A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel: My Journey in Photographs

In this delightful account of three decades of work for the National Geographic Society, Belt's photographs almost have no need for text, they're so compelling. Thankfully, Belt does provide a warm, loving glance into the life she lived while gathering these shots, with pride of place belonging to her children and husband-her almost constant travel companions. As one of its first female photographers, and the youngest on staff when she started, Belt was lucky enough to catch the eye of the Society's leading lights early on, and admits that, ""I was blessed with opportunity before experience... I paid for it in terror."" She has spent the subsequent years gracefully recording the joys and struggles of people rich and poor on every continent but Antarctica, while maintaining a rich (if highly unusual) family life. It's a mark of the quality of her writing and gorgeous photography that the reader is left craving even more details, more stories, more photographs. Belt's book is charming and wise and suffused with her humanity and belief that, ""All people are not alike, but mostly they have the same hopes and fears; judging people does great harm, but listening to them enriches."" 150 photos.