Book picks similar to
This Is Mars by Xavier Barral


photography
science
astronomy
non-fiction

Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide


Robert Dinwiddie - 2005
    High school & older.

Yosemite and the Range of Light


Ansel Adams - 1979
    Full page B&W photos

The Sixties


Richard Avedon - 1999
    Benjamin Spock, September 1969The connection between all the rhetoric and all the poetry, between the words of a Black Panther and those of a rock star or a pacifist, between the scars of a pop artist and those of a napalm victim, have haunted and informed the structuring of this book, with its own peculiar version of a beginning, a middle, and an end.

What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky


Kelsey Oseid - 2017
     Combining art, mythology, and science, What We See in the Stars gives readers a tour of the night sky through more than 100 magical pieces of original art, all accompanied by text that weaves related legends and lore with scientific facts. This beautifully packaged book covers the night sky's most brilliant features--such as the constellations, the moon, the bright stars, and the visible planets--as well as less familiar celestial phenomena like the outer planets, nebulae, and deep space. Adults seeking to recapture the magic of youthful stargazing, younger readers interested in learning about natural history and outer space, and those who appreciate beautiful, hand-painted art will all delight in this charming book.

Earth from Above


Yann Arthus-Bertrand - 1999
    This revised and expanded edition contains a new introduction by Lester Brown, founder and president ofthe Earth Policy Institute, new text and captions by environmental experts, and, best of all, an additional 17 photographs.

Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art


John Szarkowski - 1973
    In concise analyses, John Szarkowski investigates the aesthetic, formal, social and historical issues of 100 photographs selected from the Modern's collections. This archive of pictures contains a vast range of works from familiar and not-so-familiar photographers. Included are some the of most recognizable pictures of the past 150 years by acknowledged masters of their field such as Adamson, Cameron, Stieglitz, Weston, Cartier-Bresson, Cunningham, Arbus and Frank.

Black Hole Survival Guide


Janna Levin - 2020
    In this book, she helps us to understand and find delight in the black hole--perhaps the most opaque theoretical construct ever imagined by physicists--illustrated with original artwork by American painter and photographer Lia Halloran. Levin takes us on an evocative exploration of black holes, provoking us to imagine the visceral experience of a black hole encounter. She reveals the influence of black holes as they populate the universe, sculpt galaxies, and even infuse the whole expanse of reality that we inhabit. Lively, engaging, and utterly unique, Black Hole Survival Guide is not just informative--it is, aswell, a wonderful read from first to last.

The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe


Stephen Hawking - 2002
    "The Theory of Everything" presents the most complex theories, both past and present, of physics; yet it remains clear and accessible. It will enlighten readers and expose them to the rich history of scientific thought and the complexities of the universe in which we live.

Photographs


Robert Capa - 1969
    --Margarett Loke, "ARTnews""His coverage of the Spanish civil war established Capa's reputation as a peerless battlefield photojournalist... But he was also a man who loved making pictures of beautiful women, famous men and grand parties. Often overlooked when discussing the Capa legacy, those too, were his life's work. Both Capas--the raconteur of high society and the fearless witness to war--are evident in "Robert Capa: Photographs." The two sides of Capa's work may seem irreconcilable, but they're not. He was recording one world. His own."--Allison Adato, "Life Magazine"

The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew


Alan Lightman - 2013
    He looks at the difficult dialogue between science and religion; the conflict between our human desire for permanence and the impermanence of nature; the possibility that our universe is simply an accident; the manner in which modern technology has separated us from direct experience of the world; and our resistance to the view that our bodies and minds can be explained by scientific logic and laws. And behind all of these considerations is the suggestion—at once haunting and exhilarating—that what we see and understand of the world is only a tiny piece of the extraordinary, perhaps unfathomable whole.

Plant Tribe: Living Happily Ever After with Plants


Igor Josifovic - 2020
    Aimed at a wider audience than typical houseplant books, each chapter combines easily digestible plant knowledge, style guidance via real home interiors, and inspiring advice for using plants to increase energy, creativity, and well-being and to attract love and prosperity. Also included: real-world @urbanjungleblog followers’ FAQs; a section on plants and pets; and plant care for the different stages of a houseplant’s life. The focus is on using plants to raise the positive energy of every room in the house and to live happily ever after with plants.

Elliott Erwitt: Snaps


Murray Sayle - 2001
    A member of the prestigious Magnum agency since 1954, he has photographed all over the world and his images have been the subject of many books and exhibitions.Containing over 500 pictures, over half of which have never been published before, Elliott Erwitt Snaps is a unique and comprehensive survey of his work. From famous images such as Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon arguing in Moscow in 1959 and Marilyn Monroe with the cast of the movie The Misfits, to his many more personal images of places, things, people and animals, Erwitt's unmistakable, often witty, style gives us a snapshot of the famous and the ordinary, the strange and the mundane over a period of more than half a century, through the lens of one of the period's finest image-makers.The book is arranged in nine chapters, each with a one-word title: Look, Move, Play, Read, Rest, Touch, Tell, Point, Stand. For Erwitt, whose photography is a study and celebration of life, these are the basic actions of life - the things people do. The photographs are not intended to illustrate the words, but the words act as a means of grouping and organizing, making broad connections and also playing with pun and ambiguity, in keeping with the visual games Erwitt plays.

Chihuly: 365 Days


Dale Chihuly - 2007
    Chihuly: 365 Days is a richly illustrated photo survey of his entire four-decade career, with more than 500 pictures showing all facets of his work—from intimate smaller pieces to the tremendous outdoor installations that have thrilled millions of visitors. There are also personal photos of the artist; of “Team chihuly” at the Boathouse, his studio in Seattle, Washington; and of his marvelous drawings—all selected by the artist himself. Most of the photographs have never before been published.Quotations from and about Chihuly, as well as descriptions of his various types of works and short texts on his most prominent series pieces, accompany the images. The captions also act as a chronology of his life and work.

Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity


Carlo Rovelli - 2014
    Here he explains how our image of the world has changed throughout centuries. Fom Aristotle to Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday to the Higgs boson, he takes us on a wondrous journey to show us that beyond our ever-changing idea of reality is a whole new world that has yet to be discovered.

Why Does E=mc²? (And Why Should We Care?)


Brian Cox - 2009
    Breaking down the symbols themselves, they pose a series of questions: What is energy? What is mass? What has the speed of light got to do with energy and mass? In answering these questions, they take us to the site of one of the largest scientific experiments ever conducted. Lying beneath the city of Geneva, straddling the Franco-Swiss boarder, is a 27 km particle accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider. Using this gigantic machine—which can recreate conditions in the early Universe fractions of a second after the Big Bang—Cox and Forshaw will describe the current theory behind the origin of mass.Alongside questions of energy and mass, they will consider the third, and perhaps, most intriguing element of the equation: 'c' - or the speed of light. Why is it that the speed of light is the exchange rate? Answering this question is at the heart of the investigation as the authors demonstrate how, in order to truly understand why E=mc2, we first must understand why we must move forward in time and not backwards and how objects in our 3-dimensional world actually move in 4-dimensional space-time. In other words, how the very fabric of our world is constructed. A collaboration between two of the youngest professors in the UK, Why Does E=mc2? promises to be one of the most exciting and accessible explanations of the theory of relativity in recent years.