It is remarkable how, in almost every case in this book, the single, best and emblematic image seems to leap out of its slot — or does the choice only seem obvious because it has already been made? Nowadays, with digital cameras, it is possible to take dozens of photographs in the space of a few seconds. Previously, when film was not cheap and development was cumbersome and slow, news photographers were necessarily economical and sought to make each shot count —photo desk editors were notoriously parismonious with film, and, besides, the process of working with rolls, even with motorised cameras, was much more slow and ruminative than with super-fast digital cameras and the limitless resources they offer. Lubben cites Jim Goldberg’s observation that the move to digital effects a change in pace; in the old days, having to stop and reload compelled the photographer to pause and, consequently, to reflect, “to reset, rewind your thinking. The opportunity for that forced pause has been lost”. Luck, or grace, played a large part in the process. I once asked the veteran Observer photographer Jane Bown how many studies she had made of Samuel Beckett to produce her famously granitic head-shot of the writer. “Two,” she said. And which was the one she used? She smiled. “Oh, the first one, of course.”