Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs (National Geographic Collectors Series)

Each geographical section features an outstanding array of photographs that exemplifies the area’s unique people, wildlife, archaeology, culture, architecture, and environment, accompanied by brief but informative captions. Featuring master photographers from the late 1800s to today, including Frans Lanting, David Doubilet, David Alan Harvey, Jodi Cobb, William Albert Allard, Nick Nichols, and Annie Griffiths Belt, Through the Lens is an extraordinary photographic celebration of some of the greatest the world has to offer. Through the Lens is divided into geographical regions with a special section devoted to space exploration. From Barry Bishop’s heroic Mount Everest climb in the 1950s to the glorious wildlife of Asia and Africa, from ancient Maya culture to the Afghan woman found 17 years after her piercing green eyes captivated the world, these are some of the finest and most important photographs ever taken. In Through the Lens, 250 spectacular imagessome famous, others rarely seenare gathered in one lavish, newly formatted volume. For more than 100 years, National Geographic has set the standard for nature, culture, and wildlife photography.

Chorus lines of stuffed cane-toad corpses with surreally clothespinned snouts perform on a taxidermist's shelf. Often, what's striking is the juxtaposition of ideas. Newborns are lined up like bread loaves in Shanghai. A Moscow shopper tries on a snowsuit, oblivious to the huge face in the ad on the wall behind him, whose nose he obscures and smile he bisects. The famous green-eyed Afghan refugee poses in a purple burkha with her 1985 National Geographic cover. This isn't the fanciest photo book of the season, but it certainly is a good deal. Through the Lens is a stunning collection of photos judiciously apportioned to represent the regions of the earth, the sea, and outer space; humans and nature; and even the history of the medium--a few historic black and whites contrast dramatically with the eye-popping modern color shots that dominate the book. A fuzzy shot of a 1907 inventor testing a multiwinged "Katydid" flying machine contrasts with a crisp 1974 shot of Skylab soaring far above fluffy clouds. A Boston matron's faux-fur coat looks just like her pet Dalmatian (the caption identifies them as "spots fans"). A 1935 Model T "surfs" a steep dune in White Sands, New Mexico. The world's widest street (in Buenos Aires) by night looks great next to a grassy highway overpass for grizzly bears in Alberta. A woman in a white chador sits in the Tripoli airport, the white lines of fluorescent ceiling bulbs radiating behind her head like a saint's halo. Since the 10.5 million images in National Geographic's possession won't fit in a book, the 250 in this moderately glossy, minimally costly collection will do nicely. As ever, the esthetic key to their impact is the use of big, emotional pictures with witty little captions, and whenever possible, startling juxtapositions. –Tim Appelo An Arctic wolf making an impossible leap between ice floes arcs in midair, only its reflection hitting the frigid water.