ability to freeze a moment in time, the photo is a uniquely powerful device for ordering and understanding the world.

But when an image depicts complex, ambiguous, or controversial events--terrorist attacks, wars, political assassinations--its ability to influence perception can prove deeply unsettling.

Are we really seeing the world "as it is" or is the image a fabrication or projection?

How do a photo's content and form shape a viewer's impressions?

What do such images contribute to historical memory?

About to Die focuses on one emotionally charged category of news photograph--depictions of individuals who are facing imminent death--as a prism for addressing such vital questions.

Tracking events as wide-ranging as the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and 9/11, Barbie Zelizer demonstrates that modes of journalistic depiction and the power of the image are immense cultural forces that are still far from understood.

Through a survey of a century of photojournalism, including close analysis of over sixty photos, About to Die provides a framework and vocabulary for understanding the news imagery that so profoundly shapes our view of the world.