A Day in the Life of Canada
Like the similar books about Australia, Hawaii, and Japan, each of these offers multiple photographic impressions recorded on a single day. Canada, for coverage of so vast a territory, engaged 100 international photographers (to Israelis ' mostly native 55), to produce 100,000 images (to Israelis ' 40,000), from which its several hundred memorable black-and-white and color illustrations were chosen. The photos juxtapose the industrial to the rural. A lively essay recounts experiences organizing the project and photographing on the actual day (June 8, 1984). The photographers get credit next to their pictures; a map shows where each worked that day; and a lengthy section gives their respective backgrounds, illustrated with past work. Israelis seems earnest, even somber, in comparison. With more than 300 equally fine images, it plays down the individual artists, presenting only a list of credits at the end. The introduction discusses not so much this project as the past and present social and political developments in this young nation, placing the images firmly in context. And indeed, throughout the coverage of agriculture, sheep, beaches, and apartment houses are the ubiquitous soldiers with guns. The heat and aridity are everywhere evident on this day (May 10, 1984) in the ``green'' month, before things are parched to brown. Both books use a chronological arrangement and tell when, to the hour, the pictures were taken, but Canada , being so large, offers maps on each page to show the geographical location of particular images. Both recommended for their candid presentation of ordinary daily life. Kathleen Collins, Library of CongressCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.