The genesis of this book was a series of interviews with leading photographers that Hark Harris conducted for Camera & Darkroom magazine. During the interviews Harris took portraits of the photographers, and in his introduction to the book, he explains how this process affected the way he sees each one's work.

The roster of photographers reads like a who's who in 20th-century photography: Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Jeanloup Sieff, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Edouard Boubat, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Sebastiao Salgado, Elliott Erwitt, Helmut Newton, Mary Ellen Mark, Herb Ritts, Annie Leibovitz, Gordon Parks, Andreas Feininger, Eve Arnold, Marc Riboud, Joe Rosenthal, Carl Mydans, Horace Bristol, Eikoh Hosoe, and Peter Lindbergh. The section on each photographer opens with Harris's portrait (his portraits of Leibovitz and the late Eisenstadt are their favorite pictures of themselves), then five signature works are reproduced alongside quotes from the photographer relating to the pictures. This combination of visual images with words is sure to broaden every reader's understanding of the personalities and work of these exceptional artists. Brief biographical notes on the photographers and a selected bibliography appear in a separate section at the back, enhancing the educational value of the book.