Photography

Experience the wild beauty of birds around the Bay.

"Gives voice to a piece of California that nourishes an astonishing array of birds who deserve celebration." —Chris Johns, Former Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic

Having explored San Francisco neighborhoods in three celebrated books, Dick Evans turns here to the avian species that call the Bay Area home. With his photographer's eye, he finds art and drama in the lives of birds, from the smallest sparrows to long-legged Great Blue Herons. He captures the pockets of wilderness in our cities that make the area a birder's paradise: from a marsh full of endangered birds wading in the reeds near the Oakland Airport to the isolated refuge of the Farallon Islands, home to a quarter-million seabirds and a handful of visiting scientists; from Crissy Field, flocked with egrets, to the pasturelands birds share with cattle. His vibrant images are interspersed with text by Hannah Hindley that weaves us more deeply into relationship with our avian neighbors, introducing readers to the natural history of the region, to themes of interdependence and ecology, and to the evolving challenges for birds in a densely settled urban environment. At the heart of these images and stories is love for the living descendants of dinosaurs as they soar and parade, and awe at their ephemerality and endurance. Evans's photos highlight the wonder of a world on the wing and the rich biodiversity of Bay Area birds.

This book was made possible by the guidance and insight of Point Blue Conservation Science. A portion of book sales will be donated to support their ongoing work on climate-smart wildlife conservation.

Reimagines photography through the long history of ideas of expression

The end of the nineteenth century saw massive developments and innovations in photography at a time when the forces of Western modernity—industrialization, racialization, and capitalism—were quickly reshaping the world. The Unintended slows down the moment in which the technology of photography seemed to speed itself—and so the history of racial capitalism—up. It follows the substantial shifts in the markets, mediums, and forms of photography during a legally murky period at the end of the nineteenth century. Monica Huerta traces the subtle and paradoxical ways legal thinking through photographic lenses reinscribed a particular aesthetics of whiteness in the very conceptions of property ownership.

The book pulls together an archive that encompasses the histories of performance and portraiture alongside the legal, pursuing the logics by which property rights involving photographs are affirmed (or denied) in precedent-setting court cases and legal texts. Emphasizing the making of “expression” into property to focus our attention on the failures of control that cameras do not invent, but rather put new emphasis on, this book argues that designations of control’s absence are central to the practice and idea of property-making.

The Unintended proposes that tracking and analyzing the sensed horizons of intention, control, autonomy, will, and volition offers another way into understanding how white supremacy functions. Ultimately, its unique historical reading practice offers a historically-specific vantage on the everyday workings of racial capitalism and the inheritances of white supremacy that structure so much of our lives.

An exploration of how the widespread circulation of pictures reshaped a nineteenth-century US culture that was accustomed to printed and spoken words

When and how did pictures start to permeate everyday lives in the United States? What happened to those daily lives when they did? And what happened to pictures in the process? In this full-color, heavily illustrated book, Michael Leja traces the beginnings of a transformation in cultural life in the United States: when the widespread circulation of pictures reshaped a culture accustomed to printed and spoken words.

In the three decades before the Civil War, the ordinary experiences of a large segment of the population came to include pictures of many kinds, including illustrations in books, pamphlets, and newspapers; photographs on cards; full-sheet printed pictures collected in scrapbooks or albums or hung on walls; posters and broadsheets; spectacular paintings displayed in theatrical venues; and more. Pictures supplemented verbal texts—and in some cases overshadowed them—for conveying news and information; portraying people, places, and events; focusing public discourse; selling things; educating and instructing; generating excitement and aesthetic gratification; promoting and disguising political agendas; shaping social identities; and building and undermining social bonds.

A Flood of Pictures recovers a time before successful pictorial formulas for mass appeal were established, before an audience habituated to consumption of pictures existed, and before pictures had become thoroughly commodified. Through its exploration of these nineteenth-century developments, the book reveals the foundations of our picture-saturated twenty-first century.

100 Ways to Improve Your Landscape Photographs is an easy-reference guide to landscape photography; packed with practical advice and stunning photos this book will help and inspire photographers of all levels. This is a simple and comprehensive troubleshooting guide to landscape photography. The book is divided into themed sections and features simple explanations of techniques, which will help both beginners and more advanced photographers get the results they want. The thematic sections cover all areas of landscape photography, including coastal, panoramic and seasonal, as well as lighting effects, composition and exposure.

Since its founding in 1947, the legendary Magnum Photos agency has been telling its own story about photographers who were witnesses to history and artists on the hunt for decisive moments. Based on unprecedented archival research, The Decisive Network unravels Magnum’s mythologies to offer a new history of what it meant to shoot, edit, and sell news images after World War II.
 
Nadya Bair shows that between the 1940s and 1960s, Magnum expanded the human-interest story to global dimensions while bringing the aesthetic of news pictures into new markets. Working with a vast range of editorial and corporate clients, Magnum made photojournalism integral to postwar visual culture. But its photographers could not have done this alone. By unpacking the collaborative nature of photojournalism, this book shows how picture editors, sales agents, spouses, and publishers helped Magnum photographers succeed in their assignments and achieve fame. Bair concludes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when changing market conditions led Magnum to consolidate its brand. In that moment, Magnum’s photojournalists became artists and their assignments oeuvres. Bridging art history, media studies, cultural history, and the history of communication, The Decisive Network transforms our understanding of the photographic profession and the global circulation of images in the predigital world.

Encompassing a wide range of subjects, the ten masterful essays gathered here may at first appear unrelated to one another. In truth, Giorgio Agamben's latest book is a mosaic of his most pressing concerns. Take a step backward after reading it from cover to cover, and a world of secret affinities between the chapters slowly comes into focus. Take another step back, and it becomes another indispensable piece of the finely nuanced philosophy that Agamben has been patiently constructing over four decades of sustained research.

If nudity is unconcealment, or the absence of all veils, then Nudities is a series of apertures onto truth. A guiding thread of this collection—weaving together the prophet's work of redemption, the glorious bodies of the resurrected, the celebration of the Sabbath, and the specters that stroll the streets of Venice—is inoperativity, or the cessation of work. The term should not be understood as laziness or inertia, but rather as the paradigm of human action in the politics to come. Itself the result of inoperativity, Nudities shuttles between philosophy and poetry, philological erudition and unexpected digression, metaphysical treatise and critique of modern life. And whether the subject at hand is personal identity or the biometric apparatus, the slanderer or the land surveyor, Kafka or Kleist, every page bears the singular imprint of one of the most astute philosophers of our time.

Explores how the widespread circulation of pictures reshaped a nineteenth-century US culture that was accustomed to printed and spoken words

When and how did pictures start to permeate everyday lives in the United States? What happened to those daily lives when they did? And what happened to pictures in the process? In this full-color, heavily illustrated book, Michael Leja traces the beginnings of a transformation in cultural life in the United States: when the widespread circulation of pictures reshaped a culture accustomed to printed and spoken words.

In the three decades before the Civil War, the ordinary experiences of a large segment of the population came to include pictures of many kinds, including illustrations in books, pamphlets, and newspapers; photographs on cards; full-sheet printed pictures collected in scrapbooks or albums or hung on walls; posters and broadsheets; spectacular paintings displayed in theatrical venues; and more. Pictures supplemented verbal texts—and in some cases overshadowed them—for conveying news and information; portraying people, places, and events; focusing public discourse; selling things; educating and instructing; generating excitement and aesthetic gratification; promoting and disguising political agendas; shaping social identities; and building and undermining social bonds.

A Flood of Pictures recovers a time before successful pictorial formulas for mass appeal were established, before an audience habituated to consumption of pictures existed, and before pictures had become thoroughly commodified. Through its exploration of these nineteenth-century developments, the book reveals the foundations of our picture-saturated twenty-first century.

Fully updated to include the latest technologies and software, Mastering Composition is the definitive guide for taking great photos, considering visual weight, balance, negative space, and depth.

Author and professional photographer Richard Garvey-Williams argues that success lies in a combination of four elements: an impactful subject; dynamic composition; effective use of lighting; and, perhaps the most crucial, an ability to invoke an emotional response in the viewer. Citing examples gleaned from a study of history (the Ancient Greeks' Golden Rule, Fibonacci's mathematical ratio, and the principles known as Gestalt theory) the author analyses the concepts, rules and guidelines that define successful composition in photography and offers practical guidance to achieving great results.

In clear, concise and jargon-free text he also considers the role of tone and color in good composition and offers invaluable tips and the tools to help the photographer take control of the creative process. The book is illustrated with examples of the author's own beautiful nature photography, along with diagrams and notation to explain techniques most clearly. A final chapter in this definitive guide for all serious photographers discusses photography and its relationship to art before offering a considered conclusion to the exploration of this fascinating topic.

The Wildlife Photography Workshop is a practical course written by two leading photographers who share their expert guidance and technical knowledge for photographing birds, mammals, plant life and close-up subjects such as insects.

Photographic workshops are exceptionally popular, but not everybody has the time or budget to attend one in person. This ‘workshop in book form’ allows you to absorb the benefits of the workshop experience without actually being on location with the professionals.

Topics include equipment:

• Exposure
• Composition
• Lighting
• Close-up photography
• Birds
• Mammals
• Plant life
• Post-processing

Landscape Photography Workshop is a comprehensive guide from two leading photographers to taking awe-inspiring landscape shots.

Two of the UK's leading landscape photographers come together to share their wealth of experience and teaching skills in this new title. Landscape Photography Workshop aims to take the reader from the very basics of equipment and exposure through to advanced techniques. Landscape essentials, such as composition and filtration, are covered in depth and explained in a precise yet easy-to-understand manner. 

Chapters included are:

• Equipment
• Exposure
• Composition
• Lighting
• Printing
• And much more!

This book also has chapters dedicated to post-processing and printing, enabling the reader to go successfully from camera to print, plus a number of practical assignments to encourage development.

In 2007 TASCHEN released The New Erotic Photography, followed in 2012 by The New Erotic Photography 2. Each book featured hundreds of fresh and provocative images from the world’s most intriguing erotic talents. Now the best of both books is available in The New Erotic Photography, featuring 62 photographers from 10 countries, exploring the global variations of erotic photography, as well as the evolution of photographic media over the last decade. We see film give way to digital, while those who persist with film are as likely to use Polaroids and primitive cameras like the Lomo and Holga as traditional SLRs.

The featured photographers include new names Gregory Bojorquez, Jo Schwab, Tomohide Ikeya, Frédéric Fontenoy, Andrew Pashis, and Jan Hronsky, as well as established artists Guido Argentini, Bruno Bisang, Eric Kroll, and the late Bob Carlos Clarke. Several outstanding women are also featured in this edition, including erotic film star Kimberly Kane, digital pioneer Natacha Merritt, heavy metal skateboarder Magdalena Wosinska, self-portraitist Jody Frost, and cover artist April-Lea Hutchinson. It all adds up to an awful lot of nudes for a tantalizingly low price.

Daniel Kramer’s classic Bob Dylan portfolio captures the artist’s transformative “big bang” year of 1964–65. Over the course of a year and a day, Kramer’s extraordinary access to Bob Dylan on tour, in concert, and backstage, allowed for one of the most mesmerizing photographic portfolios of any recording artist and a stunning document of Dylan breaking through to superstardom.

Highlights include the Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall concert with Joan Baez; the Bringing It All Back Home recording sessions; and the now-famous concert at Forest Hills, when Dylan’s controversial transition to electric guitar exemplified his constant, cryptic state of becoming. As much a document of a seminal period of rock ’n’ roll history as of Dylan himself, the pictures also feature such compelling friends and collaborators as Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Allen Ginsberg, and Albert Grossman.

Bob Dylan: A Year and a Day presents a curated selection of nearly 200 images, including outtakes from the Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited album cover shoots. Previously published by TASCHEN as a signed Collector’s Edition, this standard edition is the more affordable boon to any serious photography or Dylan fan. With stories throughout the book by Kramer, this is at once an intimate and evocative testament to a seminal photographer, to a particular point in time, and to an exceptional, mysterious artist at the moment his career went global.

First published as a TASCHEN Collector’s Edition, now available as an affordable, compact edition

Sebastião Salgado’s haunting black-and-white photographs from the GENESIS project record landscapes and people unchanged in the devastating onslaught of modern society and development. Salgado calls GENESIS “my love letter to the planet.”

Photography as a creative force: Julian Lennon's outstanding first photo book 

Internationally acclaimed artist Julian Lennon demonstrates his innate gifts as a versatile fine art photographer in this new illuminating photography book, which features visually stunning images that span over two decades from his unique life. With this first photography book, he provides a compilation that reflects the multi-layered dimensions of his creativity and curiosity for the world around him.

Authentic street art, captivating landscapes - a coffee table book in a class of its own 

Music, photography, philanthropy: Many hearts beat within Julian Lennon. This stunning first photography book is impressive proof that the established singer/songwriter has also earned an esteemed place behind the camera. His pictures are powerful, expressive and show lesser-known facets of his artistry. A natural visionary, Lennon has mastered all subjects: stunning landscapes that rank among the greatest moments of travel photography; urban scenes and street art that echo the essence of the featured locations and intimate portraits that capture the spirit of each individual. In his unique way, he’s created a visually stunning documentary-like story within each photograph.

Life in the moment: Julian Lennon's moving portrait photography with emotional insights  

The portrait photography of the artist, who was born in Liverpool in 1963, also bears his very own signature. In this first photography book, Julian Lennon gives us personal insight into his inspiration for the images within the pages. With moving texts written by the artist himself, this extraordinary collection of photos also offers us a glimpse into the world of his thoughts and emotions. Lennon's first photography book is also a personal milestone: creative and inspired, he can focus on what is important to him behind the camera instead of just being the centre of attention as an internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter. The result: an outstanding coffee table book that shows complex, diverse sides of his creative spirit — a must-have for any collector!

A picture-rich field guide to American photography, from daguerreotype to digital.

We are all photographers now, with camera phones in hand and social media accounts at the ready. And we know which pictures we like. But what makes a "good picture"? And how could anyone think those old styles were actually good? Soft-focus yearbook photos from the '80s are now hopelessly—and happily—outdated, as are the low-angle portraits fashionable in the 1940s or the blank stares of the 1840s. From portraits to products, landscapes to food pics, Good Pictures proves that the history of photography is a history of changing styles.

In a series of short, engaging essays, Kim Beil uncovers the origins of fifty photographic trends and investigates their original appeal, their decline, and sometimes their reuse by later generations of photographers. Drawing on a wealth of visual material, from vintage how-to manuals to magazine articles for working photographers, this full-color book illustrates the evolution of trends with hundreds of pictures made by amateurs, artists, and commercial photographers alike. Whether for selfies or sepia tones, the rules for good pictures are always shifting, reflecting new ways of thinking about ourselves and our place in the visual world.

As exploited and colonized people, California farmworkers have attracted such massive, overwhelming photographic scrutiny that today their story cannot be told, studied, or understood without engaging the photographic dimension. Although the work of Dorothea Lange and other photographers from the 1930s often comes to mind, virtually every photographer of consequence at some time, for some reason, photographed in the fields of the Golden State. This includes such unlikely twentieth-century artists as fashion photographer Richard Avedon and commercial photographer Max Yavno, along with the nineteenth-century masters Carleton E. Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge. Their work, however, does not unfold along neat, predictable lines. While it has both obscured the place of field hands in modern agriculture and made a case against the farm labor system as an instrument of poverty and oppression, the best of these photographs goes far beyond advertising and exposé, cutting through layers of ignorance and indifference and raising difficult moral questions that force us to reflect on the extent to which, as a society, we require the subservience of an entire class of people. This volume presents 282 of these important photographs.

A stunning photographic compilation of Egypt’s abandoned palaces and grand buildings

Between 1860 and 1940, Cairo and other large cities in Egypt witnessed a major construction boom that gave birth to extraordinary palaces and lavish buildings. These incorporated a mix of architectural styles, such as Beaux-Arts and Art Deco, with local design influences and materials. Today, many lie empty and neglected, rapidly succumbing to time, a real-estate frenzy, and an ongoing population crisis.

In 2006 Russian-born photographer Xenia Nikolskaya began the process of documenting these structures. She gained exceptional access to them, taking photographs at some thirty locations, including Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Minya, Esna, and Port Said. These photographs were documented in the first edition of Dust: Egypt’s Forgotten Architecture, which soon after its release in 2012 became a rare collector’s item.

This revised and expanded edition includes photographs from the first edition together with extra unseen images and new photographs taken by Nikolskaya between 2013 and 2021. It also includes previously unpublished essays by Heba Farid, co-owner of the Cairo-based photo gallery Tintera, and architect and urban planner Omar Nagati, co-founder of CLUSTER, an urban design and research platform also in Cairo.

Dust: Egypt's Forgotten Architecture leads us seductively into some of the most breathtaking architectural spaces of Egypt's recent past, filled with a sense of both the immense weight and the impermanence of history.

Real Stories from Wildly Creative Women

“If you need an extra boost of bravery, read this book! If you want to simply feel more positive about the world, read this book!” —Sherry Richert Belul, founder of Simply Celebrate and author of Say It Now

Winner of the 2024 National Indie Excellence Book Award

#1 New Release in Interviews, Photography Criticism & Essays, and Photojournalism

Angela LoMenzo combines stunning photography and powerful real stories documented from interviews with a diverse group of accomplished women that encourages us to dig deep into our own creative lives!

Women from all walks of life. Artists, musicians, authors, fashion designers, entrepreneurs, and others from a multitude of creative careers share their experiences with depression, bullying, infertility, cancer, assault, loss of loved ones, drug addiction, and many other issues women often do not have a safe space to talk about. These stories show you just how real life is.

Powerful affirmations and true-life stories to empower you. This book is packed with words of wisdom from women who have both overcome adversity and achieved an authentic life honoring their individuality and freedom of personal expression. Their real stories illustrate that it is possible to live the life you have always desired now.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Words of wisdom and beautiful photography of wildly creative women
• Raw and authentic interviews featuring stories by women redefining the role of a woman
• And much more!

If you're looking for unique gifts for women who have everything or if you like books such as Women, In the Company of Women, Collective Wisdom, or A Room of Her Own, you need to read Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women!

Regan Cameron’s polaroids reveal intimate, behind-the-scenes beauty and authenticity, capturing fashion icons and celebrities of the Nineties in spontaneous, timeless moments through the unique lens of instant photography.

This striking volume presents the raw, mesmerizing world of fashion and celebrity through the lens of Regan Cameron—one of the industry’s most distinguished photographers. "One of a Kind" showcases his exceptional and unpublished collection of polaroid portraits and beauty shots, capturing iconic faces of the Nineties such as Nicole Kidman, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Janet Jackson.

In an era dominated by digital perfection, Cameron’s polaroids stand out for their natural realism, emotional resonance, and nostalgic charm. The result is a visual celebration of authenticity, spontaneity, and the enduring allure of instant photography—a must-have for fashion aficionados and fans of evocative portraiture alike.

After decades of war and unrest, Afghanistan has remained largely invisible to the world. With his unique photo book "Afghanistan", Daniel Malikyar, son of Afghan refugees, offers a new and incomparable insight into the beauty and resilience of his homeland. Malikyar ventured independently into remote regions and captured communities that were rarely photographed before the Taliban rule.

This volume presents over 150 vivid, authentic images that show Afghans not as victims, but as heroes of their own stories. The focus is particularly on Afghan women, whose voices and lives are portrayed with sensitivity and depth.

Complemented by narratives and background stories, this visual journey challenges stereotypes and celebrates unknown traditions, landscapes, dignity, and hope. "Afghanistan" redefines the image of the nation and is, at the same time, a photographic masterpiece.

This book presents the restless, electrifying essence of New York through street photography, curated from the distinctive perspectives of different photographers. Their images trace the city’s layered realities—from Midtown’s neon corridors to the quiet corners of the outer boroughs—capturing the tension between glamour and grit, chaos and stillness, anonymity and intimacy.

The photographs highlight New York’s diverse communities, its iconic architecture and hidden backstreets, its nights of saturated color and its mornings of stark monochrome. Together they create a visual portrait of a metropolis in constant motion—a place where stories unfold at every corner and every passerby becomes part of the city’s living narrative. 

Aimed at all fans of New York, photography enthusiasts, art lovers, cultural explorers, and collectors, the book speaks to anyone fascinated by urban life, American city culture, or contemporary street photography. "Now is Now New York" presents the How is How of New York’s street photography in one volume. You have never seen the city so multifaceted, so immediate, so alive.

Thousands of remarkable monuments and relics fill the land of Syria from the coast of the Mediterranean to its desert borders, dating back to the dawn of human history. The sites include Bronze Age ruins, Roman temples and necropolises, churches and monasteries from the early Christian and Byzantine eras, Muslim forts and mosques, Crusader castles, and many more. When conflict broke out in 2011, these treasures were put at great risk and in subsequent years, many were destroyed in battles—some were even the intentional targets of extremists. From 2006–2009, American photographer Daniel Demeter traveled broadly throughout Syria, documenting the country’s warm and kindhearted people, vibrant markets, exciting landscapes, archaeological sites, historic monuments, and religious architecture. In seven chapters organized by region, Lens on Syria offers a unique visual experience of pre-war Syria and serves as an invaluable record of the country’s long history, rich heritage, and diverse culture.

Getting Closer is a beautifully illustrated discussion of photography as a way of achieving greater intimacy with the natural world. With a focus on birds, the book is directed primarily at photographers (of all levels of skill and experience), but also at birders, people interested in the outdoors, and those who would simply like to achieve a deeper connection with the natural world.

The introduction makes the case for reconnecting with nature in a way that will draw in a wide range of readers, not just photographers. We have to reconnect, as most of us have lost the spontaneous bond with nature we enjoyed as young children and, in the face of impending ecological disaster, reconnecting with nature is our most urgent task.

Getting Closer offers a simple, practical path for readers to begin to ‘rewild’ themselves. This is the focus of the second part of the book, where the author explores ways of becoming attentive to the natural world around you, wherever you may live. Through self-contained spreads on topics ranging from ‘the four seasons’ and ‘winds and tides’ to ‘flight shots’ and ‘colour and texture’, he introduces basic, hands-on techniques that, with practice, will enable readers to both deeply connect with their environment and become proficient wildlife photographers. ‘Top tips’ on each spread provide technical information aimed at more serious photographers.

Discover the inner workings of our relationship with cats in this gentle, informed and fun look at the reasons why we love our four-legged friends.

Many of us know the joy (and amusement) of having a feline companion. But have you ever wondered why we can feel such an attachment to cats in particular? Pairing adorable images with the latest research, Cats & Us is an investigation into – and celebration of – cat-human relationships.

With the rise of hybrid working and average lifespans increasing, cat owners are spending more and more time with their pets. This book explores how cats affect and improve a multitude of aspects of our lives, covering themes including affection, calming, exercise, friendship and play. It also captures the link between human wellbeing and our animal companions – a particularly wonderful aspect of life with cats.

Cat lovers everywhere will adore this fresh and vibrant look at the bond we share with our feline companions. With fascinating insights from organisations such as the Human Animal Bond Research Institute, it brings brand new academic research together with playful quotes and images in a collection that will inform, intrigue and delight. Join the growing number of curious cat owners and dive into Cats and Us.

Uncovered after 50 years, an absorbing and illuminating photographic archive of Black West Oakland in the 1970s.

In 1974 Ken Light, a young underground press photographer recently arrived in California, was encouraged by residents of West Oakland to document daily life in the neighborhood. A white activist building relationships in a major Black community, Light was invited into homes and churches, flagged down on the street for impromptu portraits. The resulting images, taken over two years, ended up unseen in archives for half a century. Now made public for the first time in Soul City, they form a stunning and historically important archive of Black life in the 1970s. These photographs illuminate the deep pride running through West Oakland, despite the formidable attempts of local governments and agencies to tear the neighborhood apart. Soul City presents the everyday experiences and emotions of West Oaklanders: hard work, love, determination, resistance, humor, delight. Including over 120 images, and featuring a foreword by celebrated author and longtime Oakland resident Ishmael Reed, Soul City is a deeply absorbing and enlightening contribution to Black history.

Welche Rolle spielt die Fotografie für die Konstruktion und die Bewahrung religiöser Identitäten und Glaubensvorstellungen? Aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive gehen die Beiträge des Buches dieser Frage nach und befassen sich mit der theologischen Rezeption von Fotografie, ihrem Einsatz in künstlerischen und in feierlichen Kontexten sowie der materiellen Beschaffenheit von Fotografien als Objekte der Andacht oder als kulturelle Artefakte. Das Themenspektrum reicht dabei von devotionalen Praktiken über die Kommerzialisierung sakraler Bilder bis hin zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung religiöser Traditionen. An der Schnittstelle von Religion, visueller Kultur und Moderne angesiedelt, eröffnet das Buch neue Perspektiven auf die transformative Rolle der Fotografie in religiösen Kontexten vom 19. Jahrhundert bis heute.

Southern California is the birthplace of skateboard culture and, even though skateparks may be found worldwide today, it is where these parks continue to flourish as architects, engineers and skateboarders collaborate to refine their designs. 

The artist Amir Zaki grew up skateboarding, so he has an understanding of these spaces and, as someone who has spent years photographing the built and natural landscape of California, he has a deep appreciation of the large concrete structures not only as sculptural forms, but also as significant features of the contemporary landscape, belonging to a tradition of architecture and public art. To capture the images in this book, Zaki photographed in the early-morning light, climbing inside the bowls and pipes while there were no skaters around. 

Each photograph is a composite of dozens of shots taken with a digital camera mounted on a motorized tripod head. The resulting images are incredibly high resolution and can be printed at a large scale with no loss of detail. Their look is unusual in that Zaki’s lens is somewhat telephoto, which has the effect of flattening space, yet the angle of view is often quite wide, which exaggerates spatial depth. The technology also allows Zaki to photograph certain areas from difficult positions that would otherwise be impossible to capture. Zaki makes the point that, by climbing deep inside these spaces, the visual experience is fundamentally different from viewing them from outside. In his text, Tony Hawk – one of world’s best-known professional skateboarders – describes how Zaki’s photographs of empty skateparks and open skies evoke memories of the idyllic freedom and the sense of potential that he felt when he first visited a skatepark as a child and saw skaters flying like birds in and out of the concrete pools and bowls.

Hawk has skated in some of the parks featured in this book, and for him several of Zaki’s images, taken from the skater’s perspective, recall the experience of trying to learn a particular trick. A beautiful full pipe that looks like a barrelling wave may be, for Hawk and other seasoned skateboarders, a perfect example of function and form fitting together flawlessly in a well-designed skatepark. 

In his essay, the Los Angeles-based architect Peter Zellner offers a different perspective. Skateparks are made by excavating large open areas of land within city parks. The forms inside them may represent ocean waves, mountainous terrain and other features from nature, but they are permanently frozen in cement like Brutalist architecture. Every shape, line, transition, hip, tombstone, coping, stair, flow, tile, bowl, pipe, spine, rail, ledge, roll-in, kidney, clover, square and bank serves a specific purpose – to provide a challenging thrill and maximum pleasure for the rider. In this sense, skateparks epitomize function over form. In Zaki’s mesmerizing photographs, however, these concrete landscapes suggest a more complex and integrated relationship with the history of design and architecture in Southern California.

Immerse yourself in the captivating world of urban photography with the latest photo book by Phil Penman, one of the most sought-after street photographers of our time.

The New York-based photographer travels the world and takes photography enthusiasts on his journeys of discovery through the streets of our cities in workshops at the Leica Academy. Following his bestseller "New York Street Diaries", his new book "Street Scenes" is an impressive homage to the world's vibrant metropolises - from the shimmering lights of New York to the romantic alleyways of Paris and the lively streets of Tokyo. Each image is a window into the emotional moments and impressive facets of urban life, masterfully captured through Phil Penman's lens.

This timeless coffee table book will not only broaden your horizons, but also inspire reflection. Phil Penman is known for his ability to transform the everyday into the extraordinary - his images are not only visual works of art, but also narratives that bear witness to the diversity, vibrant life and complexity of urban existence. The photographer shows us dynamic scenes that capture vibrant life, as well as quiet moments that invite us to pause and reflect the soul of cities.

Whether you are a connoisseur of photography or simply appreciate the beauty of the world: Let yourself be carried away by the extraordinary visual language of photographer Phil Penman and discover the secret stories he shows us in this illustrated book.

"I Love New York": a tribute to the city of dreams Experience the vibrant energy and romantic allure of New York through the eyes of David Drebin, international multidisciplinary artist represented by the finest galleries worldwide.

In his extraordinary coffee table book “I Love New York”, Drebin presents an alluring homage to the city that never sleeps. With an impressive format and an artfully die-cut cover, this masterpiece invites you to marvel. Behind each photograph is a captivating story waiting to be discovered. These photographs tell of seductive encounters and the countless possibilities that New York has to offer. The photographer takes us to a dream world where every moment is filled with romance. The impressive city backdrops and cinematographic aesthetics lend his images an unmistakable depth and drama.

David Drebin, born in Toronto in 1970 and a graduate of the renowned Parsons School of Design, has earned a first-class reputation as a master of visual storytelling. His work is characterized by a unique combination of voyeuristic and psychological perspectives. Themes such as melancholy and humor find their place in Drebin's images, lending them an emotional depth that captivates the viewer.

“I Love New York” is not just an illustrated book, but an experience – an invitation to immerse yourself in a world where love and desire for life are palpable. Let your imagination and your dreams run wild with David Drebin's masterful photographs. Add this exquisite work to your collection and experience New York like never before.

2023 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award Finalist

George Masa's Wild Vision recounts the incredible, overlooked life of the photographer George Masa.
Self-taught photographer George Masa (born Masahara Iizuka in Osaka, Japan), arrived in Asheville, North Carolina at the turn of the twentieth century amid a period of great transition in the southern Appalachians.
Masa's photographs from the 1920s and early 1930s are stunning windows into an era where railroads hauled out the remaining old-growth timber with impunity, new roads were blasted into hillsides, and an activist community emerged to fight for a new national park. Masa began photographing the nearby mountains and helping to map the Appalachian Trail, capturing this transition like no other photographer of his time. His images, along with his knowledge of the landscape, became a critical piece of the argument for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, compelling John D. Rockefeller to donate $5 million for initial land purchases. Despite being hailed as the “Ansel Adams of the Smokies,” Masa died, destitute and unknown, in 1933.
In George Masa’s Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina, poet and environmental organizer Brent Martin explores the locations Masa visited, using first-person narratives to contrast, lament, and exalt the condition of the landscape the photographer so loved and worked to interpret and protect. The book includes seventy-five of Masa’s photographs, accompanied by Martin’s reflections on Masa’s life and work.

• Harajuku where high fashion rubs shoulders with hip-hop style
• Shibuya, birthplace of the "gal" and stomping ground for Tokyo's most sophisticated fashionistas
• Hipster hangout Daikanyama
• The goth and geek meccas of Shinjuku and Ikebukuro
• Bohemian Koenji and otaku neighborhood Nakano
• Ginza's lunching ladies and dapper gentlemen
• The cosplay paradise of Akihabara
• The narrow lanes of East Tokyo, where everyday Japanese fashion gets a traditional touch

• 16 folded blank note cards — 3.75 x 4.5 inches (9.5 x 11.5 cm)
• 17 sealable envelopes (meet US Postal requirements for mailing with a standard stamp)
• 16 photographs of relaxing Japanese gardens

• On the back of each card is a short description of the front design
• 12 folded blank note cards 6 x 4 inches (152 x 102 mm)
• 12 envelopes 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches (160 x 108 mm)

• Reworking Tradition
• Managing Space
• Experimenting with Materials
• Personal Statements

• An opening dialogue on a topic such as shopping or making plans
• A list of useful Korean vocabulary and everyday expressions that are commonly used
• Grammar explanations, conversations and exercises to help you learn
• "Talking with Lee Joon-gi" when you can respond to prompts as though you are talking to him!
• A round-up summary of key words, phrases and concepts in the chapter
• "Lee Joon-gi's Seoul" — The actor's favorite things to do, such as idol spotting!

• Reworking Tradition
• Managing Space
• Experimenting with Materials
• Personal Statements