In the Eye of Desert Storm: Photographers of the Gulf War

These 189 bold, colorful pictures, taken by 24 photographers of the international Sygma photo agency, concentrate on the more romantic qualities of the Gulf clash: hearty, sunburned American soldiers; tearful good-byes against the backdrop of an imposing warship; ``the latest in electronic countermeasure aircraft''; and the expectant faces of family members awaiting the arrival of their sons and daughters from the Persian Gulf. To be sure, there are also depictions of bombed-out buildings, dead Iraqis and Kuwaitis (a carved-up body lying in a morgue, charred remains strewn amid debris on the Highway of Death), burning oil wells and oil-soaked marine life, but this volume is less about the ``profanity'' of war, as Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, ironically, calls it, than it is about, in Bryan's ( Friendly Fire ) words, the ``beauty'' that is to be found in ``images of such destruction.'' Generous, informative captions give the context of each picture, usually with a quote from the photographers telling how they managed to circumvent military security (Sygma photographers worked outside the U.S. Department of Defense's news pool) to get the shot. (Sept.)