Nicholas Lemann, in The Washing-ton Monthly (Oct. 1984), 1711 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
Fifty years ago, documentary photographs the likes of Walker Evans and Margaret Bourke-White captured the national imagination and en- riched Life, Look, and a rackful of lesser popular picture magazines. To- day, writes Lemann, a Washington Monthly contributing editor, that kind of photography is moribund, and the nation is poorer for it.
Photojournalism became a powerful social and political...