Guerra E Pace: John Phillips: Eyewitness of the 20th Century

The reporter's camera is an instrument of autobiography. It records the impressions of people, places and events and so it works as a visual diary of where the photographer has been, of what he has seen and of how he has reacted to all his experiences. This is the reason why the reader will find in this catalogue not only images but also a description of John Phillips' life and of the time he lived in. John Phillips is one of the most extraordinary photo-journalists of the 20th century and he had worked for a long time with Life magazine. He has photographed some of the most important icons of history and some of the key events of the twentieth century, of which he has been a careful eyewitness. He photographed Hitler entering Vienna, Carmen Miranda in Brazil, American politics in the early Forties, and was one of only two photographers at the Teheran conference when Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met. He photographed King Farouk, King Saud, the last days of Antoine de Saint Exupery, was behind the German lines with Tito, in post-war Eastern Europe, at the battle for Jerusalem. He realised images that represent not only a reportage, but also an epiphany of the human, through shots that seem to be like brief, strong examples of psychological introspection, or prompt sociologic descriptions. This book analyses Phillip's work through a selection of 150 photographs. These images are the results of his long work as a reporter but the intention is to stress their aesthetic composition and the choice of subjects. So the photographs here show not only moments caught in the quickness of events but also portraits, proving the research of deeper and more poetic compositions, that reflect a sensitive and emotional soul.