Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850-1950 portrays the history of romantic love between men in hundreds of moving and tender vernacular photographs taken between the years 1850 and 1950. This visual narrative of astonishing sensitivity brings to light an until-now-unpublished collection of hundreds of snapshots, portraits, and group photos taken in the most varied of contexts, both private and public.
Taken when male partnerships were often illegal, the photos here were found at flea markets, in shoe boxes, family archives, old suitcases, and later online and at auctions. The collection now includes photos from all over the world: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Greece, Latvia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Serbia. The subjects were identified as couples by that unmistakable look in the eyes of two people in love – impossible to manufacture or hide. They were also recognised by body language – evidence as subtle as one hand barely grazing another – and by inscriptions, often coded.
Included here are ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, photomatics, and snapshots – over 100 years of social history and the development of photography.
Loving will be produced to the highest standards in illustrated book publishing, The photographs – many fragile from age or handling – have been digitised using a technology derived from that used on surveillance satellites and available in only five places around the world. Paper and other materials are among the best available. And Loving will be manufactured at one of the world’s elite printers. Loving, the book, will be up to the measure of its message in every way.
In these delight-filled pages, couples in love tell their own story for the first time at a time when joy and hope – indeed human connectivity – are crucial lifelines to our better selves. Universal in reach and overwhelming in impact, Loving speaks to our spirit and resilience, our capacity for bliss, and our longing for the shared truths of love.
For many flower lovers, the orchid is the epitome of luxury, grace and beauty. In the new book in the Floramour series Floramour: Orchids, author Anja Klaffenbach pays tribute to this queen of the flower world. She not only illuminates the filigree flower wonder with spectacular photographs and sketches, but also presents exciting background information, packed into and entertaining texts.
Orchid breeding has a long tradition and by now more than 28,000 species and more than 100,000 hybrids and varieties are known. And perhaps the diversity of these ornamental plants can also be explained from a historical perspective. In this colourful coffee-table book, Klaffenbach explores this question and paints a portrait of the orchid through the ages. The aesthetics of the flower were already highly valued in ancient China. It served as a symbol of purity and luxury. In Japan, it was the distinguishing mark of the noble warrior caste of the samurai and was found on the clothing and weapons of the fighters. In Hinduism, the lovely orchid is a representative of wealth and prosperity and a coveted offering at numerous religious festivals.
Europe has also become addicted to the tropical beauty. In Victorian England, there was a veritable run on the colourful flower. The flower was regarded as an unmistakable testimony to exquisite taste and classical elegance. The plants quickly advanced to become a high-class gift that expressed the high esteem of the bearer in perfect form.
Even today, the orchid enjoys a large fan community. For them, the coffee table book Floramour: Orchids is the perfect inspiring read to learn even more about their own favourite flower.
Text in English and German.
An illustrated exploration of the fundamental connections between art and science, from an author who has lived in both worlds.
In this thought-provoking book, Philip F. Palmedo, a former physicist who now writes on art, reveals how the two defining enterprises of humankind – art and science – are rooted in certain common instincts, which we might call aesthetic: an appreciation of symmetry, balance, and rhythm; the drive to simplify and abstract natural forms, and to represent them symbolically.
Palmedo traces these instincts back to a very early time in human history – demonstrating, for example, the level of abstract thinking required to create the stone tools and cave paintings of the Paleolithic – and then forward, to the builders of the Gothic cathedrals, to Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton, to Einstein and Picasso.
Illustrated with more than 125 creations of the genus Homo – from a flint hand axe chipped half a million years ago to the abstractions of Hilma af Klint and the James Webb Space Telescope – Palmedo’s text leaves us with a new appreciation of the instinct for beauty shared by artists and scientists alike.
An attractive new hardcover edition of the classic biography of Tamara de Lempicka, whose paintings defined Art Deco and whose life epitomised the Jazz Age.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed the mad glories of the 1920s on the printed page, Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) captured them on canvas. A seductive Garbo-esque beauty with an irresistible force of personality, this refugee of the Russian Revolution successively conquered Paris, Hollywood, and New York with coruscating portraits of the world’s rich and famous. Her Art Deco paintings earned for her a life more fabulously excessive than anything Fitzgerald dreamed of.
Passion by Design, authored by Tamara de Lempicka’s own daughter, is an intimate look at a fascinating personality, and remains the best account of her life and work. This new edition is illustrated with vibrant colour reproductions of her finest paintings, as well as exclusive photographs from family albums. An additional chapter by Victoria de Lempicka, the artist’s granddaughter, explores the ever-evolving legacy of Tamara de Lempicka, from the record eight-figure price fetched by her painting La Tunique Rose in November 2019 to the new musical based on her life.
This visually striking publication offers thorough insight into the history, technique and various disciplines of this contemporary winter sport. The book offers many lively experiences and anecdotes from the featured experts who took part in the sport’s development over the last 30 years. They are the pioneers who pushed the limits of the (im)possible to embark on far-fetched snowy adventures. More than 100 artistic photographs allow the reader to dream-travel on vicarious snowkite journeys in polar or alpine regions, uniquely powered by the silent force of the wind to flow in a rarely-experienced state of total freedom.