The Suffering of Light


Alex Webb - 2011
    Gathering some of his most iconic images, many of which were taken in the far corners of the earth, this exquisite book brings a fresh perspective to his extensive catalog. Recognized as a pioneer of American color photography since the 1970s, Webb has consistently created photographs characterized by intense color and light. His work, with its richly layered and complex composition, touches on multiple genres, including street photography, photojournalism, and fine art, but as Webb claims, "to me it all is photography. You have to go out and explore the world with a camera." Webb's ability to distill gesture, color and contrasting cultural tensions into single, beguiling frames results in evocative images that convey a sense of enigma, irony and humor. Featuring key works alongside previously unpublished photographs, The Suffering of Light provides the most thorough examination to date of this modern master's prolific, 30-year career.The photographs of Alex Webb (born 1952) have appeared in a wide range of publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Life, Stern and National Geographic, and have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He is a recipient of the Leica Medal of Excellence (2000) and the Premio Internacional de Fotografia Alcobendas (2009). A member of Magnum Photos since 1976, Webb lives in New York City.

Follow Me To: A Journey around the World Through the Eyes of Two Ordinary Travelers


Murad Osmann - 2014
    It is a story told through the eyes of two ordinary travelers who attempt to portray local lifestyles and narratives by means of photography. Since the project’s launch on Instagram, it has become a worldwide Internet sensation, emerging as a leading news feature and gathering millions of views on social media and the news sites that covered it. In each stunning image, photographer Murad Osmann is led to a new location by his girlfriend, Nataly Zakharova.These images remind us that in the hustle and bustle of daily life, we so often forget to stop and appreciate the things that surround us—the historical and architectural heritage left to us by our ancestors. Readers join Osmann from the point of view of the main character and are taken on a journey to different historical and cultural sites. The project aims to acquaint readers with different lifestyles. For Osmann and Zakharova, this theme seems infinite, as there are an endless number of places to visit on our planet. Paging through the book, readers will be invited to see something familiar to them from another point of view, via the lens of Osmann’s camera.Follow Zakharova and Osmann on a trip around the world, through such locations as Moscow, Madrid, Ibiza, Hong Kong, New York, and London.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families


Philip Gourevitch - 1998
    Over the next three months, 800,000 Tutsis were murdered in the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews. Philip Gourevitch's haunting work is an anatomy of the killings in Rwanda, a vivid history of the genocide's background, and an unforgettable account of what it means to survive in its aftermath.

Old Ireland in Colour


John Breslin - 2021
    From the chaos of the Civil War to the simple beauty of the islands; from legendary revolutionaries to modest fisherfolk, every image has been exquisitely transformed and every page bursting with life. Using a combination of cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology and his own historical research, John Breslin has meticulously colourised these pictures with breath-taking attention to detail and authenticity. With over 250 photographs from all four provinces, and accompanied by fascinating captions by historian Sarah-Anne Buckley, Old Ireland in Colour breathes new life into the scenes we thought we knew, and brings our ancestors back to life before our eyes.

Stanley Donwood: There Will Be No Quiet


Stanley Donwood - 2019
    His influential work spans many practices over a 23-year period, from music packaging to installation work to printmaking. Here, he reveals his personal notebooks, photographs, sketches, and abandoned routes to iconic Radiohead artworks. Arranged chronologically, each chapter is dedicated to a major work—whether an album cover, promotional piece, or a personal project—and is presented as a step-by-step working case study. Featuring commentary by Thom Yorke and never-before-seen archival material, this is the first deep dive into Donwood’s creative practice and the artistic freedom afforded to him by working for a major music act. It is a must-have for fans of the band and anyone interested in graphic design and popular culture.

Steve McQueen


William Claxton - 2000
    But the star of such films as The Great Escape, Love with the Proper Stranger, Nevada Smith, The Getaway, and Papillon was largely a mystery off-screen. These photos, taken over a six-year period during the 1960s by one of the actor's best friends, show the hidden McQueen: tender, sensitive, and unpredictable.

Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America's National Parks


Q.T. Luong - 2016
    After Congress viewed photos of Yosemite, President Lincoln was moved to sign a bill that paved the way for the U.S. National Park Service, which was founded in 1916 and is now celebrating its centennial. In Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America's National Parks, photographer QT Luong pays tribute to the millions of acres of protected wilderness in our country's 59 national parks. Luong, who is featured in Ken Burns's and Dayton Duncan's documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea, is one the most prolific photographers working in the national parks and the only one to have made large-format photographs in each of them. In an odyssey that spanned more than 20 years and 300 visits, Luong focused his lenses on iconic landscapes and rarely seen remote views, presenting his journey in this sumptuous array of more than 500 breathtaking images. Accompanying the collection of scenic masterpieces is a guide that includes maps of each park, as well as extended captions that detail where and how the photographs were made. Designed to inspire visitors to connect with the parks and invite photographers to re-create these landscapes, the guide also provides anecdotal observations that give context to the pictures and convey the sheer scope of Luong's extraordinary odyssey. Including an introduction by award-winning author and documentary filmmaker Dayton Duncan, Treasured Lands is a rich visual tour of the U.S. National Parks and an invaluable guide from a photographer who hiked - or paddled, dived, skied, snowshoed, and climbed - each park, shooting in all kinds of terrain, in all seasons, and at all times of day. QT Luong's timeless gallery of the nation's most revered landscapes beckons to nature lovers, armchair travelers, and photography enthusiasts alike, keeping America's natural wonders within reach.

Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America


Stanley B. Burns - 1990
    Includes a chronological essay on death in America, as well as a bibliography.Sleeping Beauty is coveted for having played a large role in the rediscovery of the normalcy of postmortem photography. In 1990, Dr. Stanley B. Burns' landmark publication Sleeping Beauty, Memorial in Photography in America, ushered in a new era of appreciation of the importance of these images. Since the publication of Sleeping Beauty, exhibitions based on the 3-book series of memorial images have been created regularly. Perhaps the most prestigious was Le Dernier Portrait at Paris' Musée d'Orsay in 2002. To accompany the exhibit, Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement and the Family, American & European Traditions was produced. In 2011, Sleeping Beauty III: Memorial Photography, The Children was written. Numerous other documentarians and feature filmmakers have utilized these poignant photographs, most notably in The Others. The Burns Archive serves as the premier source of images related to death, mourning and medial practices. Postmortem photography is the taking of a photograph of a deceased loved one, and was a normal part of American and European culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has nothing to do with images of violence, crime, or war. Death, and personally dealing with death, was prevalent throughout the entire world as epidemics would come quickly and kill quickly. Advances in medicine removed unexpected death from everyday life and professionals took over. Commissioned by grieving families, postmortem photographs not only helped in the grieving process, but often represented the only visual remembrance of the deceased and were among a family's most precious possessions. Mourning periods were based on family relationships and could last from months to years. Small photographs of the deceased were often carried in lockets or kept close to the body for greater intimacy. As many of the diseases that killed our ancestors were conquered and photography advanced during the century, society grew more and more distant from death, and practices, styles, and traditions of mourning and memorialization changed.The earliest postmortem photographs were often close-ups of the face or full body, at times depicted to appear lifelike or napping. Children were often positioned in a crib, posed with a favorite toy, or with a family member, most often the mother. Later photographs depict the subject in a coffin. Flowers, like forget-me-nots and calla lilies, were common in postmortem photography of all types. Later photographic memorials involve a shrine usually including a living portrait and flowers dedicated to the deceased.

You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes


Chris Hadfield - 2014
    . .In You Are Here, bestselling author and celebrated astronaut Chris Hadfield creates a virtual orbit of Earth, giving us the really big picture: this is our home, from space. The millions of us who followed Hadfield's news-making Twitter feed from the ISS thought we knew what we were looking at when we first saw his photos. But we may have caught the beauty and missed the full meaning. Now, through photographs - many of which have never been shared - Hadfield unveils a fresh and insightful look at our planet. He sees astonishing detail and importance in these images, not just because he's spent months in space but because his in-depth knowledge of geology, geography and meteorology allows him to reveal the photos' mysteries.Featuring Hadfield's favourite images, You Are Here is divided by continent and represents one (idealized) orbit of the ISS. This planetary photo tour - surprising, playful, thought-provoking and visually delightful - provides a breathtakingly beautiful perspective on the wonders of the world. You Are Here opens a singular window on our planet, using remarkable photographs to illuminate the history and consequences of human settlement, the magnificence of newly uncovered landscapes, and the power of the natural forces shaping our world and the future of our species.

The Beatles: 365 Days


Simon Wells - 2005
    Arranged chronologically, the photos trace the story of the band, from their emergence on the scene in England, through their rise to international superstardom, to their very public breakup in 1970. Every aspect of their evolution from mop-tops to legends is depicted, including their personal lives, performances, press conferences, recording sessions, public appearances, photo sessions, filmmaking, and more. The captions by Simon Wells are rich in detail and provide both band history and cultural context for the photographs, as well as quotes from members of the band and those associated with them that have never been published. The insatiable hunger for new books about the Beatles has never waned, and this arresting volume-with its wealth of never- and seldom-seen pictures that have long been embargoed at the Getty Images archive-will have a special appeal for all Beatles fans.

Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa


Hans W. Silvester - 2007
    This collection of photographs captures these accoutrements.

People Knitting: A Century of Photographs


Barbara Levine - 2016
    When women posed with their knitting in the earliest nineteenth-century photographs, it demonstrated their virtue and skill as homemakers. Later, knitting became fashionable among the wealthy as a sign of culture and artistic ability. During the two world wars, images of nurses, soldiers, prisoners, and even knitting clubs composed of very serious small boys—all with heads bent down, intent on knitting items (especially socks) for the troops—abounded. In the 1950s and 1960s, as snapshots became ubiquitous, knitters took on a jauntier air, posing with handiwork held proudly aloft. People Knitting is a quirky and fascinating gift for the knitter in your life.

Backwoods Genius


Julia Scully - 2012
    After his death, the contents of his studio, including thousands of glass negatives, were sold off for five dollars. For years the fragile negatives sat forgotten and deteriorating in cardboard boxes in an open carport. How did it happen, then, that the most implausible of events took place? That Disfarmer’s haunting portraits were retrieved from oblivion, that today they sell for upwards of $12,000 each at posh New York art galleries; his photographs proclaimed works of art by prestigious critics and journals and exhibited around the world? The story of Disfarmer’s rise to fame is a colorful, improbable, and ultimately fascinating one that involves an unlikely assortment of individuals. Would any of this have happened if a young New York photographer hadn't been so in love with a pretty model that he was willing to give up his career for her; if a preacher’s son from Arkansas hadn't spent 30 years in the Army Corps of Engineers mapping the U.S. from an airplane; if a magazine editor hadn't felt a strange and powerful connection to the work? The cast of characters includes these, plus a restless and wealthy young Chicago aristocrat and even a grandson of FDR. It’s a compelling story which reveals how these diverse people were part of a chain of events whose far-reaching consequences none of them could have foreseen, least of all the strange and reclusive genius of Heber Springs. Until now, the whole story has not been told.

TIME-LIFE World War II in 500 Photographs


Time-Life Books - 2014
    It was also the costliest battle in history in terms of human life, with millions perishing in combat, in concentration camps, and under the rubble of crushed cities. This gripping and epic battle is brought powerfully to life on every page of Time-Life Books' World War II in 500 Photographs. Inside, you'll find:Key events, battles, and turning points, year by yearProfiles of the war's leaders, heroes, and enemiesMemorable quotations and firsthand accountsColor maps and photo timelinesFrom the Nazis' early rise to power to Victory over Japan Day, this essential guide brings you to the front lines of the war that changed our world.

Unseen Vogue


Robin Derrick - 2002
    Drawn from the archives of British Vogue, an immense resource of over 1,000,000 images, the book presents hundreds of images never seen before - the killed pictures, rejects and out-takes - to form a fresh, new history of fashion photography. Featuring the first attempts of many now internationally famous photographers, great pictures by forgotten masters, out-takes from famous shoots and many other extraordinary and sometimes controversial pictures. By showing contact sheets and unedited film UNSEEN VOGUE opens up the process of making fashion images, previously the reserve of fashion's inner circle.From Irving Penn to David Bailey, from Cecil Beaton to Mario Testino - the new book will be an authoritative addition to the documented history of fashion photography.