Best of
Art-And-Photography

2008

Fables: Covers


James Jean - 2008
    Also included is a afterword by celebrated Fables writer/creator Bill Willingham. Designed and annotated by the artist, this deluxe, oversized hardcover includes ten vellum sleeve inserts, an embossed case and other fine art details that make Fables: Covers by James Jean as elegant and unique as the Fables covers themselves.

Tim Walker Pictures


Tim Walker - 2008
    Offering the reader a privileged glimpse into the artistic process used by top fashion photographer Tim Walker, 'Pictures' provides a comprehensive overview of his work which brings us deep inside his world of glamour and adventure.

Surf Is Where You Find It


Gerry Lopez - 2008
    Lopez, one of the most revered surfers of his generation, presents a collection of 41 profiles of those who have been influential in the sport--surfing any time, any where, and in any way.

Performance


Richard Avedon - 2008
    It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be."--Richard Avedon, 1974The preeminent stars and artists of the performing arts from the second half of the 20th century offered their greatest gifts—and, sometimes, their inner lives—to Richard Avedon. More than 200 are portrayed in Performance, many in photographs that have been rarely or never seen before. Of course, the great stars light the way: Hepburn and Chaplin, Monroe and Garland, Brando and Sinatra. But here too are the actors and comedians, pop stars and divas, musicians and dancers, artists in all mediums with public lives that were essentially performances, who stand at the pinnacle of our cultural achievement. The celebrated author and critic John Lahr offers an elegant assessment of Avedon’s achievement. Four supremely talented artists from the performing arts—Mike Nichols, André Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida, and Twyla Tharp—contribute lively and moving memoirs about their collaborations with Avedon.

SuicideGirls: Beauty Redefined


Missy Suicide - 2008
    This giant tome provides a timely look at the fascinating women who created and inhabit the SG community. With an introduction by SG founder, Missy Suicide and images of hundreds of SuicideGirls world-wide, this title shines a light on a new female aesthetic - a look reminiscent of vintage Betty Page and Bunny Yeager photos, but with a decisively 21st century edge. "There's no other place in the media to see girls (like these) who are tremendously smart and beautiful in their own way" says Missy, "Everywhere you look you just see the super-thin, super-tall, bleach blonde Baywatch babe. There are a lot of people out there who want to see a different kind of beauty."

John Howe: Forging Dragons


John Howe - 2008
    Each dragon is gloriously presented on a double page spread followed by John's working sketches, explorations of his creation process, and the mythology behind each dragon. From fire dragons erupting from molten depths, to sea dragons churning stormy waters, every medieval, celtic, gothic and sci-fi icon is represented in this celebration of these legendary beasts by a true master.

Frog: A Photographic Portrait


Thomas Marent - 2008
    Published to coincide with Amphibian Ark’s “Year of the Frog” and designed to build awareness of environmental change causing many species of amphibians to disappear at an alarming rate. The aim of the year’s campaign is to generate awareness to the greatest species conservation challenge in history.Thomas Marent, author of Rainforest (2006) and Butterfly (2008), started photographing natural history subjects, particularly birds and butterflies, in the mountains of his native Switzerland. He has dedicated nearly half his life to recording butterflies across five continents.

Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York


James T. Murray - 2008
    But for how long?Are New York City's local merchants a dying breed or an enduring group of diehards hell bent on retaining the traditions of a glorious past? According to Jim and Karla Murray the influx of big box retailers and chain stores pose a serious threat to these humble institutions, and neighborhood modernization and the anonymity it brings are replacing the unique appearance and character of what were once incredibly colorful streets.Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York is a visual guide to New York City's timeworn storefronts, a collection of powerful images that capture the neighborhood spirit, familiarity, comfort and warmth that these shops once embodied.

Where Madness Reigns


Gris Grimly - 2008
    A collection of Gris Grimley's seldom-seen personal and gallery art, 'Where Madness Reigns' delves far beneath the surface of Grimly's well-known macabre illustration work and uncovers a wealth of humorous, emotional, satirical and thought-provoking imagery.

Equus


Tim Flach - 2008
    Award-winning photographer Tim Flach’s quest to document the horse has resulted in Equus, an intensely moving look at an animal—as solitary subject and en masse, from the air and from underwater—whose history is so powerfully linked to our own. From exquisite Arabians in the Royal Yards of the United Arab Emirates to purebred Icelandic horses in their glacial habitat; from the soulful gaze of a single horse’s lash-lined eye to the thundering majesty of thousands of Mustangs racing across the plains of Utah, Equus provides an amazing and unique insight into the physical dynamics and spirit of the horse.

Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures


Anne Verlhac - 2008
    Over the past three decades, the film and its eccentric stars have become cult icons, inspiring fashion tributes by the likes of Phillip Lim and John Galliano, a hit Broadway musical adaptation that swept up three Tony Awards in 2007, and an upcoming HBO movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as the famed odd couple. Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures , the latest installment in a series that includes photo-biographies of John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, and others, presents the most in-depth look at the life of Little Edie since the Maysles’ film vaulted her into the public consciousness. Conceived by members of the Beale family, the book traces a line from Edie’s childhood through her heady days as a young socialite and her later years at Grey Gardens, the decrepit East Hampton estate where she and her mother lived in near-total isolation for decades. Featuring over 150 newly uncovered photographs and letters, Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens offers unprecedented access to the personal history of this twentieth-century woman of mystery.

Pheromone: The Insect Artwork of Christopher Marley


Christopher Marley - 2008
    The colors are entirely natural, and to render the reproductions as accurate as possible some have been reproduced with fifth-color metallic inks and highlighted with spot varnish. Accompanying the broad sample of Marley's work is a series of essays by the artist: "Design of Insects," "Insects in Design," "History," "Color," "The Coleoptera Mosaics: An Exercise in Color," "Repetition," "Structure," "Texture," "Variations," "Botanicals," "Size," and "Environmental Effects." Christopher Marley was born in Covina, California, and grew up near Salem, Oregon.

The Rise of Barack Obama


Pete Souza - 2008
    Senate right up to the Pennsylvania presidential primary. More than 80% of these candid and stunning photographs capturing private and political moments have not been seen before. Souza provides extended commentary about each photo to place it in context, and describe the scene and participants. Photo-by-photo the viewer is allowed to examine the senator and candidate's path to the very cusp of history.

William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008


William Eggleston - 2008
    Not only has he drawn upon images so telling of American culture, he has produced them with an intensity and balance of color that have helped elevate the entire field of color photography to a fine art, especially since his 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Drawing together Eggleston’s famous and lesser-known works, this lavishly illustrated catalogue is the first to examine both his photography and videos. Of particular relevance are his black-and-white images from the late 1950s and 1960s, which helped shape his color photography, as well as the relationship between his provocative video recordings of 1970s Memphis nightlife and his later work. Included are reproductions of newly restored prints, executed specifically for the exhibition. Filled with new and challenging contributions to scholarship and accompanying the first major U.S. survey of his work, this catalogue will prove the standard reference for Eggleston’s photographs for years to come.

XOXO: Hugs and Kisses


James Jean - 2008
    Award-winning artist James Jean conjures up a collection of half-forgotten dreamscapes and haunting childhood fantasias inthis set of 30 postcards.

Elliott Erwitt's Dogs


Elliott Erwitt - 2008
    In a heartfelt and original tribute to man's best friend, this photographic master captures all the diversity of the canine kingdom. We witness Fido's many moods from playful, perky scamp to quiet and constant companion. Ranging from daring little imps to lumbering and gentle beasts, Erwitt's images unveil the quirkiness that makes these creatures so beloved while combining an unerring sense of composition with the magic of the moment.

Moscow St. Petersburg 1900-1920: Art, Life, Culture of the Russian Silver Age


John E. Bowlt - 2008
    Petersburg 1900–1920 is the quintessential guide to Russia’s vibrant and influential Silver Age.   In this elegantly written narrative survey, John E. Bowlt sheds new light on Russia’s Silver Age, the period of artistic renaissance that flourished as Imperial Russia’s power waned. Much of the creative energy could be attributed to the Symbolist movement, whose proponents sought to transcend the barriers of bourgeois civility and whose unconventional lifestyles led some critics to label them Decadents and Degenerates. But, as Sergei Diaghilev declared, theirs was not a moral or artistic decline, but a voyage of inner discovery and a reinvention of a national culture.   Bowlt’s richly textured volume focuses not only on Russia’s best known artists from this period—Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, Igor Stravinsky, Anna Pavlova and poet Anna Akhmatova—but also on lesser known movements of the period—experimental theater, Nikolai Kalmakov’s innovative painting, and the free dance practiced by followers of Duncan and Dalcroze.   Praise for Moscow & St. Petersburg:   "This book will serve as a reference resource . . . . This ambitious English-language publication aims to cover not only every art group of the time but every aspect of the Russian culture. The pictorial layout of John Bowlt’s book renders the sheer proliferation of new ideas immediately apparent. The highly charged text charts the medley of productions, groups, and individuals, all loosely associated with the symbolist movement, that make up the vast canvas. As the leading specialist in the Russian 20th-century avant-garde, Professor Bowlt is well qualified to place the silver age in context." ~ The Art Newspaper"This lushly illustrated volume captures the artistic explosion that was Russia’s Silver Age." ~ Russian Life"(An) authoritative feast of a book." ~ The Irish Times"Splendidly illustrated, beautifully designed . . . ." ~ Shepherd Express"A truly seminal work . . . ." ~ Midwest Book Review"Lavishly illustrated and elegantly written narrative survey." ~ Panache Privée"A dazzling array of color illustrations and period photos displaying the glories of Russia’s art, architecture and scientific achievements." ~ California Literary Review

Luigi Ghirri: It's Beautiful Here, Isn't It...


Luigi Ghirri - 2008
    Although well known in his native Italy, Ghirri does not yet have the international audience his work merits--perhaps because he died so young. It's Beautiful Here, Isn't It...--the first book published on Ghirri in the U.S.--will establish him as the seminal artist he was. Uncannily prescient, Ghirri shared the sensibility of what became known in the U.S. as the New Color and the New Topographics movements before they had even been named. Like his counterparts in Italian cinema, Ghirri believed that the local and the universal were inseparable and that life's polarities--love and hate, present and past--were equally compelling. Not surprisingly, his interests encompassed all the arts: he worked in Giorgio Morandi's studio and with architect Aldo Rossi, while influencing a generation of photographers, including Olivo Barbieri and Martin Parr. This dynamic new book includes a selection of Ghirri's essays published in English for the first time, as well as a selected chronology.

Bark: An Intimate Look at the World's Trees


Cedric Pollet - 2008
    Each image is a work of art in itself and is accompanied by a photograph of each tree in its natural environment, along with information about its species, origins, uses, habitat, and location. Cédric Pollet, whose background is landscape design, has combined his scientific and botanical background with his passion for plants to create a highly informative text, which compliments the beauty of his photographs. Bark is ideal for any nature lover.

Egg & Nest


Rosamond Wolff Purcell - 2008
    Such instances of wonder find fitting expression in the photographs of Rosamond Purcell, whose work captures the intricacy of nests and the aesthetic perfection of bird eggs. Mining the ornithological treasures of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Purcell produces pictures as lovely and various as the artifacts she photographs. The dusky blue egg of an emu becomes a planet. A woodpecker s nest bears an uncanny resemblance to a wooden shoe. A resourceful rock dove weaves together scrap metal and spent fireworks. A dreamscape of dancing monkeys emerges from the calligraphic markings of a murre egg.Alongside Purcell s photographs, Linnea Hall and Rene Corado offer an engaging history of egg collecting, the provenance of the specimens in the photographs, and the biology, conservation, and ecology of the birds that produced them. They highlight the scientific value that eggs and nest hold for understanding and conserving birds in the wild, as well as the aesthetic charge they carry for us.How has evolution shaped the egg or directed the design of the nest? How do the photographs convey such infinitesimal and yet momentous happenstance? The objects in "Egg & Nest" are specimens of natural history, and in Purcell s renderings, they are also the most natural art.

Scrapbook Page Maps: Sketches For Creative Layouts


Becky Fleck - 2008
    By referring to the sketches in the book, you can select photos, papers and embellishments and then bring the page together quickly and easily. In addition to an inspiring, design-filled idea book, you'll get a deck of laminated cards that includes a thumbnail of many of the sketches in the book along with corresponding finished layouts. Helpful resource information such as a supply list and photo sizes are included on each card, along with page information cross-referencing the sketch back to the book. Scrapbook PageMaps is the essential book for beginning scrapbookers as well as those short on time.

One Hundred Portraits: Artists, Architects, Writers, Composers, and Friends


Barry Moser - 2008
    Grant, and artists (Jean Cocteau, Winslow Homer, William Blake, Rembrandt van Rijn), as well as Moser's immediate family.In the brief afterword, Moser discusses the sources for his portraits, including subjects of whom no accurate depictions exist, such as Chaucer. In those cases Moser utilized death masks, old photographs, and even ancient busts.Printed on heavy matte paper, with spare titles including name, dates of birth and death, and occupation, One Hundred Portraits is a pleasure to study. The highly detailed engravings result in portraits of very expressive faces, and giving readers, according to Ann Patchett in the book's preface, "the chance to visit the people we were sure of and learn something more."

Posters for the People: Art of the WPA


Ennis Carter - 2008
    Posters for the People presents these works for what they truly are: highly accomplished and powerful examples of American art. All are iconic and eye-catching, some are humorous and educational, and many combine modern art trends with commercial techniques of advertising. More than 100 posters have never been published or catalogued in federal records; they are included here to ensure their place in the history of American art and graphic design.   The story of these posters is a fascinating journey, capturing the complex objectives of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal reform program. Through their distinct imagery and clear and simple messages, the WPA posters provide a snapshot of an important era when the U.S. government employed hundreds of artists to create millions of posters promoting positive social ideals and programs and a uniquely American way of life. The resulting artworks now form a significant historical record. More than a mere conveyor of government information, they stand as timeless images of beauty and artistic accomplishment.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Once More, with Feeling"


John Nicholas - 2008
    19 piano/vocal/guitar selections from the soundtrack to the much-buzzed-about musical pastiche episode of Fox Network's Buffy the Vampire Slayer that aired in November of 2001. Features a plot synopsis, full-color photos, and these songs: Theme from Buffy the Vampire Slayer * Coda * Dawn's Ballet * Dawn's Lament * I'll Never Tell * The Mustard * Rest in Peace * Something to Sing About * more.

Pinhole Photography: From Historic Technique to Digital Application


Eric Renner - 2008
    Covering pinhole photography from its historical roots, pinhole expert Eric Renner, founder of pinholeresource.com, fully explores the theory and practical application of pinhole in this beautiful resource.Packed with inspiring images, instructional tips and information on a variety of pinhole cameras for beginner and advanced photographers, this classic text now offers a new chapter on digital imaging and more in depth how-to coverage for beginners, as well as revised exposure guides and optimal pinhole charts. With an expanded gallery of full-color photographs displaying the creative results of pinhole cameras, along with listings of workshops, pinhole photographer's websites, pinhole books and suppliers of pinhole equipment, this is the one guide you need to learn the craft and navigate the industry.

Over and Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns


Mike Perry - 2008
    While patterns have been around forever, there'sa recent movement, a tendency among designers, to allow patterns to animate their work with colorful and exuberant complexity. Over and Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns collects groundbreaking work from fifty of today's most talented designers who create patterns by hand and use them in their work in inventive and innovative ways. From Deanne Cheuk's patterns that adorn current fashion to those of Robin Cameron that explore her interest in art to Garrett Morin's patterns that arose from an exercise for a character called Eloie, the examples in this book push the boundaries of the traditional concept of what a pattern is. The selected works are often not an end result but the beginning of something else, of something bigger and broader. While the computer is sometimes involved in the production of patterns, the hand-drawn element is always evident in the uniqueness of these works. Featuring more than 250 vibrant and exciting patterns, Over and Over explores this magic on every single page and will inspire designers everywhere.

Reading Dance: A Gathering of Memoirs, Reportage, Criticism, Profiles, Interviews, and Some Uncategorizable Extras


Robert Gottlieb - 2008
    And, as Gottlieb writes in his introduction, “The twentieth century focuses to a large extent on the achievements and personalities that dominated it–from Pavlova and Nijinsky and Diaghilev to Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, from Ashton and Balanchine and Robbins to Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp, from Fonteyn and Farrell and Gelsey Kirkland (“the Judy Garland of Ballet”) to Nureyev and Baryshnikov and Astaire–as well as the critical and reportorial voices, past and present, that carry the most conviction.”In structuring his anthology, Gottlieb explains, he has “tried to help the reader along by arranging its two hundred-plus entries into a coherent groups.” Apart from the sections on major personalities and important critics, there are sections devoted to interviews (Tamara Toumanova, Antoinette Sibley, Mark Morris); profiles (Lincoln Kirstein, Bob Fosse, Olga Spessivtseva); teachers; accounts of the birth of important works from Petrouchka to Apollo to Push Comes to Shove; and the movies (from Arlene Croce and Alastair Macauley on Fred Astaire to director Michael Powell on the making of The Red Shoes). Here are the voices of Cecil Beaton and Irene Castle, Ninette de Valois and Bronislava Nijinska, Maya Plisetskaya and Allegra Kent, Serge Lifar and José Limón, Alicia Markova and Natalia Makarova, Ruth St. Denis and Michel Fokine, Susan Sontag and Jean Renoir. Plus a group of obscure, even eccentric extras, including an account of Pavlova going shopping in London and recipes from Tanaquil LeClerq’s cookbook.”With its huge range of content accompanied by the anthologist’s incisive running commentary, Reading Dance will be a source of pleasure and instruction for anyone who loves dance.

Posters of World War II: Allied And Axis Propaganda 1939-1945


Peter Darman - 2008
    The posters cover a wide range of topics, such as recruitment, security, finance, food, and hygiene.Contains posters sourced from European and US archives, both Axis and Allied, and shows how posters played a vital function in disseminating information to the civilian population.

The Likes of Us: Photography and the Farm Security Administration


Stu Cohen - 2008
    This collection offers a rare opportunity not only to see historic images but also to understand the working of one of the government's most original and creative pre-war initiatives. Guided by master photo editor Roy Stryker, the FSA archive includes the work of dozens of photographers, from acknowledged giants such as Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Dorothea Lange to Marion Post Wolcott and Russell Lee, whose names and work may be less familiar. Stryker's approach was a mix of structure and improvisation. He sent his artists across the country to shoot for a few weeks, mostly in small towns and rural areas. They worked from what Stryker called shooting scripts - laundry lists of possible subjects and situations - but were always free to explore their own perspectives on a locale, its inhabitants, and their activities. This book collects work from nine of these trips - Evans in Louisana and Alabama, Shahn in West Virginia, Lange in California, and others - uniting them with Stryker's shooting scripts, letters, and other relevant archival documents. What emerges, beyond the images themselves, is a complex and vital overview of the FSA at work and how the work evolved and matured under Stryker's guidance. The book concludes with photographs of New Orleans, the only city photographed in depth by the FSA artists. The Likes of Us includes 175 photographs, reproduced in duotone and printed from the original negatives at the Library of Congress.

Paisley Designs


Marty Noble - 2008
    Colorists will enjoy hours of creative pleasure with this all-original gallery of paisley designs — 30 full-page illustrations swirling with gorgeous organic themes.