Looking at Pictures


Robert Walser - 1981
    His essays consider Van Gogh, Cezanne, Rembrandt, Cranach, Watteau, Fragonard, Brueghel and his own brother Karl and also discuss general topics such as the character of the artist and of the dilettante as well as the differences between painters and poets. Every piece is marked by Walser’s unique eye, his delicate sensitivity, and his very particular sensibilities—and all are touched by his magic screwball wit.

Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips


National Geographic Society - 2007
    Compiled from the favorite trips of National Geographic's travel writers, Journeys of a Lifetime spans the globe to highlight the best of the world's most famous and lesser known sojourns. It presents an incredible diversity of possibilities, from ocean cruises around Antarctica to horse treks in the Andes. Every continent and every possible form of transport is covered. A timely resource for the burgeoning ranks of active travelers who crave adventurous and far-flung trips, Journeys of a Lifetime provides scores of creative ideas: trekking the heights of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania... mountain biking in Transylvania... driving through the scenic highlands of Scotland... or rolling through the outback on Australia's famous Ghan train... and dozens of other intriguing options all over the world. Journeys of a Lifetime also features 22 fun Top 10 lists in all sorts of categories. What are the world's top 10 elevator rides, bridges to walk across, trolley rides, ancient highways, or underground walking adventures? Readers will love evaluating and debating the selections. Each chapter showcases stunning photography, full-color maps, evocative text, and expert advice—including how to get there, when to visit, and how to make the most of the journey—all packaged in a luxurious oversize volume to treasure for years to come.

Conversations with Mies van der Rohe


Moisés Puente - 2008
    Focusing on this American period, Conversations with Mies van der Rohe, the latest addition to our Conversations series, gives fresh credence to this claim by presenting the architect's most important design concerns in his own words. In this collectionof interviews Mies talks freely about his relationship with clients, the common language he aimed for in his architecturalprojects, the influences on his work, and the synthesis of architecture and technology that he advanced in his designs and built works.Conversations with Mies van der Rohe makes an important contribution to the corpus of Mies scholarship. It presents a vivid picture of a master of modernism, bringing his artistic biography to a close while completing the scope of his style in terms of techniques, scale, use of materials, and typology. An essay by Iaki balos provides a context for these interviews and looks at Mies's legacy from a contemporary perspective.

Dirty Wow Wow and Other Love Stories: A Tribute to the Threadbare Companions of Childhood


Cheryl Katz - 2007
    Whether clutched securely in little arms each night or dragged gamely through the playground each day, these fiercely loved companions universally ease the uncertainties and loneliness of childhood. DIRTY WOW WOW AND OTHER LOVE STORIES celebrates the lives of fifty transitional love objects: a sweetly poignant collection of stuffies, blankies, lovies, and dolls who inspired and comforted their owners. Bundles of love and warmth fashioned from fluff and fur, these cherished friends have a lifetime of stories sewn up in their tattered bodies--a trip to Paris smushed in a suitcase, a secret hiding spot behind the family liquor cabinet, an interminable wait in the lost-and-found bin before a joyousreunion at home. With stunning photographs that reveal the personalities within, this thoughtful tribute is at once funny and oddly soothing-like a certain shabby buddy who'¬?s tucked away but never forgotten. Hear the NPR Weekend Edition interview with the authors of Dirty Wow Wow Reviews"This charming book would be a perfect gift for collectors and also an offbeat surprise for new parents."-Minneapolis Star Tribune"Dirty Wow Wow'¬?s striking photographs and brief narratives stir up vivid memories of . . . long-lost companions."-Southwest Spirit Magazine"This clever work, peppered with sumptuous snapshots of raggedy dolls, pays tribute to the beloved companions of childhood."-Entertainment Weekly'¬?s "Must List" View the gallery of entries from the Show Us your Dirty Wow Wow Contest

Painting Watercolors


Cathy Johnson - 1995
    But, you think, Learning to paint must be hard and frustrating. Not with Cathy Johnson as your teacher! Here, she makes learning to paint in watercolor fun--even easy!With Painting Watercolors, you'll learn to paint by picking up a brush and painting--not by reading about a bunch of confusing theories.Cathy tells you everything you need to begin--including:- Which tools and materials you should buy to get off to a good, affordable start - When, what, even where to paint - Explanations of watercolor terms (such as washes and puddles) - Easy and useful painting tricks--such as glazing and drybrush.Exercises help you loosen up and learn the ins and outs of putting paint on paper. Easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions show you how to paint water, believable skies, a variety of trees in different seasons and other popular elements. Plus, a dozen demonstrations show you how paintings come together, from initial sketch to final brushstrokes.With Cathy's help, you can start painting right away!

What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images


W.J. Thomas Mitchell - 2005
    J. T. Mitchell, we need to reckon with images not just as inert objects that convey meaning but as animated beings with desires, needs, appetites, demands, and drives of their own. What Do Pictures Want? explores this idea and highlights Mitchell's innovative and profoundly influential thinking on picture theory and the lives and loves of images. Ranging across the visual arts, literature, and mass media, Mitchell applies characteristically brilliant and wry analyses to Byzantine icons and cyberpunk films, racial stereotypes and public monuments, ancient idols and modern clones, offensive images and found objects, American photography and aboriginal painting. Opening new vistas in iconology and the emergent field of visual culture, he also considers the importance of Dolly the Sheep—who, as a clone, fulfills the ancient dream of creating a living image—and the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11, which, among other things, signifies a new and virulent form of iconoclasm.What Do Pictures Want? offers an immensely rich and suggestive account of the interplay between the visible and the readable. A work by one of our leading theorists of visual representation, it will be a touchstone for art historians, literary critics, anthropologists, and philosophers alike.   “A treasury of episodes—generally overlooked by art history and visual studies—that turn on images that ‘walk by themselves’ and exert their own power over the living.”—Norman Bryson, Artforum

Fifteen Poets of the Aztec World


Miguel León-Portilla
    Biographies of fifteen composers of Nahuatl verse and analyses of their work are followed by their extant poems in Nahuatl and in English.The poets - fourteen men and one woman - lived in the central highlands of Mexico and spoke Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Texcocans, Tlaxcalans, and several other chiefdoms. These authors of "flower and song" (a Nahuatl metaphor for poetry, art, and symbolism) lived during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Sources for the poems included indigenous "codices," books of songs" now unfortunately lost, and renditions of them preserved by the Nahuatl oral tradition, which survived the Spanish Conquest and were recorded by several young natives in two manuscripts.

Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2014 Release)


Andrew Faulkner - 2014
    Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book contains 14 lessons that cover the basics, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you. In addition to learning the key elements of the Photoshop interface, this completely revised CC (2014 release) edition covers new features, including Generator, 3D printing, linked Smart Objects, Blur Gallery, smarter Smart Guides, Perspective Warp, and more. Purchasing this book gives you access to the downloadable lesson files you need to work through the projects in the book, and to electronic book updates covering new features that Adobe releases for Creative Cloud customers. For access, goto www.peachpit.com/redeem and redeem the unique code provided inside this book. "The Classroom in a Book series is by far the best training material on the market. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students." Barbara Binder, Adobe Certified InstructorRocky Mountain Training

Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America


Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
    This remarkable book is his odyssey, first written in 1542 as an official report to the king of Spain under the title La Relacion.

Brian May's Red Special: The Story of the Home-Made Guitar that Rocked Queen and the World


Brian May - 2014
      In 1963, Brian May and his father Harold started to build the Red Special, an electric guitar meant to outperform anything commercially made. "My dad and I decided to make an electric guitar. I designed an instrument from scratch, with the intention that it would have a capability beyond anything that was out there, more tunable, with a greater range of pitches and sounds, with a better tremolo, and with a capability of feeding back through the air in a 'good' way'." (Brian May). Brian used the Red Special guitar on every Queen and solo album that he recorded and at the vast majority of his live performances: the roof of Buckingham Palace, Live Aid, the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics . . . and beyond. Here, Brian talks about his one-of-a-kind instrument, from its creation on. Along with original diagrams, sketches, and notes, May has included a great selection of photographs of himself with the guitar, in action from the last 40 years, and photographs of every stage of the Red Special's creation, which was fully dismantled and photographed inside and out just for this book, as well as close-ups and X-rays, and Brian will be commenting on it all. It is a unique guitar with unique sound. Any fan of Queen, Brian, or electric guitars will find this book utterly fascinating. 200 clr and b&w illus.

Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden


Quentin Bell - 1997
    In 1916, Virginia Woolf wrote to her sister, Vanessa Bell, that though the farmhouse at Charleston in Sussex was primitive, you could make it lovely. Six months later, Bell moved in and, treating the house as a blank canvas, went on to create a treasury of Bloomsbury art.

Born to Dance: Celebrating Moments of Joy, from Toddler to Teen


Jordan Matter - 2018
    A celebration of what it means to be young and full of possibility and to live life joyfully, featuring gorgeous color photographs of young dancers (ages 4-17) by Dancers Among Us photographer Jordan Matter.

FRUiTS


Shoichi Aoki - 2001
    Colourful, fascinating and funny, this is the first time these cult images have been published outside Japan.

The Last Resort


Martin Parr - 1998
    Martin Parr is Europe's premier contemporary photographer, and The Last Resort is the book that is considered to have launched his career. Taken at the height of the Thatcher years, it depicts the "great British seaside" in all its garish glory. Described by some as cruel and voyeuristic and by others as a stunning satire on the state of Britain, early editions are now much sought after by collectors worldwide. Includes a new essay by Gerry Badger, photographer, architect, curator, and critic.

Weegee's World


Miles Barth - 2000
    It captures bygone New York at its most raucous, dangerous, and outrageous. Grisly murders, tragic accidents, gawking crowds, along with intimate human-interest and high-society images, are all captured by Weegee's flash. Interpretive essays, an annotated chronology, bibliography, filmography, and a list of exhibitions complete this comprehensive volume.