Metal Patination Techniques for Jewelers and Metalsmiths

Written by a leading authority on the subject of patination, this volume is both an inspirational resource and a much-needed practical guide. This all-skill-level book is clearly organized by metal and then arranged by colour. Each recipe is illustrated so you can see the final effect, and many feature non-hazardous materials. Step-by-step sequences walk the beginner through each process.

There are scores of possible effects and many variables: Matthew Runfola chooses the most beautiful and arresting, and selects for inclusion pieces by a range of leading artisans, working on exquisite pieces of jewelry or small-scale metal sculptures. All artists will draw inspiration from the range of work shown here.

โ€ข More than 300 coloration techniques are shown on a variety of metals, including copper, brass, bronze, silver, stainless steel, steel and aluminium.

โ€ข Explore application techniques, including immersion, brush application, spraying, fuming, layering, the use of resists, hot and cold applications, and more.

โ€ข Learn the durability of patinas and how different metals react to different treatments so you can determine what is right for your own work.

โ€ข Understand important safety information including handling and disposing of hazardous or corrosive materials correctly, proper ventilation, setting up a workspace and creating a toolbox.

โ€ข Advance your patination skills as you work from beginner-friendly to more advanced surface-treatment techniques.


Posted on December 1, 2018

War

It has been claimed that around 14,500 wars have been fought since 3,500 BC. Humanity has only experienced 300 years of peace on Earth. During the twentieth century more people in total, were killed in wars, than during any previous century. Relatively, though we kill each other less often now. Are we gradually becoming more peaceful? Regardless of the number of people killed, and the technology used to do it, we can rest assured that wars will be continued to be fought. Can the causes of war be found in society or in biology, in a competition for economic or sexual resources, in historical circumstances – or in a universal violent instinct?

The essays in this anthology originate from the internationally renowned Engelsberg Seminar of 2015, and are written by international historians, journalists, thinkers, researchers, and authors. From the conflicts of antiquity to the dynamics of modern terrorism, this book is about war as a creator and destroyer of states and civilizations. Edited by Kurt Almqvist and Alexander Linklater.


Posted on August 23, 2022

A World History of Women Photographers

A magnificently illustrated showcase of the work of 300 women photographers from all over the world, from the invention of the medium to the dawn of the 21st century.

As in many fields of art history, the work of women photographers has often been overlooked, and few of their names are now widely recognized. However, women were closely involved in all major photography movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, and have used the camera as an extraordinary tool for emancipation and experimentation. These are artists who never stopped documenting, questioning and transforming the world, breaking down social boundaries, challenging gender roles and expressing their imagination and sexuality.

To capture the diversity of this global body of work, Luce Lebart and Marie Robert have invited 160 international women writers to contribute to this volume, which is a bold and beautifully illustrated manifesto as well as an invaluable work of reference.


Posted on April 1, 2022

The Arts & Crafts Companion

The Arts and Crafts Movement was enthusiastically embraced by the many architects and designers who had become disenchanted with the results of the mass production of the mid-nineteenth century, and its instantly recognizable style left a legacy of design that remains influential to this day. This essential companion identifies the origins of the movement and celebrates the inspiration of its founder William Morris – craftsman, poet and social reformer. The achievements of such key exponents as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frank Lloyd Wright and Gustav Stickley are considered in detail and the distinguishing characteristics of each designer’s contribution thoroughly analysed.

There are comprehensive chapters on all aspects of Arts and Crafts style, including architecture, interiors, furniture, textiles, glass, ceramics, metalwork, printing and gardens. Illustrated with 300 meticulously researched images, this is a rich and invaluable general survey and an important work of reference for the collector.

The ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement continue to have relevance for the modern-day home owner. Whether through the restoration of old houses or in the expression of a philosophy, this book will assist the quest for authenticity in decoration and will encourage the appreciation and application of William Morris’s dictum to ‘have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or do not believe to be beautiful.’


Posted on September 4, 2020

Sneakers

This sequel to the classic Sneakers: The Complete Collectors’ Guide is a global survey and reference guide to the very best and most collectible limited-edition sneaker designs released over the last decade

Sneakers: The Complete Collectors’ Guide was a phenomenal success and a key influence in the transformation of sneaker collecting from an underground subculture into a mainstream, multi-billion dollar business. Following publication of that book, sneaker brands began reissuing classic designs and creating shoes that would spur the second wave of collecting: limited editions and collaborations between the brands, invited artists, designers, musicians and cultural icons.

This sequel showcases the very best of this new sneaker culture, featuring more than 300 designs arranged by brand. Each sneaker is accompanied by informative text and a ‘data’ box listing Edition, Pack, Year Released, Original Purpose, Technology and Extras.

Essential for both the hardcore sneaker freak and the first time collector, this book will also attract and seduce fashion and design aficionados.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Julia Watson. Loโ€”TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism

Three hundred years ago, intellectuals of the European Enlightenment constructed a mythology of technology. Influenced by a confluence of humanism, colonialism, and racism, this mythology ignored local wisdom and indigenous innovation, deeming it primitive. Today, we have slowly come to realize that the legacy of this mythology is haunting us.

Designers understand the urgency of reducing humanity’s negative environmental impact, yet perpetuate the same mythology of technology that relies on exploiting nature. Responding to climate change by building hard infrastructures and favoring high-tech homogenous design, we are ignoring millennia-old knowledge of how to live in symbiosis with nature. Without implementing soft systems that use biodiversity as a building block, designs remain inherently unsustainable.

Lo-TEK, derived from Traditional Ecological Knowledge, is a cumulative body of multigenerational knowledge, practices, and beliefs, countering the idea that indigenous innovation is primitive and exists isolated from technology. It is sophisticated and designed to sustainably work with complex ecosystems.

With a foreword by anthropologist Wade Davis and four chapters spanning Mountains, Forests, Deserts, and Wetlands, Julia Watson explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from 18 countries including Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, India, and Indonesia. We rediscover an ancient mythology in a contemporary context, radicalizing the spirit of human nature.

The tactile reading experience of Lo-TEK reflects the ingenuity of carefully selected projects with sophisticated design details: copper highlights the value of ancient knowledge, a cardboard hardcover echoes rawness, and the Swiss binding showcases an open spine and reveals the construction of the book, just as the book discloses hidden technological knowledge.


Posted on September 14, 2024

Paris. Portrait of a City

Described by Goethe as the “universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past,” Paris is as rich in its two millennia of history as it is in its beauty, its romance, and its art. It’s the city of Marcel Proust and Coco Chanel, of Edith Piaf and Jean-Paul Sartre, of Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, of Left Bank cool and the twinkling lights of the Tour Eiffel by night.
It was also on the banks of the Seine that Niรฉpce and Daguerre officially gave birth to the new art of photography, and in this evocative tapestry of images, we celebrate the city’s remarkable photographic, as well as cultural, architectural, and civic history. Some 300 pictures bring together past and present, the monumental and the everyday faces and vistas, as well as the talents of such illustrious photographers as Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassaรฏ, Kertรฉsz, Ronis, Doisneau, and Cartier-Bresson.
With cover art by Robert Nippoldt, this collection is complemented by an extensive appendix of around 100 books, movies, and records inspired by the city of lights.


Posted on September 14, 2024

Science Illustration. A History of Visual Knowledge from the 15th Century to Today

Science and illustration have always walked hand in hand, and not only the scientific community but the general public as well have used images since early history to understand natural phenomena. Moreover, from Galileo to Einstein, our modern history has been written with the key support of art and with all the insights it contributes. This XL-sized book collects more than 300 graphic works that range from original sketches to technical drawings, and from meticulous hand illustrations to computer-generated images.

The Western scientific revolution that started in the 14th century catapulted humankind into a completely new way of understanding how nature and the world around us behaved. Whether it was diseases caused by viruses or the vast galaxies of the cosmos, a new army of professionals turned their minds to unlocking and reshaping the universe of our experience with a dialectic positioned between theory and evidence. The field of illustration and the development of knowledge became inseparably intertwined, as can be seen by the majestic works shown in this book that were produced by the scientists and artists who specialized in this combined field.

Explore here the work of more than 700 scientists and over 300 discoveries in anatomy, physics, chemistry, astronomy, mechanics, and many other scientific fields, through the visual works that bring them to life. Combined with detailed texts explaining their scientific significance, the illustrations in this book introduce the work of such pionieering scientists as Andreas Vesalius, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, and Rosalind Franklin. The visualizations themselves present game-changing ideas and discoveries from the 15th century to the present day, notably including Galileo’s watercolors of the moon, Bourgery‘s unparalleled Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery, Florence Nightingale‘s statistical diagrams to indicate war casualties, and Einstein‘s quickly scribbled ideas for his general theory of relativity.

Many discoveries in science take place as the result of counterintuitive thinking, and in order to visualize their work scientists have to connect with the resources of collective knowledge and in turn convey new information back to people. This book is for everyone who is continually amazed by the wonders of our world and who wants to find out more about it through the remarkable illustrations used to present advances in scientific understanding.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Science Illustration. A History of Visual Knowledge from the 15th Century to Today

Science and illustration have always walked hand in hand, and not only the scientific community but the general public as well have used images since early history to understand natural phenomena. Moreover, from Galileo to Einstein, our modern history has been written with the key support of art and with all the insights it contributes. This XL-sized book collects more than 300 graphic works that range from original sketches to technical drawings, and from meticulous hand illustrations to computer-generated images.

The Western scientific revolution that started in the 14th century catapulted humankind into a completely new way of understanding how nature and the world around us behaved. Whether it was diseases caused by viruses or the vast galaxies of the cosmos, a new army of professionals turned their minds to unlocking and reshaping the universe of our experience with a dialectic positioned between theory and evidence. The field of illustration and the development of knowledge became inseparably intertwined, as can be seen by the majestic works shown in this book that were produced by the scientists and artists who specialized in this combined field.

Explore here the work of more than 700 scientists and over 300 discoveries in anatomy, physics, chemistry, astronomy, mechanics, and many other scientific fields, through the visual works that bring them to life. Combined with detailed texts explaining their scientific significance, the illustrations in this book introduce the work of such pionieering scientists as Andreas Vesalius, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, and Rosalind Franklin. The visualizations themselves present game-changing ideas and discoveries from the 15th century to the present day, notably including Galileo’s watercolors of the moon, Bourgery‘s unparalleled Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery, Florence Nightingale‘s statistical diagrams to indicate war casualties, and Einstein‘s quickly scribbled ideas for his general theory of relativity.

Many discoveries in science take place as the result of counterintuitive thinking, and in order to visualize their work scientists have to connect with the resources of collective knowledge and in turn convey new information back to people. This book is for everyone who is continually amazed by the wonders of our world and who wants to find out more about it through the remarkable illustrations used to present advances in scientific understanding.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Midcentury Memories. The Anonymous Project

Rewind back to the midcentury, before the age of Instagram and Snapchat, where people were using 35mm cameras loaded with color film to document both monumental and mundane moments in their lives. They took pictures of their loved ones, their vacations, their celebrations. They memorialized the births of babies; a child in a cowboy outfit; a new color television set; sightseeing in National Parks; fishing trips; lazing on the beach; weddings; office parties; family reunions; holding hands, kissing and dancing. Imagining these lives and the possible stories that lie behind the images is what makes The Anonymous Project such a compelling journey into our past. The passing of time is enhanced by the book’s narrative that begins with scenes of early childhood and ends with seniors, with all the stages of life in between.

It all started with an innocent purchase on eBay. Filmmaker Lee Shulman bought a set of 35mm Kodachrome slides-anonymous family photos-and was so taken with what he calls “the emotional value of these slices of life” that he knew he had to have more. He launched The Anonymous Project in 2017 and has since acquired around 700,000 images either by donation or via vintage sellers. As noted photography critic Richard B. Woodward writes in the introduction: “It is significant-and fascinating-that in virtually every image here, photographer and subject seem to know one another. In this embracing album of humanity, no one exists in isolation. There are no strangers here.”

This curated collection of just under 300 images taken between the 1940s and ’70s offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of these anonymous subjects. The locations, dates, and the subjects may be unknown-but these shots taken by skilled amateur photographers, and the fascinating stories they contain, are universally familiar.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Neutra. Complete Works

Originally from Vienna, Richard Neutra came to America early in his career, settling in California. His influence on postwar architecture is undisputed, the sunny climate and rich landscape being particularly suited to his cool, sleek modern style.

Neutra had a keen appreciation for the relationship between people and nature; his trademark plate glass walls and ceilings which turn into deep overhangs have the effect of connecting the indoors with the outdoors. His ability to incorporate technology, aesthetics, science, and nature into his designs brought him to the forefront of Modernist architecture.

In this volume, all of Neutra’s works (nearly 300 private homes, schools, and public buildings) are gathered together, illustrated by over 1,000 photographs, including those of Julius Shulman and other prominent photographers.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Logo Design 3

Everybody knows that the logo is a key branding element. A good one can glamorize just about anything, so it comes as no surprise that logo design is a crucial step in the development of a product or service.
This third installment in our Logo Design series brings together diverse logos from around the world, organized into chapters by theme, such as creative industry, events, fashion, media, music, retailers, and service. A full index lists each logo’s company, designer, and designer’s website. Also included is a case study section, concentrating on logo application and development.
Special features include an interview with H5, the makers of 2010 Oscar-winner Logorama, Neville Brody’s Research Studios on the redesign of Music for Youth, Sasha Vidakovic on the new identity for Victoria Beckham, leading Canadian design studio Concrete on the launch of SUPER cosmetics, British studio KentLyons on the Jarman film award, HB Design from Argentina on the country’s 200th anniversary logo, and Helmut Langer on universal identities.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Helmut Newton. Polaroids

Polaroids occupy a special place in the hearts of many photo enthusiasts who remember a time when “instant photography” meant one-of-a-kind prints that developed within minutes of clicking the shutter. What was once a crucial tool for photographers to test their shots before shooting on film has now become obsolete in the face of digital photography.

Luckily for us, legendary photographer Helmut Newton saved his test Polaroids, allowing a privileged and rare chance to see the tests from a selection of his greatest shoots over a period of decades, including many from the TASCHEN titles SUMO, A Gun for Hire, and Work. Selected by his widow, June Newton, from over 300 photos featured at the 2011 exhibition “Helmut Newton Polaroids” at the Museum fรผr Fotografie in Berlin, this collection captures the magic of Helmut Newton photo shoots as only Polaroids can.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Helmut Newton. Polaroids

Polaroids occupy a special place in the hearts of many photo enthusiasts who remember a time when “instant photography” meant one-of-a-kind prints that developed within minutes of clicking the shutter. What was once a crucial tool for photographers to test their shots before shooting on film has now become obsolete in the face of digital photography.

Luckily for us, legendary photographer Helmut Newton saved his test Polaroids, allowing a privileged and rare chance to see the tests from a selection of his greatest shoots over a period of decades, including many from the TASCHEN titles SUMO, A Gun for Hire, and Work. Selected by his widow, June Newton, from over 300 photos featured at the 2011 exhibition “Helmut Newton Polaroids” at the Museum fรผr Fotografie in Berlin, this collection captures the magic of Helmut Newton photo shoots as only Polaroids can.


Posted on September 13, 2024

1000 Nudes. A History of Erotic Photography from 1839-1939

The history of nude photography is the history of people’s fascination with the topic. Indeed, the photographic depiction of the human body is the only subject that has enthralled photographers, theoreticians, and consumers over such a long period-more than 150 years. No other motif is as prevalent as this one during all the phases of development comprising the history of photography, no other is present, whatever the technique, and is a subject of discussion within the context of nearly all aesthetic movements. Nor has any other pictorial topic produced such a variety of specialities as the nude: from the ethnological interpretation of the body to the glamour shot, from nudist photography to the pin-up of today. No other photographic field of application has inspired as much desire as it has awakened official wrath.

1000 Nudes offers a cross section of the history of nude photography, ranging from the earliest nude daguerreotypes and ethnographic nude photographs to experimental nude photography. The period of time spanned by this work is from 1839 to roughly 1939, from the medium’s infancy to the end of the classic modernist period. Content-wise, the book pays tribute to the full range of pictorial approaches, from the manually elaborated artistic nudes of the turn of the century, enveloped in layers of theory, to the “obscene” postcard motifs which had not the slightest artistic pretension and were intended to exert a maximum effect on the buyer’s wallet.

All the pictures shown are taken from the late Uwe Scheid’s collection, one of the world’s largest and most important collections of erotic photography.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Norman Mailer. JFK. Superman Comes to the Supermarket

With his Hollywood good looks, boundless enthusiasm, and mesmeric media presence, John F. Kennedy was destined to capture the imaginations of the more than 70 million Americans who watched the nation’s first televised presidential debate. Just days after beating out Richard Nixon by the narrowest margin in history, Kennedy himself said, “It was the TV more than anything else that turned the tide.”

But one man begged to differ: writer Norman Mailer, who bragged that his pro-Kennedy treatise, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” had “won the election for Kennedy.” The article, published in Esquire magazine just weeks before polls opened, redefined political reporting with Mailer’s frank, first-person voice identifying Kennedy as the “existential hero” who could awaken the nation from its postwar slumber and conformist Eisenhower years. Both Kennedy and New Journalism had arrived.

Now, TASCHEN reimagines and interprets this no-holds-barred portrait of Kennedy on his path to the White House, publishing Mailer’s essay in book form alongside 300 photographs that bring the campaign and the candidate’s family to life. These images were captured by some of the great photojournalists of the day-including Cornell Capa, Henri Dauman, Jacques Lowe, Lawrence Schiller, Paul Schutzer, Stanley Tretick, Hank Walker, and Garry Winogrand-providing a fascinating look at the man who declared the ’60s “a time for greatness.”


Posted on September 13, 2024

Gisele Bรผndchen

Born in the Brazilian countryside, and nearly six feet tall by the age of 14, Gisele Bรผndchen grew from humble roots into one of the most successful supermodels in the world. This book celebrates her 20-year milestone in the industry with a unique and spectacular collection of jaw-dropping glamour and intimate, personal insights.

Gisele was just 18 when she made her breakthrough in the S/S 1998 ready-to-wear “Rain” show of Alexander McQueen, who chose “The Body” thanks to her ability to walk in towering heels on a slippery runway. The same year, Gisele secured her first British Vogue cover, and swiftly became the most in-demand cover girl of her generation. The following year, she was chosen for the cover of American Vogue, shot by Steven Meisel, and lauded as “the return of the sexy model” with her bronzed, athletic beauty defying late-’90s grunge. Since then, Gisele has appeared on more than 1,000 covers around the globe, in approximately 450 fashion shows, and in multinational campaigns for the biggest fashion and beauty brands.

With more than 300 photographs, this book is curated and art directed by Giovanni Bianco. From Gisele’s legendary nude portrait by Irving Penn, chosen as the book’s cover, to iconic shots from such industry luminaries as Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh, David LaChapelle, Juergen Teller, Inez & Vinoodh, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, and Corinne Day, it is a unique artistic presentation of the most famous Brazilian export together with Pelรฉ and Senna and the highest-earning model in the world. The breathtaking image collection is accompanied by an introduction by Steven Meisel and tributes from Gisele’s closest friends, family, and fashion leaders, who shed light on how and why she has become one of the greatest models of all time.

Gisele is donating all her proceeds from the book to charity.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Gisele Bรผndchen

Born in the Brazilian countryside, and nearly six feet tall by the age of 14, Gisele Bรผndchen grew from humble roots into the most successful supermodel in the world. This book celebrates her 20-year milestone in the industry with a unique and spectacular collection of jaw-dropping glamour and intimate, personal insights.
Gisele was just 18 when she made her breakthrough in the S/S 1998 ready-to-wear “Rain” show of Alexander McQueen, who chose “The Body” thanks to her ability to walk in towering heels on a slippery runway. The same year, Gisele secured her first British Vogue cover, and swiftly became the most in-demand cover girl of her generation. The following year, she was chosen for the cover of American Vogue, shot by Steven Meisel, and lauded as “the return of the sexy model” with her bronzed, athletic beauty defying late-’90s grunge. Since then, Gisele has appeared on more than 1,000 covers around the globe, in approximately 450 fashion shows, and in multinational campaigns for the biggest fashion and beauty brands.
With more than 300 photographs, this book is curated and art directed by Giovanni Bianco. From Gisele’s legendary nude portrait by Irving Penn, chosen as the book’s cover, to iconic shots from such industry luminaries as Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh, David LaChapelle, Juergen Teller, Inez & Vinoodh, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, and Corinne Day, it is a unique artistic presentation of the most famous Brazilian export together with Pelรฉ and Senna and the highest-earning model in the world. The breathtaking image collection is accompanied by an introduction by Steven Meisel and tributes from Gisele’s closest friends, family, and fashion leaders, who shed light on how and why she has become one of the greatest models of all time.
First published as a limited edition-now available in a popular TASCHEN edition!
Gisele is donating all her proceeds from the book to charity.
Born in the Brazilian countryside, and nearly six feet tall by the age of 14, Gisele Bรผndchen grew from humble roots into the most successful supermodel in the world. This book celebrates her 20-year milestone in the industry with a unique and spectacular collection of jaw-dropping glamour and intimate, personal insights.
Gisele was just 18 when she made her breakthrough in the S/S 1998 ready-to-wear “Rain” show of Alexander McQueen, who chose “The Body” thanks to her ability to walk in towering heels on a slippery runway. The same year, Gisele secured her first British Vogue cover, and swiftly became the most in-demand cover girl of her generation. The following year, she was chosen for the cover of American Vogue, shot by Steven Meisel, and lauded as “the return of the sexy model” with her bronzed, athletic beauty defying late-’90s grunge. Since then, Gisele has appeared on more than 1,000 covers around the globe, in approximately 450 fashion shows, and in multinational campaigns for the biggest fashion and beauty brands.
With more than 300 photographs, this book is curated and art directed by Giovanni Bianco. From Gisele’s legendary nude portrait by Irving Penn, chosen as the book’s cover, to iconic shots from such industry luminaries as Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh, David LaChapelle, Juergen Teller, Inez & Vinoodh, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, and Corinne Day, it is a unique artistic presentation of the most famous Brazilian export together with Pelรฉ and Senna and the highest-earning model in the world. The breathtaking image collection is accompanied by an introduction by Steven Meisel and tributes from Gisele’s closest friends, family, and fashion leaders, who shed light on how and why she has become one of the greatest models of all time.
First published as a limited edition-now available in a popular TASCHEN edition!
Gisele is donating all her proceeds from the book to charity.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Mario Testino. SIR

“The way men are seen in photography, in fashion, and the way that men look at pictures of themselves has changed in recent years. It is a subject that has come into focus: The masculine image, a man’s personal style, changing attitudes to the male face and body.”
– Mario Testino
From Rio to London, Cusco to Seville, Mario Testino is renowned for his free-spirited chronicles of dress and demeanor. In SIR, his largest book to-date, the influential photographer presents over 300 photographs in his search to define the allure of men.
Featuring an essay by Pierre Borhan, an interview with Patrick Kinmonth, and many previously unpublished works from Testino’s archive of thousands, this book traces the evolution of male identity over the past three decades. Costume, tradition, gender play, portraiture, photojournalism, and fashion collide as Testino observes masculinity in all its modern manifestations: through the dandy and the gentleman, the macho and the fey, the world-famous face to the unknown passerby.
Every photograph represents a unique point of view, and a new visual connection between photographer and sitter. With Josh Hartnett for VMAN (2005), Testino evokes the fall of Helmut Berger in the abyss of Luchino Visconti’s The Damned. Studies of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jude Law and Colin Firth are as candid as they are curious. David Beckham, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards feature for the courage they have taken in redefining male identity. Through a kaleidoscope of guises, these portraits define a period in which men’s changing role, style and appearance has never escaped Testino’s eye and impeccable intuition.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Norman Mailer. JFK. Superman Comes to the Supermarket

With Hollywood good looks, boundless enthusiasm, and mesmeric media presence, John F. Kennedy was destined to capture the imaginations of the more than 70 million Americans who watched the nation’s first televised presidential debate. Just days after beating out Richard Nixon by the narrowest margin in history, Kennedy himself said, “It was the TV more than anything else that turned the tide.”
But one man begged to differ: writer Norman Mailer, who bragged that his pro-Kennedy treatise, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” had “won the election for Kennedy.” The article, published in Esquire magazine just weeks before polls opened, redefined political reporting with Mailer’s frank, first-person voice identifying Kennedy as the “existential hero” who could awaken the nation from its postwar slumber and conformist Eisenhower years. Both Kennedy and New Journalism had arrived.
To commemorate the centennial of Kennedy’s birth, TASCHEN presents this no-holds-barred portrait of Kennedy on his path to the White House alongside 300 photographs that bring the campaign and the candidate’s family to life. With featured photojournalists including such illustrious talents as Cornell Capa, Henri Dauman, Jacques Lowe, Arnold Newman, Lawrence Schiller, Paul Schutzer, Stanley Tretick, Hank Walker, and Garry Winogrand, this is a fascinating visual and literary record of the man who would lead America into the 1960s.
photo above ยฉ Stan Wayman/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images


Posted on September 13, 2024

Bettina Rheims

Since her first photographs in the late ’70s, Bettina Rheims has defied the predictable. From her series on Pigalle strippers (1980) to her cycle on the life of Jesus in I.N.R.I. (1998), from Chanel commercials to Gender Studies (2011), her work has shaken up traditional iconography and pushed restlessly at the breaking point between two great human preoccupations: beauty and imperfection.

This Rheims retrospective showcases more than 300 photographs from 35 years of daring, often defiant photography. Personally selected and assembled by Rheims, the collection brings together renowned series such as Chambre Close, Hรฉroรฏnes, and Rose, c’est Paris. Spanning commercial work and artistic series, the retrospective impresses with each turn of the page, as much for the strength of each image as for the thrilling variety of Rheims’s subjects and aesthetics. With equal attention to anonymous subjects cast in the street as to global celebrities including Kate Moss, Madonna, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Schiffer, and Naomi Campbell, the book showcases Rheims’s particular interest in female fragility and strength, and of the magic encounter between model and artist which disrupts codes of so-called eroticism to build up a new image system for womanhood.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Stanley Kubrick Photographs. Through a Different Lens

Before becoming the critically acclaimed filmmaker responsible for such iconic films as Dr. Strangelove and The Shining, Stanley Kubrick spent five years as a photographer for Look magazine. The Bronx native joined the staff in 1945, when he was only 17 years old, and shot humanist slice-of-life features that celebrate and expose New York City and its inhabitants.Through a Different Lens reveals the keen and evocative vision of a burgeoning creative genius in a range of feature stories and images, from everyday folk at the laundromat to a day in the life of a debutant, from a trip to the circus to Columbia University. Featuring around 300 images, many previously unseen, as well as rare Look magazine tear sheets, this release coincides with a major show at the Museum of the City of New York and includes an introduction by noted photography critic Luc Sante.
These still photographs attest to Kubrick’s innate talent for compelling storytelling, and serve as clear indicators of how this genius would soon transition to making some of the greatest movies of all time.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott

Mert Alas, born in Turkey, and Marcus Piggott, born in Wales, met in 1994, at a party on a pier in Hastings, England. Piggott asked Alas for a light, the pair got talking, and rapidly discovered they had plenty in common, not least a love of fashion. Three years later, the duo now known as Mert and Marcus had moved into a derelict loft in East London, converted it into a studio, and had their first collaborative photographic work published in Dazed & Confused.

These days, Mert and Marcus shape the global image of such renowned brands as Giorgio Armani, Roberto Cavalli, Fendi, Miu Miu, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, and Lancรดme, and public figures including Lady Gaga, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Linda Evangelista, Gisele Bรผndchen, Bjรถrk, Angelina Jolie, and Rihanna. Their photographs encompass a wide range of styles and influences but are renowned particularly for their use of digitized augmentation of images, and a fascination for strong, sexually charged, confident female subjects: “powerful women, women with a meaning, a you-don’t-have-to-talk-or-move-too-much-to-tell-who-you-are kind of woman.”

Bringing our best-selling Collector’s Edition to an affordable, compact format, this collection explores the unique vision of a creative partnership that has defined and redefined standards for glamour, fashion, and luxury. Approximately 300 images from the megawatt Mert and Marcus portfolio are accompanied by an introduction by Charlotte Cotton.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Bruce W. Talamon. Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972โ€“1982

“For ten glorious years, I had the best seat in the house.”
-Bruce W. Talamon
Talamon saw it all during the golden age of soul, R&B, and funk. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, this young African American photographer from Los Angeles found himself backstage with an all-access pass to the heart of the music scene. He caught his first big break landing a position as a staff photographer at SOUL Newspaper in LA in the early 1970s, just as soul, R&B, and funk were becoming part of the mainstream. He captured the rehearsals and sound checks, recording sessions and costume fittings, the quiet reflective moments and life on the road, and, of course, the wild photo shoots and memorable performances. These photographs define an era famed for its glamour, fabulous fashions, and utter devotion to the groove.
Including close to 300 photographs from 1972 to 1982, the extensive Talamon archives are presented in full detail for the first time. Whether you’re a diehard soul fan or a thrilled newcomer to the aesthetic magic of the 1970s, the collection exudes the infectious spirit of an exuberant age. Featuring icons such as Earth, Wind & Fire; Marvin Gaye; Diana Ross; Parliament-Funkadelic; Al Green; Gil Scott-Heron; James Brown; Barry White; Rick James; Aretha Franklin; the Jackson Five; Donna Summer; and Chaka Khan and many others; there are also several stops at the legendary Soul Train studios. Talamon documented a visual period in black music that lasted way past the midnight hour and will never come again.
This release is an affordable, compact version of our Art Edition, limited to 500 copies and featuring a portfolio of four prints signed by Bruce W. Talamon.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Laurent Benaรฏm

“I’ve always been fascinated by sex, the diversity of practices, the will and perseverance of people to realize their fantasies,” says Paris photographer Laurent Benaรฏm. “These moments of pleasure captivate me in all their forms: the beautiful, the ugly. I have no criteria for aesthetic selection, only the expression of human desire interests me.”
That said, Monsieur Benaรฏm seldom photographs simple desire or simple sex acts. His models, he insists, run the show, bringing their uncommon interests to his studio; he acts only as witness and documentarian, offering his creative encouragement and nonjudgmental camera. He shoots only amateurs, people whose lives range from button-down white collar to transient to circus sideshow. They are young and old, straight, gay and transgender, able bodied, ample bodied and oddly bodied. They have been coming to Benaรฏm’s large commercial studio in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil since 1999, first a trickle, then a flood, as word spread that their quirks and obsessions would not just be embraced, but transformed into art, through a painstaking 19th-century print technique little used in the last 100 years.
Benaรฏm earned his photographic degree in 1982. He set up shop as a conventional photographer, but at heart was a pictorialist, always searching for ways to defeat photographic realism. In 1991 he saw an antique photo with just the look he sought, and through trial and much error taught himself the gum dichromate process. It’s tedious, smelly, and probably poisonous, but Benaรฏm has used it exclusively since 1996, giving his startling sex photos the look of oversized French postcards, printed, perhaps, in the damp cellar of a Belle ร‰poque whorehouse. The technique softens the extremity of his subject, leading to gallery shows in Paris, Berlin, Milan, Luxembourg, Zurich and, fittingly, at the Kinsey Institute for sexual research in Bloomington, Indiana.Laurent Benaรฏm presents 300 of the photographer’s 1,000+ images in what will be among TASCHEN’s most transgressive-and talked about-titles, with an introduction by editor Dian Hanson.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Peter Lindbergh. On Fashion Photography

It was on a Malibu beach in 1988 that Peter Lindbergh shot the White Shirts series, images now known the world over. Simple yet seminal, the photographs introduced us to Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Rachel Williams, Karen Alexander, Tatjana Patitz, and Estelle Lefรฉbure. This marked the beginning of an era that redefined beauty, and Lindbergh would go on to alter the landscape of fashion photography for the decades that followed.

This book gathers more than 300 images from forty years of Lindbergh’s career. It traces the German photographer’s cinematic inflections and humanist approach, which produced images at once seductive and introspective.

In 1980 Rei Kawakubo asked Lindbergh to shoot a Commes des Garรงons campaign, one of his earlier forays into commercial photography. Kawakubo gave him carte blanche. The following years brought forth collaborations with the most venerated names in fashion and resulted in a relationship of mutual reverence; Lindbergh’s respect for some of the greatest designers of our time is palpable in his portraits. Among those photographed are Azzedine Alaรฏa, Giorgio Armani, Alber Elbaz, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Yohji Yamamoto.

Widely considered a pioneer in his field, Lindbergh shirked the industry standards of beauty and instead celebrated the essence and individuality of his subjects. He was pivotal to the rise of models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Mariacarla Boscono, Lara Stone, Claudia Schiffer, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Kristen McMenamy.

Lindbergh’s reach also extended across Hollywood and beyond: Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Richard Gere, Isabelle Huppert, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau all appear in his works. From the picture chosen by Anna Wintour as the cover of her first Vogue issue to the legendary shot of Tina Turner on the Eiffel Tower, it is never the clothes, celebrity, or glamour that takes center stage in a Lindbergh photograph. Each picture conveys the humanity of its subject with a serene melancholy that is uniquely and unmistakably Lindbergh.

From the outset of his career, Lindbergh was well-known in the contemporary art world, where his photographs were exhibited in galleries long before they appeared in magazines. This edition features an updated introduction adapted from an interview in 2016, allowing a glimpse behind Lindbergh’s lens, where the photographer recounts his early collaborations, the tenuous relationship between commercial and fine art, and the power of storytelling.


Posted on September 13, 2024

The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. 40th Ed.

Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a German-born biologist, naturalist, evolutionist, artist, philosopher, and doctor who spent his life researching flora and fauna from the highest mountaintops to the deepest ocean. A vociferous supporter and developer of Darwin’s theories of evolution, he denounced religious dogma, authored philosophical treatises, gained a doctorate in zoology, and coined scientific terms which have passed into common usage, including ecology, phylum, and stem cell.

At the heart of Haeckel’s colossal legacy was the motivation not only to discover but also to explain. To do this, he created hundreds of detailed drawings, watercolors, and sketches of his findings which he published in successive volumes, including several marine organism collections and the majestic Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature), which could serve as the cornerstone of Haeckel’s entire life project. Like a meticulous visual encyclopedia of living things, Haeckel’s work was as remarkable for its graphic precision and meticulous shading as for its understanding of organic evolution. From bats to the box jellyfish, lizards to lichen, and spider legs to sea anemones, Haeckel emphasized the essential symmetries and order of nature, and found biological beauty in even the most unlikely of creatures.

In this book, we celebrate the scientific, artistic, and environmental importance of Haeckel’s work, with a collection of 300 of his finest prints from several of his most important tomes, including Die Radiolarien, Monographie der Medusen, Die Kalkschwรคmme, and Kunstformen der Natur. At a time when biodiversity is increasingly threatened by human activities, the book is at once a visual masterwork, an underwater exploration, and a vivid reminder of the precious variety of life.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Peter Lindbergh. On Fashion Photography. 40th Ed.

It was on a Malibu beach in 1988 that Peter Lindbergh shot the White Shirts series, images now known the world over. Simple yet seminal, the photographs introduced us to Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Rachel Williams, Karen Alexander, Tatjana Patitz, and Estelle Lefรฉbure. This marked the beginning of an era that redefined beauty, and Lindbergh would go on to alter the landscape of fashion photography for the decades that followed.

This edition gathers more than 300 images from forty years of Lindbergh’s career. It traces the German photographer’s cinematic inflections and humanist approach, which produced images at once seductive and introspective.

In 1980 Rei Kawakubo asked Lindbergh to shoot a Commes des Garรงons campaign, one of his earlier forays into commercial photography. Kawakubo gave him carte blanche. The following years brought forth collaborations with the most venerated names in fashion and resulted in a relationship of mutual reverence; Lindbergh’s respect for some of the greatest designers of our time is palpable in his portraits. Among those photographed are Azzedine Alaรฏa, Giorgio Armani, Alber Elbaz, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Yohji Yamamoto.

Widely considered a pioneer in his field, Lindbergh shirked the industry standards of beauty and instead celebrated the essence and individuality of his subjects. He was pivotal to the rise of models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Mariacarla Boscono, Lara Stone, Claudia Schiffer, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Kristen McMenamy.

Lindbergh’s reach also extended across Hollywood and beyond: Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Richard Gere, Isabelle Huppert, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau all appear in his works. From the picture chosen by Anna Wintour as the cover of her first Vogue issue to the legendary shot of Tina Turner on the Eiffel Tower, it is never the clothes, celebrity, or glamour that takes center stage in a Lindbergh photograph. Each picture conveys the humanity of its subject with a serene melancholy that is uniquely and unmistakably Lindbergh.

From the outset of his career, Lindbergh was well-known in the contemporary art world, where his photographs were exhibited in galleries long before they appeared in magazines. This edition features an updated introduction adapted from an interview in 2016, allowing a glimpse behind Lindbergh’s lens, where the photographer recounts his early collaborations, the tenuous relationship between commercial and fine art, and the power of storytelling.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Steve Schapiro. The Godfather Family Album. 40th Ed.

“It’s dangerous to be an honest man.”
– Michael Corleone, Godfather III

As special photographer on the sets and locations of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy, Steve Schapiro had the remarkable experience of witnessing legendary actors giving some of their most memorable performances. Schapiro immortalized Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton in photos that have since become iconic images, instantly recognizable and endlessly imitated.

Gathered together in this book are Schapiro’s finest photographs from all three Godfather films, lovingly reproduced from the original negatives. With contextual essays and interviews covering the trilogy in its entirety, this book contains over 300 color and black-and-white images. Schapiro’s images take us behind the scenes of this epic and inimitable cinematic saga, revealing the director’s working process, capturing the moods and personalities involved, and providing insight into the making of movie history.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Beatriz Milhazes

In her vibrant works, the Brazilian painter Beatriz Milhazes fuses two very different worldviews. Her abstract compositions, which can be seen in a line with modernist masters from Henri Matisse to Bridget Riley, are saturated with the colors and light of her native country. Her paintings are strewn with symbols of everyday life in Brazil, invoking carnival, traditional craftsmanship, and motifs from baroque to pop, all choreographed in an exuberant visual rhythm. The colorful atmosphere has an irresistible exotic allure, but as in the works of Paul Gauguin, we find a broken paradise in which darker, more melancholic tones resonate, both in the promises of tropical life and those of modernist abstraction.

In seeking this balance, Milhazes developed a special transfer technique in the late eighties, painting her motifs onto plastic sheets, gluing these to the canvas and letting them dry, and then peeling away the plastic once dry so that the paint remains on the canvas. This method allows the artist to layer surface upon surface and to achieve an iridescence somewhere between radiant aura and shimmering melancholy. Since her breakthrough in the early 1990s, Milhazes has extended the scope of her work to other media, producing screen prints, collages made of chocolate and candy wrappers, sculptures such as giant mobiles made of carnival decorations, site-specific projects that transform building faรงades into stained glass windows, and experiments with body and rhythm in collaboration with her sister Marcia’s ballet ensemble.

This updated edition, which has been expanded to include works made as recently as 2020, explores all of the artist’s creative phases, from her beginnings to the present, with over 300 of her works. The book was created in close collaboration with the artist, in both the selection of images and specially designed pages between chapters. It includes a conversation with editor Hans Werner Holzwarth in which the artist unravels her working methods and talks about the ideas and cultural background behind her work. An art historical essay by David Ebony, a poetic dictionary of Milhazes’s key motifs by Adriano Pedrosa, and a detailed, updated artist biography by Luiza Interlenghi round off this comprehensive work.

Also available in an Art Edition with a silkscreen print signed by Beatriz Milhazes


Posted on September 13, 2024

Bruce W. Talamon. Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972โ€“1982

Talamon saw it all during the golden age of soul, R&B, and funk. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, this young African American photographer from Los Angeles found himself backstage with an all-access pass to the heart of the music scene. He caught his first big break landing a position as a staff photographer at SOUL Newspaper in LA in the early 1970s, just as soul, R&B, and funk were becoming part of the mainstream. He captured the rehearsals and sound checks, recording sessions and costume fittings, the quiet reflective moments and life on the road, and, of course, the wild photo shoots and memorable performances. These photographs define an era famed for its glamour, fabulous fashions, and utter devotion to the groove.

Including close to 300 photographs from 1972 to 1982, the extensive Talamon archives are presented in full detail for the first time. Whether you’re a diehard soul fan or a thrilled newcomer to the aesthetic magic of the 1970s, the collection exudes the infectious spirit of an exuberant age. Featuring icons such as Earth, Wind & Fire; Marvin Gaye; Diana Ross; Parliament-Funkadelic; Al Green; Gil Scott-Heron; James Brown; Barry White; Rick James; Aretha Franklin; the Jackson Five; Donna Summer; and Chaka Khan and many others; there are also several stops at the legendary Soul Train studios. Talamon documented a visual period in black music that lasted way past the midnight hour and will never come again.

This release is an affordable, compact version of our Art Edition, limited to 500 copies and featuring a portfolio of four prints signed by Bruce W. Talamon.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Mario Testino. SIR. 40th Ed.

“The way men are seen in photography, in fashion, and the way that men look at pictures of themselves has changed in recent years. It is a subject that has come into focus: The masculine image, a man’s personal style, changing attitudes to the male face and body.”
– Mario Testino

From Rio to London, Cusco to Seville, Mario Testino is renowned for his free-spirited chronicles of dress and demeanor. In SIR the influential photographer presents over 300 photographs in his search to define the allure of men.

Featuring an essay by Pierre Borhan, an interview with Patrick Kinmonth, and many previously unpublished works from Testino’s archive of thousands, this book traces the evolution of male identity over the past three decades. Costume, tradition, gender play, portraiture, photojournalism, and fashion collide as Testino observes masculinity in all its modern manifestations: through the dandy and the gentleman, the macho and the fey, the world-famous face to the unknown passerby.

Every photograph represents a unique point of view, and a new visual connection between photographer and sitter. With Josh Hartnett for VMAN (2005), Testino evokes the fall of Helmut Berger in the abyss of Luchino Visconti’s The Damned. Studies of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jude Law and Colin Firth are as candid as they are curious. David Beckham, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards feature for the courage they have taken in redefining male identity. Through a kaleidoscope of guises, these portraits define a period in which men’s changing role, style and appearance has never escaped Testino’s eye and impeccable intuition.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Peter Lindbergh. On Fashion Photography. 40th Ed.

It was on a Malibu beach in 1988 that Peter Lindbergh shot the White Shirts series, images now known the world over. Simple yet seminal, the photographs introduced us to Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Rachel Williams, Karen Alexander, Tatjana Patitz, and Estelle Lefรฉbure. This marked the beginning of an era that redefined beauty, and Lindbergh would go on to alter the landscape of fashion photography for the decades that followed.

This edition gathers more than 300 images from forty years of Lindbergh’s career. It traces the German photographer’s cinematic inflections and humanist approach, which produced images at once seductive and introspective.

In 1980 Rei Kawakubo asked Lindbergh to shoot a Commes des Garรงons campaign, one of his earlier forays into commercial photography. Kawakubo gave him carte blanche. The following years brought forth collaborations with the most venerated names in fashion and resulted in a relationship of mutual reverence; Lindbergh’s respect for some of the greatest designers of our time is palpable in his portraits. Among those photographed are Azzedine Alaรฏa, Giorgio Armani, Alber Elbaz, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Yohji Yamamoto.

Widely considered a pioneer in his field, Lindbergh shirked the industry standards of beauty and instead celebrated the essence and individuality of his subjects. He was pivotal to the rise of models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Mariacarla Boscono, Lara Stone, Claudia Schiffer, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Kristen McMenamy.

Lindbergh’s reach also extended across Hollywood and beyond: Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Richard Gere, Isabelle Huppert, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau all appear in his works. From the picture chosen by Anna Wintour as the cover of her first Vogue issue to the legendary shot of Tina Turner on the Eiffel Tower, it is never the clothes, celebrity, or glamour that takes center stage in a Lindbergh photograph. Each picture conveys the humanity of its subject with a serene melancholy that is uniquely and unmistakably Lindbergh.

From the outset of his career, Lindbergh was well-known in the contemporary art world, where his photographs were exhibited in galleries long before they appeared in magazines. This edition features an updated introduction adapted from an interview in 2016, allowing a glimpse behind Lindbergh’s lens, where the photographer recounts his early collaborations, the tenuous relationship between commercial and fine art, and the power of storytelling.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Modern Architecture Aโ€“Z

With almost 300 entries, this architectural A to Z offers an indispensable overview of the key players in the creation of modern space. Covering modern architecture from the 19th into the 21st century, pioneering architects are each featured with a portrait and a concise biography, as well as a description of his or her important work.

Like a bespoke global architecture tour, this book will allow you to travel from Manhattan skyscrapers to a Japanese concert hall, from Antoni Gaudรญ‘s Palau Gรผell in Barcelona to Lina Bo Bardi‘s sports and leisure center on a former factory site in Sรฃo Paulo. You’ll take in Gio Ponti‘s colored geometries, Zaha Hadid‘s free-flowing futurism, the luminous interiors of SANAA, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh‘s unique blend of Scottish tradition and elegant japonisme.

The book’s A to Z entries also cover groups, movements, and styles to position these leading individual architects within broader building trends across time and geography, including International Style, Bauhaus, De Stijl, and much more. With illustrations including some of the best architectural photography of the modern era, this is a comprehensive resource for any architecture professional, student, or devotee.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Sports Cars. 40th Ed.

For the seasoned car collector or the awestruck newcomer, this volume is the consummate sports car anthology. Bringing together 50 of the most exquisite, desirable, and adrenaline-charging sports cars of all time, it recounts the enthralling endeavors in automotive design and engineering in pursuit of optimum dynamic performance for both road and track. This expertly curated roundup of glorious, high-speed two-seaters includes both all-out sports racers as well as their street-legal homologated brethren. Indeed, some of the most desirable cars across all auto-collecting genres are from the glorious golden era of sports car racing, which existed up until the late 1960s. In that time, gentleman privateers would drive their cars to a competition event, such as the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, race them hard-perhaps winning their class or even the race-before coolly driving them home again.

Showcasing 50 of the most sought-after sports cars ever created, from the 1912 Stutz Model A Bear Cat and the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B MM Spider to the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut Coupรฉ”-the world’s most expensive car-and the 1962/64 Ferrari 250 GTO Series II, this volume is an automobilia treasure trove. Each fabled model is presented with lavish spreads, complete with imagery taken by the world’s leading car photographers alongside rare archival gems, from original factory photos to famous motorsports event posters. Each entry is also accompanied by expert descriptive texts and specs, tapping into the authors’ transatlantic expertise and insider knowledge.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Norman Foster

With a career spanning across continents and over six decades, the work of the renowned architect Norman Foster is nothing short of extraordinary. His creative innovation and holistic approach have made him one of the world’s most influential and well-known architects. From the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, to the Reichstag in Berlin, the enclosed court of the British Museum in London to the Millau Viaduct in France, with his practice of Foster + Partners, he has created celebrated landmarks that stand out for their inventive modernity and for what he calls “a sustainable approach to the design of the built environment.”

This is the first time Foster’s complete body of work has been published in one edition on such a grand scale. Giving a rare insight into the inner workings of his creative practice. It details his personal approach to his work, his inspirations, the link between art and architecture, and the significance and correlation to his other passions, such as being an avid aviator.

The monograph encompasses a lifetime of achievement and originality in two volumes. The first presents his architectural ล“uvre and is filled with numerous unpublished images and sketches handpicked by Foster from his archives. Paired with nearly 1000 illustrations, the second book contains eight essays he wrote explaining his sources of inspiration.

Aside from the 1999 Pritzker Prize, Norman Foster has won the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture, the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, and the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture. This is a magnificent visual journey not only through significant buildings of our time but also into the mind of a genius. Norman Foster sketched every page of this book and spent countless hours with the author and the graphic designer to make it one of the most remarkable architecture books ever published.

Also available as an Art Edition of 300 copies with a 1-meter-wide signed print of a drawing by Norman Foster, picturing the upcoming multifunctional community and business center InnHub in La Punt, Switzerland. The two volumes of this edition are collected in a custom-designed slipcase that folds into a book stand.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Norman Foster

With a career spanning across continents and over six decades, the work of the renowned architect Norman Foster is nothing short of extraordinary. His creative innovation and holistic approach have made him one of the world’s most influential and well-known architects. From the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, to the Reichstag in Berlin, the enclosed court of the British Museum in London to the Millau Viaduct in France, with his practice of Foster + Partners, he has created celebrated landmarks that stand out for their inventive modernity and for what he calls “a sustainable approach to the design of the built environment.”

This is the first time Foster’s complete body of work has been published in one edition on such a grand scale. Giving a rare insight into the inner workings of his creative practice. It details his personal approach to his work, his inspirations, the link between art and architecture, and the significance and correlation to his other passions, such as being an avid aviator.

The monograph encompasses a lifetime of achievement and originality in two volumes. The first presents his architectural ล“uvre and is filled with numerous unpublished images and sketches handpicked by Foster from his archives. Paired with nearly 1000 illustrations, the second book contains eight essays he wrote explaining his sources of inspiration.

Aside from the 1999 Pritzker Prize, Norman Foster has won the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture, the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, and the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture. This is a magnificent visual journey not only through significant buildings of our time but also into the mind of a genius. Norman Foster sketched every page of this book and spent countless hours with the author and the graphic designer to make it one of the most remarkable architecture books ever published.

Also available as an Art Edition of 300 copies with a 1-meter-wide signed print of a drawing by Norman Foster, picturing the upcoming multifunctional community and business center InnHub in La Punt, Switzerland. The two volumes of this edition are collected in a custom-designed slipcase that folds into a book stand.


Posted on September 13, 2024

Stanley Kubrick Photographs. Through a Different Lens

Before becoming the critically acclaimed filmmaker responsible for such iconic films as Dr. Strangelove and The Shining, Stanley Kubrick spent five years as a photographer for Look magazine. The Bronx native joined the staff in 1945, when he was only 17 years old, and shot humanist slice-of-life features that celebrate and expose New York City and its inhabitants.

Through a Different Lens reveals the keen and evocative vision of a burgeoning creative genius in a range of feature stories and images, from everyday folk at the laundromat to a day in the life of a debutant, from a trip to the circus to Columbia University. It features around 300 images, many previously unseen, as well as rare Look magazine tear sheets and an introduction by noted photography critic Lucy Sante.

These still photographs attest to Kubrick’s innate talent for compelling storytelling, and serve as clear indicators of how this genius would soon transition to making some of the greatest movies of all time.


Posted on September 13, 2024

First Knowledges Health

What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deep understanding of the expertise, wisdom and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.

For thousands of generations the wellbeing of Australia’s First Peoples was grounded in the sacred lands of Mother Earth. Good health occurred naturally because lifestyle and diet were connected to Country and culture. Colonisation damaged this connection, but much is being done to rebuild it.

Health explores concepts that are not tied to Western practices, as it delves into birthing, end-of-life care and other Indigenous cultural rituals. The authors highlight the role of Aboriginal leadership and Eldership in decision making about health care and explore the strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resistance and resilience.

Through their storytelling and their decades of research and health practice, Shawana Andrews, Sandra Eades and Fiona Stanley show how Aboriginal knowledges foster a path for self-determined healthy futures.


Posted on July 31, 2024

Portrait of a Collection: TarraWarra Museum of Art

TarraWarra Museum of Art in the Yarra Valley holds one of the country’s finest collections of Australian art from the 1930s to the present day. Established through the generous donation of founding patrons, the late Marc Besen AC and Eva Besen AO, the museum’s collection follows three prevailing themes: landscape, the solitary figure and abstraction.

‘I wanted to get to know a lot of artists to find out what motivated them, why they did what they did and how they did it. I found it very fascinating. We had long discussions, particularly with some of them, people like Leonard French, Jan Senbergs, Fred Williams and Albert Tucker.’ – Marc Besen AC

Many of the artists represented in the collection – including John Brack, Willliam Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Rosalie Gascoigne, John Olsen, Patricia Piccinini, Yhonnie Scarce, Jeffrey Smart and Judy Watson – have been instrumental in shaping the development of modern and contemporary art in Australia.

This richly illustrated book offers contemporary interpretative lenses on the history of Australian art since the 1930s, bringing the relevance of the collection into the present day.

Opening this summer, the Eva and Marc Besen Centre – designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects – will provide visible access to over 300 stored artworks from the collection. This publication provides an opportunity to explore and learn about key works from the collection in depth.


Posted on June 30, 2024

Paula Scher: Works

The definitive visual record of the groundbreaking graphic designer and Pentagram partner, Paula Scher.

Paula Scher is one of the most influential graphic designers in the world. Described as the ‘master conjurer of the instantly familiar’, Scher straddles the line between pop culture and fine art in her work. Iconic, smart and accessible, her images have entered the American vernacular.

Paula Scher: Works is the definitive visual record of the groundbreaking graphic designer and Pentagram partner. Published by Unit Editions, the 522-page book presents the most extensive monograph of Scher’s career to date, featuring over 300 projects from from her early days in the music industry as an art director with CBS and Atlantic Records, through the launch of her first studio, Koppel & Scher, to her 25-year engagement with Pentagram.

Co-edited by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy, the book organizes Scher’s work chronologically into several thematic sections. It opens with a long interview with the designer, then moves into her record covers from the 1970s and 80s. Central chapters look at her innovative approach to identity design and environmental graphics and its impact on contemporary New York’s urban fabric – as seen in work for clients from MoMA to Charter Schools; from the High Line to Shake Shack – as well as her logos for global corporations and cultural institutions.

A large section on authorship is devoted to the designer’s socially and politically-motivated posters, New York Times Op-Ed illustrations and campaign work. The book also provides the most up-to-date look at Scher’s idiosyncratic hand-painted maps, a prolific artistic practice that complements her still-growing graphic legacy, as well as her longstanding collaboration with The Public Theater, which spans over twenty years.


Posted on April 18, 2024

Adornment and Splendour

The definitive catalogue of an unparalleled collection of Indian jewelry and luxury objects made at the height of the Mughal empire and the Deccan sultanates.

This is the definitive catalogue of an unparalleled collection of Indian jewelry and jewelled luxury objects made at the height of the Mughal empire and Deccan sultanates in the 16th and 17th centuries. The collection, widely regarded as one of the finest in the world, was assembled by Sheikh Nasser and Sheikha Hussa al-Sabah for The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, and reveals the beauty, sophistication and diversity of Indian jewelled arts.

The Indian subcontinent is naturally rich in gems. From ancient times master jewellers developed a wide array of unique techniques and made it home to the most sophisticated jewels on earth. Exotic birds and animals, flowers, trees and mythological scenes rendered in precious gemstones, gold and enamel demonstrate these artists’ prodigious imagination and skill. They produced not only an unmatched range of jewelry to adorn the body but also ritual and household items of astonishing refinement and luxury, as well as extravagantly large engraved gemstones to serve as symbols of their princely patrons’ royal power – including a spinel of nearly 250 carats believed to be the legendary Timur Ruby.

This volume includes not only the finest and most valuable pieces in the collection – some familiar to connoisseurs, others published here for the first time – but also many previously unknown types that extend our understanding of artistic output in the region. With specially commissioned photography giving unprecedented new views of more than 300 jewelled objects, this is a publication of historic importance and beauty, for all lovers of jewelry, the arts of India and of the Islamic world.


Posted on March 8, 2024

North

The long-awaited monograph of the UK’s leading graphic design and branding agency.

The world is full of design companies, but none of them are like North. Formed in 1995 by Sean Perkins joined for the past 25 years by Jeremy Coysten and Stephen Gilmore the studio has always followed a highly individualistic path. This individualism manifests itself in many ways: most notably in the absence of a densely populated studio website; there are no hyperactive social media feeds; even the studio’s name, derived from Perkins’ origins in the unmetropolitan north of England, stands for frill-free, plain speaking, visual directness. It’s almost as if North is a well-kept secret. Yet the group has a devoted worldwide following, and attracts myriad clients keen to hire them for their ability to produce memorable and carefully engineered visual identities.

North’s work is the product of sharp-brained research, high-end craft and precise visual expression. And as can be seen in the pages of this book, the studio’s first monograph, the result is a rich crop of brand identities, packaging, exhibitions, books, posters and logos. It includes work for Tate, Southbank, Munch (Oslo), Co-op, Barbican, Samsung, Meta, Science Museum, The Royal Mint and M+ (Hong Kong). On the grounds that graphic design is required to ‘speak for itself’, the book dispenses with descriptive or biographical texts. Instead, the reader is engaged by more than 300 pages of articulate and eloquent visual expression, arranged in a rigorously planned mix of photography, typography, layout and colour.

Like North itself, the book is unlike other design books. That’s what makes it a North book.


Posted on February 10, 2024

The Pop Culture Timeline

Featuring 300 cards of iconic pop culture moments from the beginning of the century to now, players must arrange each event in chronological order to win.

From movie releases to music videos, fashion trends to viral memes, The Pop Culture Timeline covers all the major events that have shaped the cultural landscape of the past two decades. What came first, the Gilmore Girls pilot or the premiere of Shrek? Did the first American Idol episode air before or after Beyoncรฉ released her debut solo album Dangerously in Love? Was Instagram around in time to post a pic of the first ever woman to win Best Director at the Oscars?

Players must use their knowledge and intuition to place each card in the correct order, with the first player to successfully organize all the cards declared the winner.

Perfect for game nights, parties, or just fun with friends, The Pop Culture Timeline is a great way to relive some of the most memorable moments in recent history.


Posted on December 7, 2023

First Knowledges Box Set

Exploring practices such as Songlines, architecture and design, land management, astronomy, botany and law, this series brings together two very different ways of understanding the natural world: one ancient, the other modern.

Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors. The series is edited by Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia.

The box set includes:
ยท Songlines by Lynne Kelly and Margo Neale (2020)
ยท Design by Alison Page and Paul Memmott (2021)
ยท Country by Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe (2021)
ยท Astronomy by Karlie Noon and Krystal De Napoli (2022)
ยท Plants by Zena Cumpston, Michael-Shawn Fletcher and Lesley Head (2022)
ยท Law by Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn (2023)


Posted on July 26, 2023

First Knowledges Innovation

‘Deeply insightful, sensitive and passionate. An inspiring, meticulous picture of the innovations that have made us the world’s oldest living culture.’ – Larissa Behrendt

‘Another fascinating volume in this landmark Australian publishing series.’ – Richard Flanagan

What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.

First Nations Australians are some of the oldest innovators in the world. Original developments in social and religious activities, trading strategies, technology and land-management are underpinned by philosophies that strengthen sustainability of Country and continue to be utilised today.

Innovation: Knowledge and Ingenuity reveals novel and creative practices such as: body shaping; cremation; sea hunting with the help of suckerfish; building artificial reefs for oyster farms; repurposing glass from Europeans into spearheads; economic responses to colonisation; and a Voice to Parliament.

In the first book to detail Indigenous innovations in Australia, Ian J McNiven and Lynette Russell showcase this legacy of First Nations peoples and how they offer resourceful ways of dealing with contemporary challenges that can benefit us all.

*Ebook available through all major etailers*


Posted on July 26, 2023

Vintage Fashion: A Sourcebook

The most ambitious and comprehensive book on women’s vintage fashion ever published, featuring over 1,000 garments dating from the 1920s to the 1980s.

This is not just another history of fashion: it is a survey of how fashion past continues to inspire fashion present. It features over 1,000 stand-out pieces, together with over 300 contextual illustrations, dating from the 1920s to the 1980s, including many icons of vintage fashion, from Marilyn Monroe’s bra to the Ossie Clark dress made so famous by David Hockney’s painting. Each garment is explored from the viewpoint of the contemporary fashionista looking to build a vintage wardrobe.

The book is organized into three main sections. ‘Decades’ explores the shapes and fabrics that define the look of each period. ‘Elements’ explores the individual components of a vintage look, everything from hat to shoes. ‘Hallmarks’ explores fashion’s perennial themes, from florals to the ever-popular Little Black Dress. Finally, a reference section includes invaluable practical advice for fans and collectors of vintage.


Posted on March 7, 2023

Adornment and Splendour

The definitive catalogue of an unparalleled collection of Indian jewelry and luxury objects made at the height of the Mughal empire and the Deccan sultanates.

This is the definitive catalogue of an unparalleled collection of Indian jewelry and jewelled luxury objects made at the height of the Mughal empire and Deccan sultanates in the 16th and 17th centuries. The collection, widely regarded as one of the finest in the world, was assembled by Sheikh Nasser and Sheikha Hussa al-Sabah for The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, and reveals the beauty, sophistication and diversity of Indian jewelled arts.

The Indian subcontinent is naturally rich in gems. From ancient times master jewellers developed a wide array of unique techniques and made it home to the most sophisticated jewels on earth. Exotic birds and animals, flowers, trees and mythological scenes rendered in precious gemstones, gold and enamel demonstrate these artists’ prodigious imagination and skill. They produced not only an unmatched range of jewelry to adorn the body but also ritual and household items of astonishing refinement and luxury, as well as extravagantly large engraved gemstones to serve as symbols of their princely patrons’ royal power – including a spinel of nearly 250 carats believed to be the legendary Timur Ruby.

This volume includes not only the finest and most valuable pieces in the collection – some familiar to connoisseurs, others published here for the first time – but also many previously unknown types that extend our understanding of artistic output in the region. With specially commissioned photography giving unprecedented new views of more than 300 jewelled objects, this is a publication of historic importance and beauty, for all lovers of jewelry, the arts of India and of the Islamic world.


Posted on February 17, 2023

First Knowledges Law

‘Our Laws are forever present and provide the pathways for all Australians to truly learn how to belong to this continent.’ – June Oscar

‘No other current work has been able to so comprehensively explain the significance of traditional law in all its manifestations.’ – Henry Reynolds

Law is culture, and culture is law. Given by the ancestors and cultivated over millennia, Indigenous law defines what it is to be human. Complex and evolving, law holds the keys to resilient, caring communities and a life in balance with nature.

Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn show how Indigenous law has enabled people to survive and thrive in Australia for more than 2000 generations. Nurturing people and places, law is the foundation of all Indigenous societies in Australia, giving them the tools to respond and adapt to major environmental and social changes. But law is not a thing of the past. These living, sophisticated systems are as powerful now as they have ever been, if not more so.

Law: The Way of the Ancestors challenges readers to consider how Indigenous law can inspire new ways forward for us all in the face of global crises.

*Ebook available through all major etailers*


Posted on January 12, 2023

Patchwork

A vibrant, in-depth survey of the techniques and traditions of patchwork around the world.

What do Korean bojagi wrapping cloths, Cameroonian Bamileke boubous, Peruvian montera hats and Hungarian cifraszรผr shepherd cloaks have in common? Each is made using the ancient technique of patchwork – the art of juxtaposing fabrics and motifs to create blankets, clothes, accessories and more.

Catherine Legrand, who has spent many years travelling and researching textiles, has a deep knowledge of the techniques and traditions that characterize patchwork. Pieced together much like the gorgeous textiles it portrays, her beautifully illustrated book features over 300 dazzling photographs of patchwork around the world. She takes the reader from Europe and the Americas to Africa and Asia, where these ancient traditions still survive and patchwork is part of the fabric of everyday life.

Textile artists, patchwork enthusiasts and travellers alike will find an endless source of inspiration on the pages of this celebration of the beauty and diversity of patchwork.


Posted on July 29, 2022

First Knowledges Plants

What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.

Plants are the foundation of life on Earth. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have always known this to be true.

For millennia, reciprocal relationships with plants have provided both sustenance to Indigenous communities and many of the materials needed to produce a complex array of technologies. Managed through fire and selective harvesting and replanting, the longevity and intricacy of these partnerships are testament to the ingenuity and depth of Indigenous first knowledges. Plants: Past, Present and Future celebrates the deep cultural significance of plants and shows how engaging with this heritage could be the key to a healthier, more sustainable future.

Plants: Past, Present and Future calls for new ways of understanding and engaging with Country, and reveals the power and possibility of Indigenous ecological expertise.’
– BILLY GRIFFITHS

‘An enlightening read on the power of plants and the management practices of Indigenous people.’
– TERRI JANKE

*Ebook available through all major etailers*


Posted on May 26, 2022

First Knowledges Astronomy

What do you need to know to prosper for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the oldest scientists in human history.

Many First Peoples regard the land as a reflection of the sky and the sky a reflection of the land. Sophisticated astronomical expertise embedded within the Dreaming and Songlines is interwoven into a deep understanding of changes on the land, such as weather patterns and seasonal shifts, that are integral to knowledges of time, food availability, and ceremony.

In Astronomy: Sky Country, Karlie Noon and Krystal De Napoli explore the connections between Aboriginal environmental and cultural practices and the behaviour of the stars, and consider what must be done to sustain our dark skies, and the information they hold, into the future.

*Ebook available through all major etailers*


Posted on December 24, 2021

M+ Collections: Highlights

A richly illustrated companion to selected works from the collections at M+.

At the heart of Hong Kong’s new museum of visual culture are the M+ Collections – the result of a carefully considered programme of collection-building that began with the inception of M+ in 2011. The first of their kind in Asia, the collections comprise four different holdings: the M+ Collection, made up of 6,000-plus works and objects from the worlds of visual art, moving image, and design and architecture, the museum’s core areas of interest; the M+ Sigg Collection, consisting of 1,510 works of contemporary Chinese art; the M+ Collection Archives, composed of over 45,000 items; and the M+ Library Special Collection, with 400-plus items. Together, the holdings serve to embody the bold and ambitious mission with which M+ was founded: to become a multidisciplinary museum of contemporary visual culture, rooted in Hong Kong and Asia but with an international outlook.

M+ Collections: Highlights presents the work of more than 300 artists, designers, film-makers, photographers and architects specially selected to represent the collections as a whole, from Zhang Peili and Charlotte Perriand to Nam June Paik, Zaha Hadid, and Shigeru Ban. Organized into seven chapters, each encompassing a different decade of the collections’ span – from the 1950s to the 2010s – the book consists of individual entries on the featured makers composed of one or more of their works and an insightful analysis by an M+ curator. Interspersed among these entries are 24 thematic essays intended to illuminate some of the movements, tendencies and ideas around which the collections have grown, including modernism in Asian art and the future of painting in a digital world. Full of unexpected connections and new perspectives, M+ Collections: Highlights represents not only an invaluable introduction to M+’s unrivalled storehouse of visual culture but also an indispensable work of reference.


Posted on October 2, 2021

Ballenesque

A substantial retrospective on one of the world’s most remarkable and critically acclaimed art photographers.

Separated into four parts, Ballenesque takes readers on a visual, chronological journey through Roger Ballen’s entire oeuvre, including both iconic images and previously unpublished photographs. Part I explores his formative artistic influences and his later rediscovery of boyhood through photography, culminating in his first published monograph, Boyhood, in 1979. Part II then charts the period between 1980 and 2000, during which time his deeper search for the elemental self found its way into the ‘Dorps’, or small towns, of South Africa and concluding with the release of his seminal monograph Outland. Part III covers the years 2000-2013, when Ballen achieved global recogition with Shadow Chamber and Boarding House and his work began to veer away from portraiture altogether. Finally, in Part IV, Ballen reflects upon his career in its entirety.

With over 300 photographs and an introduction by eminent academic Robert J. C. Young, this book provides both an entirely new way of seeing Ballen’s work for those who already follow his career and a comprehensive introduction for those encountering his photographs for the first time.


Posted on October 2, 2021

Chinese Art Since 1970: The M+ Sigg Collection

Central to the stories of many of the world’s great art galleries are the acquisitions and bequests that shaped their collections. So it is with M+ – a new museum of visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong – and the M+ Sigg Collection. Acquired by the museum in 2012 from the Swiss businessman, diplomat and art collector Uli Sigg, the collection consists of 1,510 works of contemporary Chinese art, dating from the 1970s to the present and ranging across all media. Most significantly, perhaps, it offers a unique window on the remarkable flowering of experimental artistic practices in China during this time – a period of unprecedented social and economic change in the country that saw artists devise new, sometimes radical, approaches to artmaking, formulating new connections between art and society, and developing ground-breaking conceptual methodologies.

Published to coincide with the presentation of the M+ Sigg Collection at the opening of the M+ building, Chinese Art Since 1970 features more than 600 works by more than 300 artists represented by the collection, among them Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei and Geng Jianyi. After introductory essays by Pi Li and Uli Sigg, an illustrated chronology spanning the years 1972 to 2020 highlights important social events, exhibitions and artistic movements to establish a context for the discussion of the featured artists and their work that follows. Punctuating this discussion are contributions from renowned art historians, curators and critics from across the globe on specific works and practices, together with in-depth explanations of key concepts and events, from Cynical Realism to the seminal exhibition China/Avant-Garde. Through the medium of the world’s pre-eminent collection of contemporary Chinese art, Chinese Art Since 1970 offers an unparalleled introduction to one of the most culturally dynamic periods in modern Chinese history.

With over 700 illustrations


Posted on September 4, 2021

First Knowledges Country

What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.

For millennia, Indigenous Australians harvested this continent in ways that can offer contemporary environmental and economic solutions.

Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe demonstrate how Aboriginal people cultivated the land through manipulation of water flows, vegetation and firestick practice. Not solely hunters and gatherers, the First Australians also farmed and stored food. They employed complex seasonal fire programs that protected Country and animals alike. In doing so, they avoided the killer fires that we fear today.

Country: Future Fire, Future Farming highlights the consequences of ignoring this deep history and living in unsustainable ways. It details the remarkable agricultural and land-care techniques of First Nations peoples and shows how such practices are needed now more than ever.

*Ebook available through all major etailers*


Posted on July 21, 2021

Amy Winehouse: Beyond Black

The definitive story of Amy Winehouse’s life and career told through key photographs, memorabilia and recollections by those who knew her best. Curated by Amy’s stylist and close friend Naomi Parry.

Amy Winehouse left an indelible mark on both the music industry and pop culture with her soulful voice and bold 60s-inspired aesthetic. Featuring stories and anecdotes from a wide range of characters connected to Amy, specially commissioned photography of memorabilia, styled and dressed themed sets incorporating Amy’s clothing, possessions and lyrics, and previously unseen archival images, this volume presents an intimate portrait that celebrates Amy’s creative legacy.

Interspersed throughout are personal reflections on Amy’s life and work, provided by her friends, colleagues and fans. These include Ronnie Spector, Vivienne Westwood, Bryan Adams, Little Simz, Carl Barรขt, close friend Catriona Gourlay, Douglas Charles-Ridler (owner of the Hawley Arms), tattooist Henry Hate, goddaughter Dionne Broomfield and DJ Bioux. Each one has a personal story to share and together their anecdotes and reflections build into a complex picture of a much admired but troubled star. Vice Culture Editor Emma Garland puts these insights into context with an introduction that highlights the principal events and achievements in Amy’s life and work, and the key characters that played a part in it.

Organized broadly chronologically, the book features newly shot lyric sheets, sketches and ephemera together with contextual photographs and video stills, including album, single and promotional artworks and outtakes. Punctuating the story are photographs of dressed room sets each created, designed and styled especially for the book by Naomi Parry to evoke a period or aspect of Amy’s life or personality, incorporating Amy’s clothing, possessions, lyrics and other memorabilia.

With kind support from the Winehouse family.

With 300 illustrations in colour


Posted on May 3, 2021

Railways

The advent of railways in Britain was a fundamental part of its economic and social revolution in the 19th century, with technical advances that were the envy of the world and chronicled from the beginning through meticulous drawings. Detailed plans were created of locomotives, carriages and wagons, as well as of stations, bridges and tunnels, to facilitate the manufacturing process and the maintenance of the rapidly expanding railway network.

Miraculously, about a million of these magnificent drawings have survived and are held in the National Railway Museum in York. Christopher Valkoinen has selected over 130 examples that tell the engineering history of great innovations and triumphs, such as the Forth Bridge, and reveal the work of famous pioneers, including Richard Trevithick, George Stephenson, and Nigel Gresley of Flying Scotsman fame. Other plans range from Queen Victoria’s royal saloon and a travelling post office to a station tea-room at York and modern experiments with a hovertrain. There are also drawings for railways around the world: the USA, Russia, Japan, India, Australia and Egypt, among others, as well as contemporary photographs and posters.

Throughout, Valkoinen provides valuable insights into the social and political impact of the railways. He also reveals how these drawings are more than a reference tool for the historian or modelmaker; they are exquisite works of art, painstakingly produced by highly skilled artists, which can be appreciated in their own right.

With 300 illustrations


Posted on April 2, 2021

Biomimetics for Designers

Biomimetics – imitating life’s natural processes – is one of the hottest areas of design research and inspiration. The natural world contains infinite examples of how to achieve complex behaviours and applications by using simple materials in a clever way, as all organisms make use of limited raw materials to survive. In the popular imagination, the best-known example is the microscopic ‘hook’ on burrs that led to the development of Velcro, but there are many more applications, from kingfisher beaks inspiring the shape of bullet trains to shark skin being used as a model for advanced swimsuits.

This book presents many examples, showing each natural phenomenon alongside its application, with an accessible explanation of the biology and the story of the design. While most are concrete examples that have already been developed, others point the way to what might be possible for an enterprising designer, providing a starting point for creativity. This timely overview is the perfect introduction for designers of all disciplines, and a reminder that inspiration may be just down the garden path.

With 439 illustrations


Posted on March 13, 2021

First Knowledges Design

Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion.

Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability and storytelling, refined over many millennia, are now being applied to contemporary practices. Design: Building on Country issues a challenge for a new Australian design ethos, one that truly responds to the essence of Country and its people.

About the series: Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors; the series is edited by Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia.

Other titles in the series include: Songlines by Margo Neale & Lynne Kelly (2020); Country by Bill Gammage & Bruce Pascoe (2021); Plants by Zena Cumpston, Michael Fletcher & Lesley Head (2022); Astronomy (2022); Law (2023).

*Ebook available through all major etailers*


Posted on December 23, 2020

Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs

For more than three millennia the cultures of Mesoamerica flourished, building the first cities of the Western Hemisphere and developing writing systems that could rival those of the Eastern Hemisphere in their creativity and efficiency. The Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs reigned over one of the greatest imperial civilizations the Americas had ever seen, and up until now their intricate and visually stunning hieroglyphs have been overlooked in the story of writing.

In this innovative volume Gordon Whittaker provides the reader with everything they need to know to appreciate and understand Aztec hieroglyphs: a step-by-step, illustrated guide of how to read Aztec glyphs; an explanation of the special features of this writing system in comparison to others from around the globe; the story of how this enigmatic language has been deciphered; a tour through Aztec history as recorded in hieroglyphic codices; and demonstrations of how the writing system was adapted to transliterate Spanish words during the Conquest.

With 300 illustrations


Posted on November 28, 2020

Viking Art

This book distils a lifetime’s study of Viking art. Written by a leading authority, it introduces all the intricate and beautiful art styles of the Viking age. It ranges in time from the first major Viking expeditions overseas around AD 800 to the general establishment of Christianity in Scandinavia some 300 years later. The opening chapter introduces the geographical and historical background to Viking culture; thematic chapters then describe and illustrate the six main Viking art styles, showing how they emerged from and interacted with one another. Delicate metalwork, elaborate wood-carvings and the famous Gotland picture-stones are all discussed. Viking art ranges in scale from ship burials to decorated weapons and finely crafted jewelry; all feature here, alongside Viking architecture and archaeological traces left by Vikings across continental Europe and beyond. The final chapter examines Viking art in relation to pagan mythology, the conversion to Christianity, and the Viking legacy for later artistic movements. First published in 2013 and now revised and updated throughout, this volume is a modern classic that serves as a definitive guide for all those interested in the vibrant artistic culture of this fascinating period in European history.

With 224 illustrations


Posted on October 23, 2020

A Chronology of Film

A Chronology of Film presents a fresh perspective on the medium by taking a purely chronological approach to its history, tracing the complex links between technical innovations, social changes and artistic interventions.

Organized around a central timeline that charts the development of film from the earliest moving images to the present-day blockbusters, it features key films, together with commentaries and contextual information about the social, political and cultural events of the period in which they were produced. Special feature spreads highlight important technical developments and key practitioners. Covering a wide selection of genres, styles, and directors, it is invaluable as a comprehensive guide to film in all its different forms.

With over 300 illustrations


Posted on September 29, 2020

Ultra Materials

Smart substances, intelligent interfaces, sensory surfaces, self-cleaning materials and inflatable membranes are redefining our environment. Using groundbreaking recent products and projects, this exceptional book reveals the application of new materials in architecture, interiors, fashion, textiles, and product and vehicle design.

Special sections are devoted to interviews with designers, such as David Adjaye, Hussein Chalayan and Marcel Wanders who have made particular use of new materials; an analysis of the transformative science being employed, based on fibre technologies, sustainability, biomimicry, nanotechnology and fabric innovation; and a window into the future drawing on the ideas of leading experts.

The book includes a showcase of 400 of the newest materials, an in-depth glossary and a comprehensive directory of designers, material organizations and design publications, as well as details of professional competitions, awards and fellowships and an index of new materials and their properties.


Posted on September 4, 2020

Vincent van Gogh – The Letters

Vincent van Gogh’s letters have long been prized as some of the most valuable documents in the world of art. Not only do they throw light on Van Gogh’s own complex and intriguing character, they enlighten the whole creative process.

This edition is an immense treasure trove of biographical and art-historical information. The culmination of fifteen years of new research and superseding all previous editions in its ambition and up-to-date scholarship, it provides a lasting pleasure as a personal testimony to a life consecrated to art.

โ€ข Over 4,300 illustrations
โ€ข New transcriptions of every known letter to or from Van Gogh
โ€ข The complete collection: this edition includes all the letters, both in the Van Gogh Museum and those in other museums, archives and private collections
โ€ข New translations render Van Gogh’s words more closely than ever before – unadorned, unimproved, faithful and accurate
โ€ข Van Gogh’s sketches, made throughout the letters, are reproduced here at full size
โ€ข New material: previously unknown letters and fragments of letters are published in English here for the first time
โ€ข New scholarship: fifteen years of new research have added to scholars’ understanding of Van Gogh’s life and work. Extensive research has been carried out to identify every work of art mentioned, whether produced by Van Gogh or by other artists.
โ€ข Authoritative editing: many omissions and misreadings in previous editions have now been corrected. For the first time the letters are fully annotated.
โ€ข Supplementary texts add information about Van Gogh’s life, his family, his correspondents, his characteristics as a letter-writer and the context in which the letters were written. Also includes a comprehensive list of materials discussed in the letters, a chronology of his life and a full index
โ€ข Exemplary design: the typography and design is by Wim Crouwel, one of Holland’s most accomplished book designers of the last fifty years

This is the most complete edition of Van Gogh’s letters ever produced, illustrated extensively throughout, and drawing on fifteen years of scholarship and dedicated research. For the first time, all the works to which Van Gogh refers are shown alongside the letters – not only the paintings and drawings that he himself was working on at the time, but also the works of art by others that he mentions.

In over 900 letters we see Van Gogh’s thoughts and opinions at first hand, as well as his close ties with his brother Theo, his sometimes troubled relationships with friends and fellow artists, his personal doubts and fears, and above all his overriding passion for his art.


Posted on September 4, 2020

The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt

This groundbreaking book illuminates the lives of some 1,300 kings, queens, princes and princesses of ancient Egypt, unravelling family relationships and exploring the parts they played in politics, cultural life and religion. Profusely illustrated, it serves both as a biographical history of ancient Egypt’s royal families and as a superb volume for home reference.

From the dawn of Egyptian history, the book ranges through the vast progeny of Ramesses II, and ends with the fiendishly complicated – and blood-soaked – inter-connections of the Ptolemies and Cleopatras. The authors introduce key members of the royal family in turn and assess what is known about the implications of the major titles that define them. the book also includes over 300 illustrations and 27 specially conceived genealogical tables show the interconnections between members of various dynasties.


Posted on September 4, 2020

War Posters

Superb colour illustrations of hard-hitting propaganda and groundbreaking graphic art including such unforgettable images as Alfred Leete’s ‘Your Country Needs You’, as well as documentary photographs of posters in situ and material from the world of advertising.

Covering such topics as diverse as advertising in World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, Germany and Occupied Europe in World War II, anti-nuclear campaigns and Vietnam, the book is comprehensive, accessible and an invaluable resource for anyone interested in history or graphic design.


Posted on September 4, 2020

How Life on Earth Began

What did the Earth look like 300 million years ago? Here’s a chance to travel back through time and discover the days when the Earth was a very different place. In this cleverly designed book, lifting the tracing paper pages is like peeling back the layers of history, allowing readers to compare animals living in prehistoric landscapes with the fossils they left behind. The changing face of our planet comes to life, while the science behind the Earth’s geology and climate is clearly explained.

Packed with fascinating illustrations, this is a wonderful way to understand the story of evolution, from the earliest single-cell lifeforms to the mighty dinosaurs and onwards to the first human beings. Winner of a Non-Fiction Special Mention, Bologna Ragazzi Awards 2021


Posted on August 29, 2020

STRATA

This sumptuous and comprehensive evaluation showcases Smith’s 1815 hand-coloured map, A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland, and illustrates the story of his career, from apprentice to fossil collector and from his 1799 geological map of Bath and table of strata to his detailed stratigraphical county maps.

The introduction places Smith’s work in the context of earlier, concurrent and subsequent ideas regarding the structure and natural processes of the earth. The book is then organized into four geographical sections, each beginning with four sheets from the 1815 strata map, accompanied by related geological cross sections and county maps (1819-24), and is followed by displays of Sowerby’s fossil illustrations (1816-19) organized by strata. Interleaved between the sections are essays by leading academics that explore the aims of Smith’s work, its application in the fields of mining, agriculture, cartography, fossil collecting and hydrology, and its influence on biostratigraphical theories and the science of geology. Concluding the volume are reflections on Smith’s later work as an itinerant geologist and surveyor, plagiarism by his rival – President of the Geological Society, George Bellas Greenough – receipt of the first Wollaston Medal in 1831 in recognition of his achievements, and the influence of his geological mapping and biostratigraphical theories on the sciences, culminating in the establishment of the modern geological timescale.


Posted on July 4, 2020

Shaping the World

In this wide-ranging, thought-provoking and sometimes provocative new book, leading sculptor Antony Gormley, informed and energised by a lifetime of making, and art critic and historian Martin Gayford, explore sculpture as a transnational art form with its own compelling history. The authors’ lively conversations and explorations make unexpected connections across time and media.

Sculpture has been practised by every culture throughout the world and stretches back into our distant past. The first surviving shaped stones may even predate the advent of language. Evidently, the desire to carve, mould, bend, chip away, weld, suspend, balance – to transform a vast array of materials and light into new shapes and forms – runs deep in our psyche and is a fundamental part of our human journey and need for expression.

With more than 300 spectacular illustrations, Shaping the World juxtaposes a rich variety of works – from the famous Lowenmensch or Lion Man, c. 35,000 BCE to Michelangelo’s luminous Pietร  in Rome, the Terracotta Warriors in China to Rodin’s The Kiss, Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades, Olafur Eliasson’s extraordinary Weather Project and Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus, and Tomas Saraceno’s ongoing Aerocene project, as well as examples of Gormley’s own work.

Antony Gormley and Martin Gayford take into account materials and techniques, and consider overarching themes such as light, mortality and our changing world. Above all, they discuss their view of sculpture as a form of physical thinking capable of altering the way people feel, and they invite us to look at sculpture we encounter – and more broadly the world around us – in a completely different way.


Posted on July 4, 2020

First Knowledges Songlines

‘Let this series begin the discussion.’ – Bruce Pascoe

‘An act of intellectual reconciliation.’ – Lynette Russell

Songlines are an archive for powerful knowledges that ensured Australia’s many Indigenous cultures flourished for over 60,000 years. Much more than a navigational path in the cartographic sense, these vast and robust stores of information are encoded through song, story, dance, art and ceremony, rather than simply recorded in writing.

Weaving deeply personal storytelling with extensive research on mnemonics, Songlines: The Power and Promise offers unique insights into Indigenous traditional knowledges, how they apply today and how they could help all peoples thrive into the future. This book invites readers to understand a remarkable way for storing knowledge in memory by adapting song, art, and most importantly, Country, into their lives.

About the series: Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors; the series is edited by Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia.

Forthcoming titles include: Design by Alison Page & Paul Memmott (2021); Country by Bill Gammage & Bruce Pascoe (2021); Medicine & Plants (2022); Astronomy (2022); Law (2023).

*Ebook available through all major etailers*


Posted on July 1, 2020

Electronic

At more than 120 bpm, electronic music sets the tempo on dancefloors around the globe. Accompanying the exhibition Electronic: From Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers, this book offers an insight into the visual culture of electronic music, and how technology, design, art and fashion have contributed to its power. With its roots in Detroit and Chicago in the early 1980s, electronic dance music was popularised across Europe through underground rave parties. Its impact on contemporary culture is still unfolding today. Containing interviews with early pioneers such as techno legend Jeff Mills, The Designers Republic’s Ian Anderson, and those pushing the political dimension of electronic music, such as ballroom dancer and DJ Kiddy Smile, Electronic bears witness to the shifting nature of the genre.

Illustrated with over 300 images, some published here for the first time, Electronic features Jean-Michel Jarre’s virtual studio; work by pioneer Daphne Oram of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop; audiovisual performances by musicians like Bicep and the Chemical Brothers; fashion collections by Raf Simons and Charles Jeffrey of Loverboy; iconic photography by Jacob Khrist and Tina Paul; artwork by Christian Marclay; club graphics from Peter Saville and Mark Farrow; and iconic venues such as the Haçienda, Gatecrasher, Fabric, Berghain and the Warehouse Project. Reflecting the shifts in society over the past thirty years, electronic music has generated distinct visual languages as well as its own political and cultural ideals.


Posted on May 14, 2020

The Poster

Even in the digital age, the printed poster retains an important, much-loved role in connecting with audiences in a way that both entertains and informs. The V&A was one of the first museums to start collecting posters and to recognize the importance of doing so. Far from ephemeral, posters are both a representation of the time in which they were produced and distributed and, in many instances, have shaped the societies in which they were seen. The story of the poster is both one of changing styles and new innovations in design, illustration and printing, and a visually compelling social history.

The Poster brings together over 300 examples that tell a comprehensive visual history of poster design and the various ways the poster has been used to tell, to sell, to charm and to spur on change. Organized into seven thematic chapters that tell the story of the poster as a medium, each poster is accompanied by a concise commentary that explains the work in terms of its design, printing, content, message and the commercial, social or political impact it may have had.

Featuring works by the masters of poster design that have become popular and highly collectible classics, charting the ebb and flow of styles such as Art Nouveau, Modernism, Art Deco, Psychedelia and Punk and featuring the nostalgic glow of muchloved brands as well as posters that shook and changed the world, The Poster will be an essential visual resource for graphic designers and illustrators – a reference for anyone with an interest in collecting posters and an engaging design and social history for all who appreciate this most popular of art forms.


Posted on December 17, 2019

Hoot and Howl across the Desert

Readers are invited to travel across some of world’s driest landscapes and discover the remarkable animals and plants that survive in desert climates, both hot and cold. Along the way, they will encounter over 300 rare and little known plants, animals, reptiles, birds and insects, casting new light on desert environments and revealing the abundance of life underlying their barren image. Through fifteen bright and graphic desert landscapes the book looks in detail at unusual species, their tactics for survival, nocturnal desert life, the desert food chain, lethal creatures and degrees of dryness.


Posted on November 16, 2019

Joseph Banks’ Florilegium

Joseph Banks accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage round the world from 1768 to 1771. A gifted and wealthy young naturalist, Banks collected exotic flora from Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and Java, bringing back over 1,300 species that had never been seen or studied by Europeans. On his return, Banks commissioned over 700 superlative engravings between 1772 and 1784. Known collectively as Banks’ Florilegium, they are some of the most precise and exquisite examples of botanical illustration ever created.

The Florilegium was never published in Banks’ lifetime, and it was not until 1990 that a complete set in colour was issued in a boxed edition (limited to 100 copies) under the direction of the British Museum (Natural History). It is from these prints that the present selection is made, directed by David Mabberley, who has provided expert botanical commentaries, with additional texts by art historian Mel Gooding, setting the works in context as a perfect conjunction of nature, science and art. An afterword by Joseph Studholme describes the history of the modern printing.


Posted on November 9, 2019

Francis Bacon: Books and Painting

Published to accompany the first Francis Bacon retrospective in Paris for twenty years, this catalogue analyses Bacon’s works from 1971 onwards in light of his relationship to literature. Bacon always vigorously opposed over-analysis of his paintings, preferring to interpret them in purely illustrative or symbolic terms; he admitted, however, that literature was a powerful stimulus to his imagination. The artist was inspired by the images conjured up by certain texts: Aeschylus’ phrase ‘the reek of human blood smiles out at me’ in particular haunted Bacon, while his 1978 work Painting refers to T. S. Eliot’s seminal poem The Waste Land. The inventory of Bacon’s personal library has identified more than 1,300 books, ranging from Bataille and Conrad to Nietzsche and Leiris.

Including twelve of Bacon’s renowned triptychs, this lavish publication features eleven gatefolds and some sixty paintings created by Bacon between 1971 and his death in 1992. Reproduced here with analyses of Bacon’s paintings in the light of some of his most admired authors, these specially commissioned texts reveal new ways of understanding some of the most powerful works in the modern canon.


Posted on November 9, 2019

Building St Paul’s

Building St Paul’s tells the story of the cathedral that has dominated London’s skyline for 300 years and of those responsible for its construction from the time of the disastrous Great Fire to final completion in 1708.

The figure of Sir Christopher Wren is well known, but this book also considers those ordinary craftsmen, the contractors and overseers, the quarrymen on the Isle of Portland, the humble stonemasons and carpenters who shaped the materials. James Campbell is the first historian to plough through the documents in search of these people: he describes life on a seventeenth-century building site, the workers’ day-to-day responsibilities, how some were poorly paid while others became millionaires. He also unravels the struggles for money that at one time threatened to undermine the whole enterprise.

Campbell’s account reaffirms St Paul’s not only as one man’s masterwork, but as an incredible collaborative achievement.


Posted on November 2, 2019

Movements in Art Since 1945

This standard introduction to visual art since 1945 has been revised, updated and redesigned for the first time since 2001. Movements, trends and individual artists from abstract expressionism to the present day are summarized, with detailed coverage of major developments such as pop art, conceptual and performance work, minimal art, neo-expressionist and figurative painting, the YBAs and the globalized art scene of the twenty-first century. A new chapter on art since 2000 includes discussion of work by Banksy and Ai Weiwei, as well as recent trends in art from Russia and Eastern Europe. Writing with exceptional clarity and a strong sense of narrative, Edward Lucie-Smith demystifies the work of dozens of artists, revealing how the art world has interacted with social, political and environmental concerns. Nearly 300 images of key artworks range from the paintings of Jackson Pollock via graffiti from 1980s New York and land art of the 1970s to contemporary painting from China and video from Japan. The book is as global in its reach as art has become in the 21st century.


Posted on November 2, 2019

Kimono

The Khalili Collection of kimonos comprises over 200 garments spanning 300 years of Japanese textile artistry. The form of the T-shaped, straight-seamed, front-wrapping kimono has changed very little over the centuries, yet the collection reveals an astonishing variety of designs. The garments presented here convey the remarkable creativity of designers who produced works of art that would enfold the wearer. The enormous range of patterns were executed in a complex combination of techniques, with some garments requiring the expert skills of a number of different artisans.

The Khalili Collection includes formal, semi-formal and informal kimono, underkimono and jackets, worn by women, men and children. Represented are the sophisticated garments of the samurai elite and the affluent merchant classes of the Edo period (1603- 1868), the shifting styles and new colour palette of Meiji-period dress (1868-1912) and particularly the bold and dazzling kimono of the Taisho- (1912-26) and early Sho-wa (1926-89) eras, which utilized innovative techniques and drew fresh inspiration from both past traditions and the modern world.

Here, an international team of authors examine the art and evolution of the kimono in the historical context of the 17th to the 20th centuries, under the editorship of Anna Jackson, Keeper of the Asian Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.


Posted on October 23, 2019

The Illustrated Natural History of Selborne

Almost 300 editions and reissues of The Natural History of Selborne testify to its the lasting and universal appeal, but none before has been so beautifully and fittingly illustrated. Gilbert White’s painstaking study of the fauna and flora of his native parish, Selborne in Hampshire, first appeared in 1789 and has delighted and inspired generations of readers ever since. His regular correspondence, beginning in 1767, with two distinguished naturalists forms the basis of The Natural History of Selborne, which was published in the form of his letters to them.

The fascination of the book lies in the magic of its prose and the vividness of its description, which have earned it the distinction of being the only work on natural history to have received equal acclaim as a masterpiece of English literature. To complement the text, 124 colour plates have been faithfully reproduced from the hand-coloured engravings of Gilbert White’s contemporaries, giving an invaluable extra dimension to this most captivating of books.


Posted on October 16, 2019

Ballenesque (Collector’s Edition)

Limited to 100 copies (+ 5 artist’s copies) numbered 1-100. Includes a print of ‘Candlelight’ (2014), signed and numbered by Roger Ballen.

Separated into four parts, Ballenesque takes readers on a visual, chronological journey through Roger Ballen’s entire oeuvre, including both iconic images and previously unpublished photographs. Part I explores his formative artistic influences and his later rediscovery of boyhood through photography, culminating in his first published monograph, Boyhood, in 1979. Part II then charts the period between 1980 and 2000, during which time his deeper search for the elemental self found its way into the ‘Dorps’, or small towns, of South Africa and concluding with the release of his seminal monograph Outland. Part III covers the years 2000-2013, when Ballen achieved global recogition with Shadow Chamber and Boarding House and his work began to veer away from portraiture altogether. Finally, in Part IV, Ballen reflects upon his career in its entirety.

With over 300 photographs and an introduction by eminent academic Robert J. C. Young, this book provides both an entirely new way of seeing Ballen’s work for those who already follow his career and a comprehensive introduction for those encountering his photographs for the first time.


Posted on August 29, 2019

The Indian Textile Sourcebook

Indian textile designs express dazzling inventiveness and creativity, from the woven silks of royalty to the simple block-printed patterns. This authoritative sourcebook overflows with colour and patterns to inspire and inform.

The introduction gives an overview of Indian textiles, including methods by which they were made and their intended uses. The book is divided into three chapters defined by pattern style: Florals, Figurative and Geometric. Each comprises an introduction to the style’s history, and demonstrates the techniques of structure, surface and embellishment patterning. A wealth of cross-referencing by theme and process makes this a uniquely useful resource. Over 300 breathtaking and hugely varied designs are examined here in detail through close-up shots of the pattern and material alongside a thoughtful examination of the reverse of many fabrics, demonstrating different weaving techniques so that the reader can see precisely how the textile was made.


Posted on August 29, 2019

Endangered

We can’t save the world if we don’t care about the world. Visual imagery plays a huge role in helping us to care about what is happening around us. Endangered is an experiment by award-winning photographer Tim Flach in how and why we connect emotionally to other forms of life through visual imagery.

Through Tim’s extraordinary up-close photographs, we see:
The last of the white rhinos – there are only three left in the world: two females incapable of carrying a child and one male with low sperm count
The majestic swarms of the Monarch Butterly, whose milkweed crops are being destroyed by herbicides
The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect – an extinction success story! Thought to be extinct in 1920 after rats from a wrecked Glaswegian cargo ship made it to shore and caused chaos on Lord Howe Island. A tiny colony of 24 specimens was discovered on the tiny rocky outcrop of Balls Pyramid in 2001 and has now been saved in the Melbourne Zoo.

We also learn that:
Bees are worth 300 billion USD to the global economy
100 million sharks are killed for their fins every year
Some fast-growing coral can recover from damage within 10-15 years, if given a chance…

This immense book is a staggeringly beautiful siren call to connect people with nature.


Posted on August 29, 2019

Futurekind

We have grown accustomed to two beliefs: the first, that only experts can be designers; the second, that our everyday activities are harming the natural world. Yet, with new platforms, digital communication and engaged online communities, the products we can now design – and truly need – can be made by anyone for social and environmental good. Social design can see that primary school children learn to code, and uses local information in off-grid locations to create global change. Open-source design is enabling us to re-make our world right now.

Structured into eight areas of application, from healthcare to education, this book showcases over sixty projects – not the kind you see in glossy magazines or online, but the ones that have made a genuine difference to communities and lives around the world. Rather than being client-driven, as commercial design often is, each project here is the result of designers who reach out, communities who get involved and the technologies that helping people to realize ideas together. From a playground-powered water pump in South Africa to a DIY budget cellphone, each of these groundbreaking projects is presented through fascinating and life-affirming stories, diagrams that reveal the mechanisms and motivations behind each design approach, and photography that celebrates the humanity of the endeavour.


Posted on January 18, 2019

Mr & Mrs Smith Presents the World’s Sexiest Bedrooms

There are numerous luxury hotels to choose from when planning a romantic getaway, but finding a unique and unforgettable experience in a stunning location is a greater challenge. Mr & Mrs Smith was founded in 2003 by James and Tamara Lohan to discover the world’s finest hotels and travel experiences. Now, with a million members and counting, their global presence has made them leading experts on hotels and destinations, crafting bespoke experiences for their clients.

This selection of thirty-five of the sexiest hotel rooms features bedrooms in a wide variety of stunning locations all over the world. From a rustic safari lodge to a luxurious Venetian pallazzo, this essential overview tells the story behind the design and decor of each unique room, the history of the hotel and the essentials for where to go when you visit. Written by Sarah Jappy, and with reviews by trusted tastemakers, such as Lauren Laverne, Raymond Blanc and Stella McCartney, all of the featured rooms are presented alongside tips from those who have visited, with their recommendations for the unique features and experiences on offer for each hotel and within its surrounding area.

Illustrated with over 300 colour photographs of the rooms, hotels and locations by art photographer Polly Brown, this is the insider’s guide to everything you need to know, whether you are planning a honeymoon, mini-break or the romantic adventure of a lifetime.


Posted on July 10, 2018

The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Photography

Here is a comprehensive, accessible and authoritative illustrated reference to the history, art and science of photography. In one single, elegant volume, it features over 300 iconic photographs and contains more than 1,200 concise yet fully detailed entries on all aspects of the subject. Though much information can today be found online, locating it takes time and sources can have questionable provenance and uncertain academic credentials. All previous dictionaries of photography are now outdated, as well, focusing either on the famous and influential practitioners of the genre or presented as mere glossaries of technical terms. This landmark publication, newly available in paperback, is the culmination of ten years of development and research. Working with an international expert panel of 150 consultants and 79 researchers, Nathalie Herschdorfer has triumphed in creating the first source of information for all scholars, practitioners and collectors of photography to turn to in the future.


Posted on June 29, 2018

This is Not Fashion

This is the story of streetwear. King ADZ and Wilma Stone recount how a long line of subcultural movements have been incorporated into a multi-billion-dollar global industry and taken over both the high street and high-end fashion. Starting from the building blocks of repurposed sportswear, workwear and combat-wear, they explain just how it is that a revolutionary sartorial trend has evolved to encompass a vast range of disparate tribes, offering a powerful sense of belonging and identity to all.

The story begins in 1972, in Jersey City, USA, with the birth of the first ever streetwear shop, Trash and Vaudeville. The journey then encompasses punk, Ivy League preppies, the hip-hop kings and queens of Harlem, the dresser/casual movement born out of British football culture, the skater scene of California, the paninari scooter-brats of Milan, and much more. We are shown how streetwear, worn with integrity and swagger, has transcended culture, race, gender and age to become a lasting worldwide phenomenon.

Whether focusing on major brands such as Stรผssy, Carhartt, Tommy Hilfiger and SHUT or today’s up-and-comers from South African townships or downtown Seoul, this dynamic study surveys the scene. It also takes a look at how the Internet era has changed the ways streetwear is sold and consumed, and how the field may evolve in the future. Packed with profiles of industry pioneers, Q&As with key figures and over 300 illustrations, this is the complete history of fashion’s fastest-growing and most influential movement.


Posted on June 29, 2018

An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Why was a humble dung beetle chosen to represent the sun god as Khepri, or a desert jackal to represent Anubis, the embalmer god? Ancient Egyptian religion, with its many gods and symbols, has always been a source of wonder and mystery to the monotheistic West.

In this compact guide to the gods and symbols of ancient Egypt many puzzling and intriguing questions are answered in nearly 300 entries, ranging from Acacia to Wreath.

Over 100 illustrations, with extended captions, complement the text and the book also includes a chronological table, bibliography and index.


Posted on May 13, 2018

An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya

Nearly 300 entries, from accession to yoke, describe the main gods and symbols of the Aztecs, Olmecs, Zapotecs, Maya, Teotihuacanos, Mixtects and Toltecs.

Introductory essays provide succinct accounts of Mesoamerican history and religion.

This authoritative work is a standard reference for students, scholars and travellers.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Glaze Book

Packed with information and glaze recipes, The Glaze Book will enable you to reference hundreds of ceramic surfaces. Each glaze recipe is clearly illustrated so you can see the colour and surface responses it has to offer, and features a description including its firing range, and the uses to which it can be put.

The Glaze Book provides easily accessible help on
– Methods and Techniques
– Raw Materials
– Glazing Tools and Equipment
– Mixing a Glaze
– Methods of Application
– Glaze Recipes for Earthenware, Stoneware and Porcelain


Posted on May 13, 2018

Lump: The Dog who ate a Picasso

One spring morning in 1957, veteran photojournalist David Douglas Duncan paid a visit to his friend and frequent photographic subject Pablo Picasso, at the artist’s home near Cannes. As a co-pilot alongside Duncan in his Mercedes Gullwing 300 SL was the photographer’s pet dachsund, Lump. Photographer and dog were close companions, but Duncan’s nomadic lifestyle and his other dog – a giant jealous Afghan hound who had tormented Lump – made their life in Rome difficult. When they arrived at Picasso’s Villa La Californie that historic day, Lump decided that he had found paradise on earth, and that he would move in with Picasso, whether the artist welcomed him or not.

This is the background for a totally original book that offers an uncommonly sensitive portrait of Picasso. Lump was immortalized in a Picasso portrait painted on a plate the day they met, but that was just the beginning. In a suite of forty-five paintings reinterpreting Velasquez’s masterpiece ‘Las Meninas’, Picasso replaced the impassive hound in the foreground with jaunty renderings of Lump.

Today, as a gift from the artist to his hometown as a youth, all of those historic canvases are now the centerpiece exhibition in the Picasso Museum of Barcelona. Fourteen of the paintings are reproduced here in full colour, juxtaposed with Duncan’s dramatic and intimate black-and-white photographs of Picasso and Lump, bringing full circle the odyssey of a lucky dachshund who found his way to becoming a furry, super-stretched icon of modern art.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Freemasonry

With its ancient ritual, closely guarded secrets, arcane symbols and intriguing regalia, Freemasonry has fascinated for almost 300 years – but the mystery has led to myth and often misunderstanding. Drawing on some of the world’s greatest collections of Masonic material, and including many objects never before published, this book offers a uniquely accessible and comprehensive picture of the organization. It covers the origins and history of the Order; the philosophy behind the Degree rituals; the ever-changing relationship between Freemasonry and wider society (including the role of women in Freemasonry and opposition to Masonry); the puzzles and mysteries associated with Freemasons; and finally a survey of the most prominent Brothers over time.

The picture is completed with in-depth coverage of the various Higher Degrees and affiliated organizations around the world, including the Holy Royal Arch, Mark Masonry, Knights Templar, and Scottish and York Rites.

With stunning colour illustrations and profound insights, this book separates fact from fiction, and opens our eyes to new, more fundamental, mysteries.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Henri Cartier-Bresson / Scrapbook

Henri Cartier-Bresson was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940. After two unsuccessful attempts, he managed to escape in 1943. During this time, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, assuming that the photographer had died in the war, started preparing what they thought was a posthumous exhibition of his work.

When he reappeared, Cartier-Bresson was delighted to learn of the exhibition, and decided to review his entire work and curate it himself. In 1946 he travelled to New York with about 300 prints in his suitcase, bought a scrapbook, glued each one in, and brought that album to MoMA’s curators. His first exhibition, a celebration of his survival, opened on 4 February 1947.

In the 1990s, Cartier-Bresson once again returned to this scrapbook. Following his death in 2004, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, the present owner of the prints, finished restoring them, making it possible to bring a large body of extraordinary, hitherto unpublished work to the public, images that have finally become a memorial collection after all.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Blek le Rat

This book is a unique view inside the life and work of one of the most private, but also one of the most loved, most applauded and most influential figures in the vibrant world of street art. Blek le Rat is revered and acknowleged by the international street and graffiti community, and his work has influenced record and CD design, advertising and graphics, as well as the work of many street artists around the world.

From small, simple stencils to complex multimedia events, the distinctive and ground-breaking art of Blek le Rat is showcased here for the first time, demonstrating the fascinating development of his technique and creativity over two decades. Whether it’s his unique images of Lady Diana and kidnapped French journalist Florence Aubenas or his iconic silhouette of a rat, we see why ‘The Genius of Blek’ is hailed in King Adz’s film about this mysterious and elusive, yet deeply creative figure.

Blek le Rat offers stunning photography of over 300 of the artist’s work in situ. With an in-depth personal exploration of the method and meaning behind Blek’s stencils, as well as a taste of the evolution of urban art from New York, Paris, Barcelona and Buenos Aires to London, Taipei, Naples and Berlin, this book cannot fail to inspire street and urban enthusiasts and students alike.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Asian Theatre Puppets

Asian puppet theatre is a treasure house of Asian grassroots religion, culture, history, ethics and entertainment. But with the rise of mass entertainment, puppet theatre has been banished to the fringes and performances of this sublime art form are becoming rare.

Theatre performances may have dwindled but the impact of these beautiful puppets has not. Their charm and exquisite craftsmanship leaps out from the pages of this book, which introduces for the first time the beauty of theatre puppets from all major Asian traditions, captured in over 300 colour illustrations.

Taking the reader on an inspiring journey through hundreds of years of creativity, this beautiful book will not only appeal to people with an interest in Asian arts, but will also open up to the general reader a whole new realm of art.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Scandinavian Home

As the trend in residential design continues to move toward pared-down, comfortably elegant, environmentally friendly homes, the hallmarks of Scandinavian design – clean, elegant lines; delicate colour schemes; well-proportioned, airy spaces that maximize daylight; and a pronounced preference for natural materials – make it one of the predominant influences in interior design today.

And yet, until now there has been no book devoted to the signature design features – past and present – of all four Scandinavian countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Some 300 colour photographs cover every aspect of the Scandinavian aesthetic – from modern kitchens with old-fashioned hearths to the latest in saunas, from light-maximizing walls of glass to folk-art-painted walls, from inviting front porches to cosy attic bedrooms.

Lars Bolander, one of Sweden’s foremost designers, and Heather Smith MacIsaac, a design writer and former Architecture and Design Editor of House & Garden, offer expert guidance and practical advice on achieving a Scandinavian look, on incorporating Scandinavian elements into any dรฉcor, and on mixing and matching traditional and modern, humble and grand. ‘Design Element’ sections supply in-depth information about classic and innovative Scandinavian designs, such as the Mora clock and Danish Modern chairs. An international source list completes a book that is an essential addition to the shelves of anyone who has ever admired the subtle palette of a Gustavian room or enjoyed sitting in an Arne Jacobsen chair.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Material Innovation: Architecture

Packed full of in-depth case studies Material Innovation: Architecture will connect material to reader and will inspire both students and professionals to pursue the optimal material for each specific application.

This volume focuses on specific categories of materials – glass and ceramic, altered naturals, high-performance composites, digitally fabricated metals and polymer films – applied to an extensive range of projects, from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to the Ordos Art and City Museum in Mongolia. Seven specially commissioned ‘visual narratives’ by such architects as Zaha Hadid are also included.

The series is being produced in association with Material ConneXion, a materials consultancy agency with unparalleled expertise in innovative and sustainable materials. Its materials library of advanced, innovative and sustainable materials and processes is the largest of its kind in the world.

With a preface by George M. Beylerian, the founder of Material ConneXion, and an introduction by Gail Peter Borden, the head of Architecture at the University of Southern California, the texts are authoritative and yet also accessible.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Material Innovation: Product Design

Materials technology is the single most important agent of change in our entire designed landscape, from the buildings in which we live and work to the clothes we wear. This volume features carefully selected products that showcase the innovative use of a particular material. The book focuses on specific categories of products – grown materials, surface fortification, advanced composites, additive manufacturing media, recycled materials and the integration of electricity. The coverage of the projects is extensive, from medical equipment to clothing, with materials ranging from hemp and kelp to titanium and biocomposite glass fibres. Six specially commissioned ‘visual narratives’ by experts in the field are included. The extensive illustrated materials directory contains detailed information on almost 100 materials.

The series is being produced in association with Material ConneXion, a materials consultancy agency with unparalleled expertise in innovative and sustainable materials. Its materials library of advanced, innovative and sustainable materials and processes is the largest of its kind in the world.

With a preface by Michele Caniato, the President of Material ConneXion, and an introduction by Allan Chochinov, Chair and Co-founder of the School of Visual Arts MFA in Products of Design Program in New York, the texts are authoritative and yet also accessible. Clearly structured and illustrated with carefully selected images throughout, this book will connect material to reader and will inspire both students and professionals to pursue the optimal material for each specific application.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Typographic Universe

Virtually anything can be used to make original typography and once you start looking, it is impossible not to see letters everywhere, from deliberate inventions – aromatic alphabets made of spaghetti, soup or spices, or contorted typefaces styled out of human handprints – to serendipitous and often short-lived discoveries – letters formed by chemtrails in the sky, negative spaces between trees branches and city buildings, cracks in plaster – to fading ‘ghost types’ painted on buildings in a pre-digital age.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Rembrandt’s Universe

Celebrated in his own time as well as the present, Rembrandt’s works have remarkable staying power. His output was prodigious, totalling around 600 paintings, 300 etchings and 2,000 drawings, ranging from commissioned portraits to landscapes to religious allegories.

In spite of his longstanding popularity, authoritative accounts of Rembrandt’s life and work have been difficult to compile, and there has long been debate over the precise number of works that can be absolutely attributed to the great master. Distilling centuries of debate into a single volume, Gary Schwartz provides a completely accessible overview of the controversies and mysteries surrounding Rembrandt and his masterpieces. In addition, Schwartz addresses the more particular aspects of Rembrandt scholarship: the painter’s personal relationships; his finances; his artistic influences; his choice of subject matter; his techniques.

With more full-colour reproductions of Rembrandt’s work than any other collection, Rembrandt’s Universe is a definitive text – on Rembrandt, and on art. Eminently readable and packed with information about the painter and interpretations of his work including a pleasing treatment of scholarship to date.


Posted on May 13, 2018