Historic Kodak moments.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri)

Byline: John. G. Morris

Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism

University of Chicago Press, 332 pp, 17 dollars

In 1938, Life magazine published a photo-essay on the Spanish Civil War by the famed war photographer Robert Capa with the justification, "Dead men have indeed died in vain if live men refuse to look at them." Life is, of course, long gone, and with it, most of the photo journals. What passes for photojournalism these days are paparazzi shots of the royals, Britney Spears and Anna Kournikova.

This is why Get the Picture, John Morris' personal history of 50 years of photojournalism is such a fascinating read. This is an updated version of a book--with a new foreword and afterword added--that will appeal not merely to photographers, but to anyone who has …