What we're reading: October 2017

Head around the world in 365 images with the Magnum Photos agency. Celebrating their 70th anniversary, the agency feature everything from street scenes to vivid life studies in this coffee-table book

By Sarah Barrell
Published 8 Oct 2017, 09:00 BST, Updated 12 Jul 2021, 11:54 BST

Vanuatu

Photograph by Alessandra Sanguinetti

Around the World in 365 Photos

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Magnum Photos agency, this is a world tour via 365 images from such stellar snappers as Robert Capa, Bruce Davidson and Martin Parr. Co-founded in 1947 by Henri-Cartier Bresson, Magnum is a photographic cooperative that's long celebrated diversity and the shared human experience. Some images, such as Trent Parke's Australian street scene, are a picture of playfulness, while others, like Raymond Depardon's Cartagena barbershop, are vivid life studies.

It's not just the mega Magnum names that shine, as Alessandra Sanguinetti shows in her shot from Uripiv Island in Vanuatu, which has an almost surreal serenity. Each country is represented by images from a photographer, and with 84 Magnum masters featured in total, this is armchair travel through a rich and unique prism. 

Magnum Atlas: Around the World in 365 Photos from The Magnum Archive. RRP: £22.50 (Prestel)

Readers can buy the book for £18 including UK P&P. Call 01206 255800 and quote: MAGNUMATLAS18

Wise words: Elemental reading

While The Fires Burn

A call to arms from photographer Daniel Schwartz, via terrestrial and aerial photographs that capture shrinking glaciers across four continents; from the Swiss Alps to Pakistan's Karakoram range, and the equatorial African glaciers. RRP: £40 (Thames & Hudson)

The World of Tides
Using a combination of graphic design and science, this intricately illustrated guide to the planet's most interesting coasts and ocean phenomena — from Norwegian whirlpools to Australian rapids — comes with lyrical text from surfer-cum-oceanographer, author William Thomson. RRP: £20 (Quercus)

Snjór
Winter has arrived in Iceland, and just keeps on coming, at least in the Iceland presented in this sparkling book by photographer Christophe Jacrot. It's populated by white-on-white-on-more-white images that look like they're hewn from a snow-dazzled painter's pallette. RRP: €60 (£55)

Cheesy tunes

Jet lag? Many travellers use white noise apps to drown out the hubbub, but musician and cult YouTuber, Cheesy Nirvosa, has compiled 12-hour loops of background noise from sci-fi films and TV shows.

Published in the November 2017 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK)

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