Siècle, mini édition (1999)

Before even opening this award-winning book, you are struck by the sheer physical presence of Century. With 1,120 pages and 1,072 images, this colossal volume offers an informative, intimate and incisive insight into the twentieth century from the very beginning to the very end. Centuryis an extensive historical trajectory through the twentieth century, told through an eclectic yet exhaustive sequence of monumental photographic images. More than any other before it, the twentieth century was one of unforeseeable advances, discoveries and victories as well as unanticipated atrocities and suffering. It was also the first century to have been documented entirely through the lens of the camera. The chronological journey of Century -in a visually extraordinary sequence of images - takes us from the end of Queen Victoria's reign, through the antics of Buster Keaton and the odyssey into outer space and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Assimilated from diverse sources across the world, the photographs are instantly arresting and tirelessly thought-provoking. Selected for their capacity to expose distinctly human stories with the dynamism that drives historical change, the tome combines iconic images with photographs previously unseen, from international political events to highly personal and anonymous vignettes. Each photograph is substantiated by a brief but thorough historical explanation; every single scene is brought to life by evocative literary and political quotations. Centuryis as much an historical tour de force as it is an enlightening visual celebration of the past from a vast range of angles.