SEEING IS BELIEVING

The neutral gray cover of "iWitness" (347 pages. Trolley) leaves readers unprepared for the horrors that lie within: searing black-and-white images of some of the world's worst suffering, from the famine in Sudan to the siege of Sarajevo to Rwanda's civil war to the scourge of AIDS in Africa. In one photo, an orphaned Rwandan girl clings to her sleeping younger brother atop a pile of volcanic rock. In another, an elderly Indian woman sits before a cracked wall, awaiting aid after a monstrous earthquake. Shot by British photojournalist Tom Stoddart, the images are linked by loss and anguish. In some cases they juxtapose life and death with brutal clarity: a Kenyan family weeps over the tiny coffin of an AIDS victim, a cellist breaks down after playing a requiem to a dead friend in a Bosnian cemetery. But even amid the devastation, there are signs of hope: Two siblings in an African feeding center share a smile and a hug. In a Sarajevo suburb, a woman dressed like a glamorous 1950s movie star passes a soldier as she walks defiantly to work. "It was her way of telling the Serbs, 'You will never win'," Stoddart says.

What purpose do such images serve? In the introduction, photo editor Jean-Francois Leroy acknowledges that it is "naive to say that photojournalism can change the world." Yet without it, we might never know " 'what really happened' at certain world events." And if we don't know, we can't take action. Stoddart says the lower-case "i" in the title is intentional: "I'm just a messenger," he says. "It's not about me." He calls his subjects the "real heroes" of the world, "innocent people trapped and battered by circumstances beyond their control." Such images stay with us, not only for their unspeakable sadness but also because Stoddart so strikingly captures their unyielding dignity and will to survive.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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