A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

As New Yorkers darted past one another in Rockefeller Center last week, many halted at the street-level windows of a camera gallery to gaze at a striking array of photographs: fireworks, an athlete in pain, the rings of Saturn, one space shuttle lifting off, another disintegrating in the air, a laughing Ronald Reagan, a gyrating Madonna, a city in flames. These and other dramatic images make up a new exhibit whose theme is TIME photojournalism of the 1980s.

"Recapitulating seven years in 26 pictures isn't really possible," observes TIME Picture Editor Arnold Drapkin, who helped set up the presentation, which was sponsored by Nikon, the Japanese camera manufacturer. "But by mixing photos of the major events and those of people who set the tone," adds Drapkin, "we've been able to capture the essence of the period."

"It took two months to get together the pictures we'd use," says Joseph Johnson, art director for TIME Public Affairs, who helped make the final selections from the 273 photographs originally considered for the exhibition. "But it turned out to be a signal addition to the dozens of photo and cover-art shows that we've organized over the past 14 years." Indeed, Johnson is already mapping out a travel route for the '80s collection, which is expected to join other TIME photo exhibits currently on display or ticketed < for such cities as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Cannes and Hong Kong.