From the first issue, photography was paramount to the Daily News, begat by Joseph Patterson in 1919 as the Illustrated Daily News. Four score and more years later, this New York City tabloid is still a picture paper. Veteran New York newsman Hamill's introduction offers an inverted-triangle history of the Daily News. The book then segues into a decade-by-decade gallery of photos, from the days of flash-pan photography and the roving shutterbugs who had PRESS cards tucked into the bands of sweat-stained fedoras and lugged monstrous 4 5 Speed Graphics with lightsaber flashes, through the takeover of the 35mm Nikon F in the 1960s, to the camera-does-everything shooters of today. Hamill generously and rightly bestows full journalistic credit on these photographers as equals to their reporter counterparts in nailing a story, and the gallery of 320 monochrome photos proves that sentiment beyond rebuttal. The images cover all aspects of New York City life during the last 80 years, from sports, crime, celebrities, mob rub-outs, soldiers, statesmen, fires, and fashion to the everyday working-class people who are New York's news. Each photo includes an explanatory caption and the name of the photographer. New York Exposed is a tabloid treasure that delivers the history of 20th-century Gotham through stories told in 125th of a second. Recommended. Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.