More than Human


Tim Flach - 2012
    Now he presents the culmination of a career-long endeavor, an extraordinary body of work in which each image is more striking and powerful than the last.Just as did Flach’s highly acclaimed previous books, Equus and Dogs, More than Human will amaze and inspire, in a constant affirmation of the animal, whether it be rare or common, powerful or defenseless, odd or majestic. The book showcases a menagerie of creatures—pandas, tigers, bats, lions, orangutans, cobras, bullfrogs, chimpanzees, wolves, porcupines, elephants, owls, armadillos, among many others—as they have never been seen before. Shedding light on Flach’s images will be an accessible collection of texts, written and edited by author Lewis Blackwell

The Oldest Living Things in the World


Rachel A. Sussman - 2014
    Over the past decade, artist Rachel Sussman has researched, worked with biologists, and traveled the world to photograph continuously living organisms that are 2,000 years old and older. Spanning from Antarctica to Greenland, the Mojave Desert to the Australian Outback, the result is a stunning and unique visual collection of ancient organisms unlike anything that has been created in the arts or sciences before, insightfully and accessibly narrated by Sussman along the way. Her work is both timeless and timely, and spans disciplines, continents, and millennia. It is underscored by an innate environmentalism and driven by Sussman’s relentless curiosity. She begins at “year zero,” and looks back from there, photographing the past in the present.  These ancient individuals live on every continent and range from Greenlandic lichens that grow only one centimeter a century, to unique desert shrubs in Africa and South America, a predatory fungus in Oregon, Caribbean brain coral, to an 80,000-year-old colony of aspen in Utah. Sussman journeyed to Antarctica to photograph 5,500-year-old moss; Australia for stromatolites, primeval organisms tied to the oxygenation of the planet and the beginnings of life on Earth; and to Tasmania to capture a 43,600-year-old self-propagating shrub that’s the last individual of its kind. Her portraits reveal the living history of our planet—and what we stand to lose in the future. These ancient survivors have weathered millennia in some of the world’s most extreme environments, yet climate change and human encroachment have put many of them in danger. Two of her subjects have already met with untimely deaths by human hands. Alongside the photographs, Sussman relays fascinating – and sometimes harrowing – tales of her global adventures tracking down her subjects and shares insights from the scientists who research them. The oldest living things in the world are a record and celebration of the past, a call to action in the present, and a barometer of our future.

Chased by the Light: A 90-Day Journey-Revisited After the Storm


Jim Brandenburg - 1998
    This exquisite book, now in softcover, is the result of that bold and immensely personal project. Through the accompanying essay, Brandenburg shares his innermost thoughts and passions as he witnesses the cycle of nature near his home in the northwoods of Minnesota.Brandenburg also contributes new photos and an Epilog that illustrates and discusses the devastating summer wind storm that wreaked havoc on the locations photographed for the original project.

Dear Data


Giorgia Lupi - 2016
    The result is described as “a thought-provoking visual feast”.

Expanding Universe: Photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope


Charles F. Bolden Jr. - 2015
    On the 25th anniversary of its launch into low-earth orbit, TASCHEN celebrates its most breathtaking deep space images both as scientific feats and as photographic masterpieces. Ultra high-resolution and taken with almost no background light, these pictures have answered some of the most compelling questions of time and space, while also revealing new mysteries, like the strange “dark energy” that sees the universe expanding at an ever-accelerated rate. In generous square format with several foldouts, the pictures mesmerize in their iridescent colors, intricate textures, and vast, fragile forms.The collection is accompanied by an essay from photography critic Owen Edwards and an interview with Zoltan Levay, who explains how the pictures are composed. Veteran Hubble astronauts Charles F. Bolden, Jr. and John Mace Grunsfeld also offer their insights on Hubble’s legacy and future space exploration.

Looking in: Robert Frank's the Americans


Sarah Greenough - 2009
    Drawing on newly examined archival sources, it provides a fascinating in-depth examination of the making of the photographs and the book's construction, using vintage contact sheets, work prints and letters that literally chart Frank's journey around the country on a Guggenheim grant in 1955-56. Curator and editor Sarah Greenough and her colleagues also explore the roots of The Americans in Frank's earlier books, which are abundantly illustrated here, and in books by photographers Walker Evans, Bill Brandt and others. The 83 original photographs from The Americans are presented in sequence in as near vintage prints as possible. The catalogue concludes with an examination of Frank's later reinterpretations and deconstructions of The Americans, bringing full circle the history of this resounding entry in the annals of photography. This volume is a reprint of the 2009 edition.

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1763


Albertus Seba - 1765
    His amazing, unprecedented collection of animals, plants and insects from all around the world gained international fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen and arranged the publication of a four-volume catalog detailing his entire collection?from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well as fantastic beasts, such as a hydra and a dragon. Seba's scenic illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a single plate, were unusual even for the time. Many of the stranger and more peculiar creatures from Seba's collection, some of which are now extinct, were as curious to those in Seba's day as they are to us now. This reproduction is taken from a rare, hand-colored original. The introduction offers background information about the fascinating tradition of the cabinet of curiosities to which Seba's curiosities belonged.

Nature's Chaos


Eliot Porter - 1990
    Eliot Porter's photographs of the natural world, spanning thirty-five years and five continents -- from an Antarctic ice floe to an American desert to an Icelandic lava field -- reveal in mesmerizing ways what scientists are beginning to see for themselves: the patterns, relations, and interactions present in nature's disorder and wildness. This is the perfect marriage of image and text -- brilliant full-color photographs by the preeminent nature photographer of his generation together with an illuminating essay by the widely praised author of Chaos.

The Great Life Photographers


LIFE - 2004
    THE GREAT LIFE PHOTOGRAPHERS presents the most iconic images of the past century, as well as little-known gems from the LIFE archives. Many of these images are markers of the major milestones of history--the first pictures from inside the womb or from outer space, Robert Capas falling soldier, and memorable scenes from Tiananmen Square. Defining celebrity portraits of Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson are also featured. This startingly rich collection of both color and black-and-white photographs is a vivid fulfillment of Henry Luces charge: To see life; to see the world....To be amazed!

Accidentally Wes Anderson


Wally Koval - 2020
     Accidentally Wes Anderson began as a personal travel bucket list, a catalog of visually striking and historically unique destinations that capture the imagined worlds of Wes Anderson. Now, inspired by a community of more than one million Adventurers, Accidentally Wes Anderson tells the stories behind more than 200 of the most beautiful, idiosyncratic, and interesting places on Earth. This book, authorized by Wes Anderson himself, travels to every continent and into your own backyard to identify quirky landmarks and undiscovered gems: places you may have passed by, some you always wanted to explore, and many you never knew existed. Fueled by a vision for distinctive design, stunning photography, and unexpected narratives, Accidentally Wes Anderson is a passport to inspiration and adventure. Perfect for modern travelers and fans of Wes Anderson's distinctive aesthetic, this is an invitation to look at your world through a different lens.

Heaven to Hell


David Lachapelle - 2006
    Packed with astonishing, color-saturated, and provocative images, those titles both became instant collector's items and have since gone through multiple printings. Featuring almost twice as many images as its predecessors, LaChapelle Heaven to Hell is an explosive compilation of new work by the visionary photographer. Since the publication of Hotel LaChapelle, the strength of LaChapelle's work lies in its ability to focus the lens of celebrity and fashion toward more pressing issues of societal concern. LaChapelle's images ? of the most famous faces on the planet, and marginalized figures like transsexual Amanda Lepore or the cast of his critically acclaimed social documentary Rize ? call into question our relationship with gender, glamour, and status. Using his trademark baroque excess, LaChapelle inverts the consumption he appears to celebrate, pointing instead to apocalyptic consequences for humanity itself. While referencing and acknowledging diverse sources such as the Renaissance, art history, cinema, The Bible, pornography, and the new globalized pop culture, LaChapelle has fashioned a deeply personal and epoch-defining visual language that holds up a mirror to our times. Sumptuously packaged in the trilogy's boxed hardcover format, LaChapelle Heaven to Hell is a must-have for anyone interested in contemporary photography. It is also keenly priced, especially for those who have coveted TASCHEN's limited edition, LaChapelle, Artists & Prostitutes. The artist: Not yet out of high school, DavidLaChapelle was offered his first professional job by Andy Warhol to shoot for Interview magazine. His photography has been showcased in numerous galleries and museums, including Tony Shafrazi Gallery and Deitch Projects in New York, the Fahey-Klein Gallery in California, Camerawork in Germany, Sozzani and Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Italy. His unfettered images of celebrity and contemporary pop culture have appeared on and between the covers of magazines such as Italian Vogue, French Vogue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stoneand i-D. LaChapelle has also directed music videos for artists such as Moby, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and The Vines. His burgeoning interest in film saw him make the short documentary Krumped, an award-winner at Sundance from which he developed RIZE, the feature film released worldwide in 2005 to huge critical acclaim. American Photo recently ranked him as one of the top ten ?Most Important People in Photography.?

Shake


Carli Davidson - 2013
    This glorious, graphic volume will stop you dead in your tracks as you are presented with images of man's best friend caught in contortion: hair wild, eyes darting, ears and jowls flopping every which way.With Shake, photographer Carli Davidson proves how eager and elated we are to see our pets in new ways. The result is a one-of-a-kind book: a colorful assemblage of photographs that are simultaneously startling and endearing, consistently hard to look away from, and revealing.

Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits: Stories and Techniques from a Photographer's Photographer


Gregory Heisler - 2013
    From his famously controversial portrait of President George H.W. Bush (which led to the revocation of Heisler’s White House clearance) to his evocative post-9/11 Time magazine cover of Rudolph Giuliani, to stunning portraits of Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Hillary Clinton, Michael Phelps, Muhammad Ali, and many more, Heisler reveals the creative and technical processes that led to each frame. For Heisler’s fans and all lovers of photography, Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits offers not only a gorgeous collection of both black-and-white and color portraits, but an engrossing look at the rarely seen art of a master photographer at work. With a foreword by New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

On Photography


Susan Sontag - 1973
    Sontag develops further the concept of 'transparency'. When anything can be photographed and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely with no expectations of discovering what it means. This collection of six lucid and invigorating essays, the most famous being "In Plato's Cave", make up a deep exploration of how the image has affected society.

Face Paint: The Story of Makeup


Lisa Eldridge - 2015
    In Face Paint, Lisa Eldridge reveals the entire history of the art form, from Egyptian and Classical times up through the Victorian age and golden era of Hollywood, and also surveys the cutting-edge makeup science of today and tomorrow. Face Paint explores the practical and idiosyncratic reasons behind makeup’s use, the actual materials employed over generations, and the glamorous icons that people emulate and how they achieved their effects. An engaging history of style, it is also a social history of women and the ways in which we can understand their lives through the prism and impact of makeup.