“Francis Wolff’s images of musicians at work are so relaxed and intimate that they capture the spirit not just of the moment but also the era.” – Herbie Hancock

One of the most renowned Jazz photographers of all time, Francis Wolff (1907-1971) was essential to the success of the Blue Note record label. Born Jakob Franz Wolff in Berlin, Germany, he soon became a Jazz enthusiast, despite the government ban placed on this type of music after 1933. In 1939, Wolff, a Jew, left Berlin where he had worked as a commercial photographer, and established himself in New York. He began working there with his childhood friend Alfred Lion, who had co-founded Blue Note Records with Max Margulis. The latter soon dropped out of his involvement in the company, and Wolff joined Lion in running it. Wolff took thousands of photographs during the Blue Note recording sessions and rehearsals. His highly personal visual concept would be forever associated with both Blue Note and jazz as a whole.

This book compiles more than 150 Francis Wolff photos of jazz stars, most of which are published here for the very first time. Among the many artists portrayed are Art Blakey, Tina Brooks, Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, and Wayne Shorter. It also includes a special introduction by Grammy Award Winning music historian and jazz critic Ashley Kahn.

Text in English, with an introduction in English, French and Spanish.

“Jean-Pierre was himself a musician, but his choice of instrument was a camera, which he never put away.” – Michel Legrand

“I am so happy to see Leloir’s work published, because behind each image is a story – one that needs to be told and appreciated. Leloir was not just a photographer; instead he was a preserver of history. As a result, this book holds hundreds of stories that shine a light onto the lives of those who live in these pages. Leloir had a unique ability to preserve an entire atmosphere and its surrounding emotions. between the four corners of a picture, but beyond his talent as a photographers, he presented himself not as paparazzi, but a friend. He and my other brother Herman Leonard were two of a kind; they had the same passion for photography and an endless supply of vision.” – Quincy Jones

This book gives ample proof of Jean-Pierre Leloir’s amazing ability to immortalise performers and to capture candid moments at the airport, backstage, and in the dressing rooms of the most legendary Paris jazz and concert venues: “I loved the people I photographed, so I made myself as available, yet as discreet as possible”, he used to say. “I never wanted to be a paparazzi. I wanted them to forget my presence so I could catch those little unexpected moments.” The selection of photographs showcased here has been carefully selected from Leloir’s immense catalogue. Many of the images have never been previously published before, and can be easily catalogued as ‘atypical’ shots, as the musicians were captured primarily in spontaneous situations, away from the fanfare of the stage.

Text in English with an introduction in English, French and Spanish.

Improvisation, swing, blue notes, glissando, scat… these and other ingredients have made jazz a unique musical genre, unmistakable and loved in every corner of the globe. Born in the United States at the end of the 19th century, jazz has its roots in Afro-American music, but has succeeded in becoming contaminated owing to contributions from different styles, fragmenting in turn into countless currents and categories. From the first New Orleans bands, passing through the absolute genius of “Satchmo” Armstrong — who became model for all later jazz musicians — to the big bands of Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, and Benny Goodman, or to the unsurpassed singing performances of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, this book retraces the history of jazz, lingering on the most outstanding personalities and musical excerpts that have marked this musical genre more than any other. Besides the classics, ample space is reserved also for artists of the second postwar period who succeeded in renewing jazz, restoring its freshness and vitality again for the new generations of artists that today tread the musical scene.

For more than thirty years, Jazz Hot, the world’s oldest jazz magazine (launched in 1935, as DownBeat), has regularly published Pascal Kober’s photos, breakfast interviews, album and festival reviews and feature articles. Over the years, he has built up a unique catalogue of more than 35,000 jazz photos, taken all over the world. As a freelance journalist and photographer, he later contributed to many publications in the French and international press. The venue: musée de l’ancier évêchée. Located in the heart of Grenoble, the Bishop’s Palace (l’Ancien Évêché) is today a protected historical monument dated from the thirteenth century, housing a highly visited heritage museum. Since its establishment in 1998, this museum has been curated by Isabelle Lazier, an ethnologist, with a passion for both music and photography. In alphabetical order: Jorge Ben, João Bosco, Stanley Clarke, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Joao Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, George Gruntz, Jon Hendricks, Elvin and Hank Jones, Joachim Kühn, Michel Legrand, Manhattan Transfer, Branford and Ellis Marsalis, Mike Stern, Sam Rivers, Linda Womack and… the public.

One of the leading social documentary photographers of the 1960s, Steve Schapiro’s images stand among the most important of the 20th century, covering Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin and many others. These largely unknown jazz photos – shot just before his career breakthrough – showcase his early mastery and his empathy for his subjects, making Jazz Heroes an essential archive.

In the early ’60s, when Schapiro arrived on the scene, New York jazz was enjoying a golden age. A young freelance photographer who had grown up in the Bronx and somehow snagged a gig with Riverside Records, he began voraciously documenting shows, players, venues, recording sessions and gatherings both in his native New York and later in Chicago. Whether it’s Sonny Rollins lifting weights backstage, or Bobby Timmons lost in an instant of discovery at the piano, Schapiro was on their wavelength.

Written by New York Times journalist Richard Scheinin, Jazz Heroes features dozens of never-before-seen photos of jazz legends like Cannonball Adderley, Dorothy Ashby, Bill Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and more.

Late in his life, confined to a chair or bed, Matisse transformed a simple technique into a medium for the creation of a major art. “I have attained a form filtered to its essentials.” Cutting dynamic shapes from painted paper, Matisse created his images. While producing pieces for Jazz, the artist used a large brush to write notes to himself on construction paper. The simple visual appearance of the words pleased Matisse, and he suggested using his reflective handwritten thoughts in juxtaposition with the images. The original first edition of Jazz was an artist’s book, printed in a limited quantity. This selection from the original is an exquisite suite of colour plates and text that, like the music it was named for, was invented in a spirit of improvisation and spontaneity. These magnificent cut-outs of pure colour celebrate the radiance and emotional intensity of the artist’s oeuvre.

“The style that Jimmy Katz has developed over the years has become a distinctive feature in the iconography of jazz photography, comparable to the tone of Louis Armstrong’s trumpet or the sound of John Coltrane’s saxophone.” – Michael Cuscuna (Blue Note) The volume, published on the occasion of Umbria Jazz 2019, collects 80 images by Jimmy Katz (New York, 1957), award-winning photographer of the most famous jazz musicians. Over the course of two decades, Katz has immortalised the main actors of the jazz scene against the background of New York: Cassandra Wilson, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny and many more. In the studio, in clubs, on the streets, at work or at rest, Katz portrays the musicians in their most intimate aspects, capturing the traits that unequivocally define their personality. The wise use of lights and the glimpses of New York locations make his shots iconic and unmistakable, a sincere testimony to his great passion for jazz. Text in English and Italian.

On 26 May 2026, Miles Davis (1926–91), an icon of jazz and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, would have celebrated his centenary. This book, published to mark the occasion, brings together photographs of Miles Davis taken by German photographer and documentary filmmaker Ralph Quinke between 1971 and 1989. The centrepiece is a reportage that was photographed in 1989: together with Swiss journalist Marco Meier, Quinke travelled to Malibu to accompany the artist for three days and interview him for an issue of Swiss art and culture magazine Du. He got surprisingly close with his camera, taking shots of Miles boxing, in his car, in the kitchen, while painting, sometimes posing, or as an observer of him in conversation.

Du’s issue 843 of August 1989, in which Quinke and Meier’s reportage featured, is long out of print and still sought-after by Miles fans. Inspired by German music journalist and jazz expert Arne Reimer, this photo book draws on Quinke’s unique archive material. A revised version of the 1989 interview and a new conversation between Quinke, Meier, and Reimer supplement this “director’s cut.”

A selection of the best images that Quinke took of Miles Davis between 1971 and 1987 rounds off this unique homage to one of the most eminent personalities of all musical genres.

Text in English and German.

They were reviled, ridiculed, and ignored. Today, the Zurich Concretists — along with Dada — are considered the most important art movement originating from Switzerland. Circle! Square! Progress! tells the story of the city’s avant-garde movement, which is rooted in the Bauhaus and renewed the formal language of art, shaped design and architecture, and also positioned itself politically. It traces its relations to the heroes of Constructivist–Concrete art, such as Johannes Itten, Piet Mondrian, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Theo van Doesburg, and Georges Vantongerloo, and looks at the influences that came from graphic art and advertising, jazz music and dance, colour theory, and mathematics.
Max Bill, Camille Graeser, Verena Loewensberg, and Richard Paul Lohse — a group incidentally thrown together rather than true conspirators — formed the centre of gravity of a milieu that wrestled with critics, institutions, and authorities. Lavishly illustrated, the book explores Zurich as the habitat of highly gifted people engaged in lively debates at bohemian cafés, drifting in jazz clubs, celebrating excessively at the legendary annual artists’ fancy dress ball, achieving fame and artistic triumphs with creative power and a sense of mission. It illuminates the Zurich Concretists’ successes of the 1960s, their at times extremely violent quarrels of the 1970s, and their disputes about the beauty of form.

111 Places in New Orleans That You Must Not Miss is your ultimate guide to uncovering the Crescent City’s most unique and hidden gems. Beyond the jazz clubs and Mardi Gras parades, this book reveals the city’s soulful layers—where history, music, cuisine, and mysticism collide. Discover the roots of jazz, the birthplace of America’s first cocktail, and the vibrant mix of Creole and Cajun cultures.

Explore secret spots like a chapel adorned with cast-off prosthetics, the oldest African-American Catholic church in the U.S., and a bridge hosting Voodoo ceremonies. Indulge in local flavours with praline bacon, pork belly po’boys, and Bananas Foster sno-balls. Find eccentric treasures like a chartreuse beehive wig or a hand-painted sign reminding you to “Be Nice or Leave.”

From dive bars to haunted landmarks, 111 Places in New Orleans invites you to experience the city’s quirky, mystical, and unforgettable spirit—one hidden place at a time.

From rockstars, pop icons, soul singers to jazz musicians – Michael Putland has photographed them all. Over his 50 year-long career, he has captured some of the world’s most famous singers and bands. Now he brings them all together in one fulminant photographic anthology.
Here, pictures of action-packed concerts are set aside intimate portraits of stars, and atmospheric still life shots accompany those of tension-filled tours and legendary performances. An exclusive insight into this era and the stories behind each photograph is offered by Putland’s personal anecdotes, creating a testament to music’s greatest moments and a must-have for all fans of music and photography.
– unique picture book with images from photographer Michael Putland – in black and white and in colour
– various famous artists found in this book: Madonna, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, ACDC and many more
– the photographer’s view tells the stories behind the photographs
– a great present for every music and photography enthusiast 
A photographic journey through 50 years of music history
Throughout the years, Putland’s work led him around the world. With great passion he photographed greats such as ABBA, The Rolling Stones and Tina Turner. His unique and incomparable photographs capture the soul of each musician, on and off the stage. With an eye for detail, he manages to portray the artists’ individual styles from new and unseen perspectives, making their music tangible through light, shadow and colour.
This photographic anthology is an homage to the greatest legends in music history and to the distinctive work and artistry of Michael Putland!

Text in English and German.

“This is a volume that will be informative to specialists, but also a visual delight for the average reader. An indispensable addition to the field.” ― John Wilmerding, Sarofim Professor of American Art, emeritus, Princeton University

“William Morgan offers an overview of the flowering of the collegiate Gothic style in America between the Civil War and the crash of 1929. Here is a splendidly illustrated book full of insight.” ― New Criterion
Explore America’s most breathtaking college campuses ― where Gilded Age wealth found a Gothic inspiration.

The Collegiate Gothic style, which flourished between the Gilded Age and the Jazz Age, was intended to lend an air of dignified history to America’s relatively youthful seats of higher learning. In fact, this mash-up of Oxbridge quaintness with piles of new money gave rise ― at schools like Princeton and Vassar, Yale and Chicago ― to unprecedented architectural fantasies that reshaped the image of the college campus. Today the ivy-covered monuments of Collegiate Gothic still exercise a powerful hold on the public imagination ― as evidenced, for example, by their prominent place in the Dark Academia aesthetic that has swept social media.

In Academia, the noted architectural historian William Morgan traces the entire arc of Collegiate Gothic, from its first emergence at campuses like Kenyon and Bowdoin to its apotheosis in James Gamble Rogers’s intricately detailed confections at Yale. Ever alert to the complicated cultural and social implications of this style, Morgan devotes special sections to its manifestations at prep schools and in the American South, and to contemporary revivals by architects like Robert A. M. Stern.

Illustrated throughout with well-chosen color photographs, Academia offers the ultimate campus tour of our faux-medieval cathedrals of learning.

Meet Ella Fitzgerald and discover the story of her life and work in this engagingly illustrated biography – narrated by the singer herself. Sometimes called “The First Lady of Song,” other times “The Queen of Jazz,” Ella Fitzgerald was one of the most popular singers of the 20th century. She not only worked with the greatest composers and musicians of her time, she won 13 Grammy Awards, received the National Medal of Arts, and the Kennedy Center Honors, and sold millions of records. Learn about the life of this incomparable diva, including her difficult childhood, her first performance in the famed Apollo Theater’s amateur night, and the discrimination she had to overcome. Ages: 6 plus

Born in 1935 in France, Jean-Louis Avril studied architecture at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Technique is central to his building process. He is passionate about jazz and is interested in American minimal art, particularly the work of Donald Judd. This monograph traces his career and focuses on his furniture, which represents the taste and aspirations of a generation of baby boomers. The choice of Celloderm, a derivative of cardboard, allows for a simple and accurate design language. The solutions display strong ideas: a beautiful shape, a practical function, an accessible price. His creations are very successful. With the creation of the company Marty-Lac (Carton Applications) in 1967 associated with his father-in-law, he achieved commercial success by developing numerous models of furniture, seats, tables, bed, shelves and lighting. They offer a strategy, a catalogue, sales outlet and export to England with Hull traders. Faithful to his commitment as an architect, he also imagines interior spaces with great spatial efficiency.

Text in French.

HR Giger (1940–2014) is one of the outstanding figures in Swiss art and design history, celebrated around the world for his design of the fantastic creatures and eerie environments that terrified moviegoers in Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction film Alien. Yet very little is known about Giger’s childhood and youth in his native town of Chur. A trove of photographs, drawings by the young boy Hansruedi, and early art works that already reveal the future HR Giger’s artistic force, recently unearthed in the Giger family’s former holiday home in the Grisons, now offer intimate insights into his early years until the early 1960s.

Richly illustrated with more than 230 images from that collection, HR Giger: The Early Years tells, for the first time, the story of those two decades before Giger decided to move to Zurich and train as an architect and designer in 1962. Supplemented by brief texts as well as by statements from his schoolmates, friends, and others, these images form a lively picture of that period: family episodes; the Mickey Mouse adaptations Giger created at the age of ten; his growing love of jazz music, photography, and weapons; the trips around Europe he took together with his friends; and the youth culture of Chur of the 1950s and 1960s that shaped him. The volume will appeal to any fan of the extraordinary art and the fascinating personality of HR Giger.

Text in English, German and French.

In this opulent coffee table book, photographer Werner Pawlok shows us the diversity of New Orleans and paints a breathtaking portrait of the city. He captures special places, personalities and stories in his expressive photographs. We marvel at the colonial-style rooms steeped in history as well as the passionate music scene in the city, which is also known as the “cradle of jazz”. The magical feeling of life in this unique metropolis in the south of the USA becomes immediately tangible.

Text in English and German.

This book represents the first retrospective in print on the fascinating work of the English artist in jewellery David Watkins, who started out as a jazz pianist and sculptor but has been designing jewellery since the 1960s. At the outset of his career, he designed miniature works of sculpture. Later he began producing outsize wearable objects. Watkins is increasingly preoccupied with the interrelationship of the body and jewellery; his pieces of jewellery are becoming autonomous art objects in their own right. David Watkins’s versatility as a jewellery-designer is astonishing: the diverse materials he uses range from paper to acrylic, Neoprene and Colorcore to gold as well as a profusion of plastics. His aesthetic “idiom” encompasses stringent structuring as well as monochrome Minimalism and compositions improvised in stunning forms and vibrant colours. Watkins is equally comfortable working with traditional jewellery-making techniques and computer-aided design as used throughout the manufacturing sector. Drawing on a wealth of photographs, drawings and statements made by the artist himself, the book provides invaluable insights into the way David Watkins works.

A Night at the Disco is a celebration of groundbreaking dance music from 1970–’79. An unprecedented collection of photographs of more than 100 artists illuminates the styles and sounds from a decade that sparked a global phenomenon in music and culture. Exclusive comments from Donna Summer, Barry Gibb, Debbie Harry, Giorgio Moroder, members of CHIC, Labelle, The Trammps, Village People, Earth, Wind & Fire, and dozens more artists, songwriters and producers offer fascinating insights that tell the story behind the beat. From underground New York clubs to discotheques across the globe, A Night at the Disco illustrates how artists spanning soul, pop, disco, funk, jazz and rock defined nightlife during the 1970s and influenced popular music to the present day.

With a foreword by Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire, this is a real treat for music, dance and disco fans everywhere.

Beautiful Bars is a stunning photographic journey through the world’s most beautifully designed cocktail bars, told through interviews with the designers who created them. From New York to Buenos Aires, and whether classic or exotic, all are united by incredible interiors, seminal design and cultural impact, captured through beautiful large-format photography.

Interviewees include the CEO and design director of David Collins Studio, who created legendary venues such as The Connaught – widely considered the world’s best bar – and Monte Carlo’s Café de Paris. With evocative names like Italy’s Hotel Splendido and the French Riviera’s Casino Royale Palm, to Korea’s award-winning Zest Seoul and Mexico’s immersive Tlecan, Beautiful Bars is the definitive, authoritative visual bible for all those interested in era-defining design, timeless photography – and the high life.

The introduction to Beautiful Bars is written by the design journalist Peter Martin. Threaded with insights from hours of interviews with famous bar designers and legendary mixologists, it examines the history of the cocktail bar, the cultural impact of cocktails from the Jazz Age to the 1990s revival, and the vivid, globally exploding bar scene of today. Throughout the book, lavish photography is accompanied by insights and commentary on each bar.

The Formula 1 World Championship celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2025. The sport’s rich history is full of great drivers, spectacular cars and exciting races. But there is also a myriad of weird and wonderful behind-the-scenes stories never or rarely told. This book is a look at the alternative Formula 1 history. Read about: The driver who knocked down his team principal; A suicide attempt during practice; The jazz band which produced two F1 drivers; A team sponsored by pop superstars Abba; How the World Champion was kidnapped… and how a F1 car killed a cyclist and a motorcycle rider on a public road. These and many more crazy and fascinating stories are covered in The Alternative History of F1.

Author Peter Nygaard has attended more than 700 F1 races since 1974 and written many books about motor racing.

Published on the occasion of the first Italian anthological exhibition dedicated to her, the volume retraces the successful work of Lisette Model, an artist of Austrian origin who had great importance in the development of photography in the Fifties and Sixties.

Parallel to her teaching activity – she had among her students authors who later became famous such as Diane Arbus and Larry Fink – Lisette Model was an ironic and irreverent photographer, able to capture in her shots the most grotesque aspects of post-war American society.

Alongside the most famous series – such as Promenade des Anglais, created in Nice, or the photographs dedicated to New Yorkers or the very suggestive ones made in jazz clubs – the book also includes lesser-known projects, which account for her personal and sardonic photographic language. The close-up shots, the recurring use of the flash, the exasperated contrasts are the expedients that the author resorts to in order to accentuate the imperfections of the bodies and the coarse gestures of her subjects, transformed into the characters of a sneering human comedy: an approach to reality that made Lisette Model the forerunner of a way of using photography that would find full realisation only in the following decades.

Text in English and Italian.