David Alan Harvey was born in San Francisco in 1944. It took him almost 11 years to discover his interest towards Photography. In 1956 he bought a used Leica using his savings money.

By the end of 1964, he had many photo documents of few Black Family living in Virginia. These Photos were the roots of his first book “tell it like it is”.

From there he went on to shoot & write more than 40 photo essays for National Geographic magazine. Since 1997 he is a full-time member of the most prestigious group Magnum Photos.

David Alan Harvey is the chief publisher and editor of Burn Magazine, which is an online publication through which he supports emerging Photographers too.

Known for his color portraits and great street life. Harvey’s book “Cuba” shows great images bringing the life in those cities along with the green countryside. These Pictures show us the Proper Contemporary way of Life in Cuba.

These 5 photographs are taken from his book “based on a true story”.

“based on a true story” was listed as one of the top 10 photo books of the year by Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards in 2012.

Nominated for the Kassel Photo Book Award 2013. Won POYi’s Best Photography Book Award 2013. Listed as one of the Best Books of 2012 by The New Yorker.

The original version of (based on a true story), which was expensive by nature as an art object or an artisan object if you will – is gone. I like art and art objects… At the same time I hate to be in any way elitist with my work. So we printed this magazine version in Italy on the same paper as the book. Yes, less expensive, yet not cheaper. – DAH (David Alan Harvey)

Colin Pantall wrote on photo-eye, (based on a true story) seems to be a random machine gun attack of a book, but it’s not. It’s held together by carefully (and very cleverly) calculated clues.

External elements such as the postcard of clues and the ‘map’ (it’s a visual map – I found it in the end) of the book point you in one direction. But at the same time, there are other structures holding the book in place; the uphill/downhill nature of Rio’s topography, the gaps between rich and poor, the magnetic attraction of the beach.

It’s not a nuanced book, you will not discover the inner truths of Brazilian society from this book, but why would you expect to? Instead, you get a raucous, dynamic and thoroughly enjoyable ride around the hillsides of Rio de Janeiro, in a book where the text, design and layout is incisive, innovative and fun.

Bangkok. Shot for his “Dream Hotel” series. This is a project he actually started 5 years ago, yet it’s been on the back burner all this time.

It will most likely be a zine rather than a book. This hotel swimming pool will be the location for our Magnum workshops final slideshow of student work from Jacob Aue Sobel’s class.

“(based on a true story) set a new standard for the photo book. Extraordinary photography and book design.” ~ Teju Cole for The New Yorker

Learn more about the “based on a true story”