Los Angeles has so much to offer, and this guide helps you to choose where to start when discovering this beautiful city. Where are the best farmers’ markets? Which street foods are not to be missed? What are the liveliest places to go dancing? What are some unlikely places to spot celebrities? Which art galleries are worth a visit? In The 500 Hidden Secrets of Los Angeles, Andrea Richards shares 500 must-know addresses in one of the coolest cities in the United States. It is an affectionate guide to the City of Angels that avoids the touristy places and points out the urban details you are likely to miss. From the best outdoor concert venues to the most beautiful country escapes, this guide is the perfect companion visitors who want to make the most of their stay and residents who want to get to know their city even better. 

Also available: The 500 Hidden Secrets of Miami, The 500 Hidden Secrets of New York, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Toronto, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Vancouver and many more. Discover the series: the500hiddensecrets.com

“Opening it and turning the pages is an invitation to dream, to wonder, and to appreciate the very large emotional size of the natural landscapes in the United States.” — Frames
“The 230 beautifully rendered black & white images in the book provide a compelling tour of America’s wild places and national parks, from Yosemite and Yellowstone to Death Valley and Utah’s Canyonlands to the Hudson Valley in New York and beyond.” — Black & White Photography

“From towering redwoods in California to the remote canyons of Utah, his work shows us not just what these places look like, but what they feel like to those who dare to go.” — About Photography

“Ortner’s use of black-and-white film and large-format cameras for Visions of Paradise unveils the true essence of the natural world. By peeling away color, he forces us to immerse ourselves more deeply and see anew America’s breathtaking sites through the purified language of light and shadow, form and texture, shape and pattern…” — VIE Magazine

“… a photographic masterpiece celebrating the extraordinary majesty and rich legacy of America’s wild places, as seen through the eyes of one of the country’s foremost wilderness photographers, Jon Ortner, and conveyed through the transcendent medium of black-and-white film.” — Dodho Magazine

Visions of Paradise: American Wilderness is a singular, timeless publication—a photographic tour de force celebrating the extraordinary majesty and rich legacy of America’s wild places, as seen through the eyes of one of the country’s foremost wilderness photographers, Jon Ortner, and conveyed through the transcendent medium of black-and-white film. Ortner has always been fascinated with the natural world, particularly as an avid hiker in the American wilderness. This luxurious book collects in a large format his inspiring landscape images, forming a passionate tribute to the American wilderness. In this sensational portfolio of 200 black-and-white images, Ortner has rediscovered and reinterpreted the compelling beauty of many of his most cherished wilderness locations with remarkable portrayals of their sublime, dramatic, tranquil, and transcendent aspects. Join Ortner as he guides us through his visions of paradise.

Where’s the best place to go out on a Saturday night in Barcelona? What off-beat museums can be discovered after Sunday brunch (and where to have it)? Which locations offer the best viewpoints of the Catalan capital? What Gaudí buildings are essential? Where does Barcelona’s modernizm reach its zenith? Where to take the children? What’s the best place to buy wine? And where do the locals hang out?

The 500 Hidden Secrets of Barcelona reveals hundreds of good-to-know addresses, avoiding the touristy places and pointing out the urban details you are likely to miss. Mark Cloostermans, a Belgian journalist living in Barcelona, unlocks the various districts, pointing out historical details in the streets of the old town, taking you from green Montjuïc hill to the beach and back. The best places to eat halal, the must-visits for Barça fans and the various festivals you can plan your visit around: The 500 Hidden Secrets of Barcelona reveals it all.

Edited by Carl Brandon Strehlke and Machtelt Brüggen Israëls, The Bernard and Mary Berenson Collection of European Paintings at I Tatti surveys the 149 works assembled by the Berensons for their home in Florence from the late 1890s through the first decades of the twentieth century at the time that they were making their mark on the world as connoisseurs. The catalogue presents a privileged window on the Berensons’ intellectual interests through the objects they owned. The entries, written by an international team of art historians, take full advantage of the extensive correspondence from the Berensons’ friends, family, and colleagues at I Tatti as well as the couple’s diaries and notations on the backs of their vast gathering of photographs. All the entries are lavishly illustrated with full scholarly and technical accountings of the objects. There are also 17 illustrated reconstructions of the original contexts of panel paintings. The catalogue includes essays on the progress of the Berensons’ collecting, their love for Siena, the Sienese forger Icilio Federico Joni, the critic Roger Fry, and René Piot’s murals at I Tatti, as well as a listing of 94 pictures that were once at I Tatti including donations made to museums in Europe and America.

Contents:
Preface Lino Pertile; Acknowledgments – Carl Brandon Strehlke and Machtelt Israëls; Note to the Use of the Catalogue; Abbreviations; Glossary of People in the Berenson Circle Mentioned in the Text; Section I: Introductory Essays and Entries 0 to 111; Essay I: “Bernard and Mary Collect: Pictures Come to I Tatti” – Carl Brandon Strehlke; Essay II: “The Berensons and Siena” (working title) – Machtelt Israëls; Essay III: “Passions Intertwined: Art and Photography at I Tatti” – Giovanni Pagliarulo; Entries: Paintings from the 14th to 18th century – Plates 0 to 111; Section II: Fakes; Essay IV: The Berensons and the Sienese Forger Federico Ioni – Gianni Mazzoni; Entries: Fakes – Plates 112 to 116; Section III: Roger Fry; Essay V: “Roger Fry and Bernard Berenson” – Caroline Elam; Entry: Fry – Plate 117; Section IV: René Piot; Essay VI: “A Failure: René Piot and the Berensons” – Claudio Pizzorusso; Entries: Piot – Plates 118 to 131; Section V: The Berensons, Family and Friends; Entries: Portraits – Plates 132 to 138; Entries: Miscellanea – Plates 139 to 148; Appendix: Paintings Formerly Owned by the Berensons – Carl Brandon Strehlke and Machtelt Israëls; Bibliography; Photo Credits; Index.

“If you really want to get under the skin of a city, the 500 Hidden Secrets series, which covers a number of cities from Havana to Ghent, all written by people who know the cities inside out, is ideal. It’s an innovative and refreshing take on the traditional travel guide.”– The Independent
Discover the city’s best-kept secrets, with this practical guide to Antwerp’s most beautiful, interesting and often unknown places. This book takes you off the beaten track to discover the city’s hidden gardens, small museums and intimate coffee bars. On its pages you will find the 5 best places to eat frites, the 5 most secret courtyards and the 5 best independent record shops in town. It also guides you to some of the more unusual experiences that you can track down in Antwerp. So you can find out where to eat the best dim sum in Chinatown, sample a chocolate flavored with fried bacon, or dance the night away. The aim of this book is not to cover the city from A to Z, but to inspire; it is a guide to the places the author would recommend to a friend who wants to discover the real Antwerp.
The 500 Hidden Secrets of Antwerp offers a practical way to explore Antwerp’s finest places, and Derek Blyth covers all bases to ensure no visitor to the city is ever anything short of captivated. Packed with accessible, easy-to-read information summarized in handy lists, maps, itineraries, sections on food & drink, accommodation, green spaces, museums, galleries and shops; this guide is an essential resource for the inquisitive traveler.

Gertrude Jekyll was perhaps the most important British garden designer of the 20th century. She famously argued that gardening ought to be considered a Fine Art, highlighting that it becomes a point of honor to be always striving for the best. This volume examines Jekyll’s work at Manor House, Upton Grey in Hampshire, offering an insight into her eclectic, imaginative, and inspiring art. Designed between 1908 and 1909, and once maintained by as many as nine gardeners, the garden fell into disrepair by the second half of the twentieth century, before a full and accurate restoration was carried out in the early 1980s. Gertrude Jekyll: Her Art Restored at Upton Grey presents a visual record of the garden’s plants and layout, with original plans and photographs, as well as beautiful images of the garden taken since its restoration. There is also a fascinating chapter about Miss Jekyll’s discovery, admiration and use of Mediterranean plants. The book succeeds in illustrating exactly why Jekyll was so admired in her lifetime and why she continues to inspire and influence gardeners today. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: The Garden from 1902 to the Start of its Restoration in 1984 Chapter 2: The Rose Garden Chapter 3: The Dry-Stone Walls Chapter 4: The Main Herbaceous Borders Chapter 5: The Pergola, the Rose Arbour and Surrounding Garden Chapter 6: Miss Gertrude Jekyll’s mediterranean travels and plant discoveries and their use at Upton Grey Chapter 7: The Wild Garden Chapter 8: The Art Completed Also available: The English Garden Through the Twentieth Century ISBN: 9781870673297

Drago’s impressive library already includes the works of many internationally celebrated and influential photographers such as Boogie, Estevan Oriol, Ed Templeton and JR. The Street is Watching encapsulates the talent of these artists together with over 100 contributing photographers in a single and revolutionary anthology. These featured photographers include Larry Clark, Glen E. Friedman, Martha Cooper, Jamel Shabazz, Bruce Davidson, Jim Goldberg, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Gilden, Ryan McGinley, Hugh Holland, Jill Freedman, C.R. Stecyk, Dash Snow, Bruce LaBruce, Ivory Serra, Olivia Bee and many more. The book also features insightful contributions from the curator, Paulo Luca von Vacano; Miss Rosen, a New York-based photo editor and photography book specialist and Ethel Seno, a project manager and curatorial coordinator at MOCA, Los Angeles.

As soon as Bill Wyman was given a camera as a young boy, he quickly developed a passion for photography. After joining what would become the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band, Wyman continued his hobby. When he didn’t have his bass, he had his camera. The result is an arresting, insightful and often poignant collection of photographs, showing his exclusive inside view of the band. From traveling to relaxing, backstage and on, Stones From the Inside is a unique view captured by a man who was there, every step of the way. Along with the images of the band at work and play, Wyman includes remarkable images of those along for the ride, from John Lennon, Eric Clapton, David Bowie and Iggy Pop to John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. To accompany his photographs, Wyman offers up wonderful insights, anecdotes and behind-the-photo stories, giving all us a front-row seat and backstage pass to what it was like to be there, as music history was made as a member of The Rolling Stones. Limited to just 300 copies, this slipcased edition is accompanied by a print.

This book of photographs by Swedish photographer Christer Löfgren explores the diverse and multifaceted world in which we live, from north to south. In comparing photographs of various cultures, diversity is more noticeable: the colors, clothes, and food point to the identity of each place. The further north or south of the equator you travel, colors are paler, and the food is milder and less spicy. The more extreme nature is, the more difficult the lifestyle. These vibrant photographs ask us to broaden our vision and grasp the complexity and beauty of the world as a global whole. This deluxe edition consists of three hardcover books in a slipcase.

Maria Lai (Ulassai, September 27, 1919 – Cardedu, April 16, 2013) is without doubt one of the leading figures in the history of contemporary Italian art. Not only on account of the content of her works, but also thanks to the diversity of her artistic approach, ranging as it does across many media – public art, embroidery, weaving, sculpture, drawing, and writing: all are grist for her poetics. The book is published to coincide with the exhibition at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, which is presenting to the general public over one hundred works by the Sardinian artist, from the early 1960s to her very last works, and explores the various themes dear to the artist with the contributions of experts in their fields: the locations, the creation, and publication of art books, her public art events and her relationship with the written word and her own writing. Her entire oeuvre is distinguished by its powerful visual impact, revealing a ‘way of doing art’ that is nothing other than an instrument of thought. The book’s structure reflects the exhibition’s own sections, arranged by theme, whose titles are paradigmatic of Lai’s oeuvre as a whole: Essere è tessere. Cucire e ricucire; L’arte è il gioco degli adulti. Giocare e raccontare; Disseminare e condividere; Il viaggiatore astrale. Immaginare l’altrove; L’arte ci prende per mano. Incontrare e partecipare.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the MAXXI Museum, Rome, 19 June 2019-12 January 2020.

Text in English and Italian.

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584-1645) is the most revered and celebrated swordsman in Japanese history; in Japan alone close to a thousand works have taken the ancient warrior as its subject. Unfortunately, our modern portrait of this folk hero is derived mainly from popular books, comics, and film, with little heed paid to the early denki, chronicles recorded by men who, though they had not known Musashi in his lifetime, faithfully recorded what was passed down by those who had. The Bushû Denraiki is the earliest such record still in existence. Completed in 1727 by Tachibana Minehide, the fifth generation master of Musashi’s Niten Ichi school of fencing, it is the most reliable record of Musashi’s life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, after three centuries, Minehide’s insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman are available to the English reader. His text throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of especially Musashi’s early life-his troubled relations with his father, his first battle experience during Japan’s period of unification, the sad death of his illegitimate child, and of course his legendary duel on Ganryû island.

Darwishi Ur-atum Msamaki Minkabh Ishaq Eboni, the son of an Egyptian pharaoh, is only nine years old when he dies. He is mummified and laid to rest in a tomb, with the powerful Golden Scarab of Mukatagara hanging around his neck. Thousands of years later, during a transport of three precious sarcophaguses, there is a terrible storm. Lightning strikes, the lorry plunges from a flyover and the sarcophaguses are hurled through the air. During all this, a little white shape escapes the wreckage unnoticed…

Angus Gust is ten and has a perfectly normal life. Then one night a little mummy appears in his room! Life changes completely. Angus and Dummie (short for his real name) become best friends. One dreadful day, Dummie’s scarab goes missing. Without the scarab Dummie falls terribly ill. Angus must now do everything he can to find the scarab, so Dummie doesn’t have to face death again. Can Dummie be saved in time?

In this second book in the Dummie the Mummy series, Dummie, Angus and Nick travel to Egypt. It’s Dummie’s great wish to return to his country to visit the grave of his father, Pharaoh Akhnetut. Unfortunately, Egypt has completely changed in four thousand years and Akhnetut’s grave seems untraceable. To make matters even worse, Nick falls ill and Angus and Dummie set off without him. Then something terrible happens – Dummie has to give everything he’s got to save his best friend. Yet he is also determined to find his father’s grave. Fortunately, he remembers more and more about his life long ago and this proves to be very handy!

Scotland has produced an astonishingly high number of men and women whose lives have inspired and changed the world. This book, illustrating just over forty portraits, represents only a few of them, but with Robert Burns and Walter Scott, Eric Liddell and Alex Ferguson, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Queen Victoria, it represents the flavour of the collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

The Darnley jewel, a masterpiece of the goldsmith’s art on display at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Palace, has been deemed a love token, but has also been labelled an emblem of political ambition. Taking the shape of a heart, the jewel was produced at a moment (1565-75) when such objects worn by courtiers were a primary means of asserting status and proclaiming allegiances. With a deep medieval history – originally the fleshly power center of the human body, the seat of the soul, and place of memory and emotion – the heart has many aspects to offer. This book shows how the understanding of the heart changed during the Middle Ages, from spiritual locus of the body, to source of devotion to country, and finally, to the font of love and sentimentality.

“Seldom does a collection of art history essays leave readers yearning for a second volume…”—Barbara Wisch, Renaissance Quarterly

Roman church interiors throughout the Early Modern age were endowed with rich historical and visual significance. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in anticipation of and following the Council of Trent, and in response to the expansion of the Roman Curia, the chapel became a singular arena in which wealthy and powerful Roman families, as well as middle-class citizens, had the opportunity to demonstrate their status and role in Roman society. In most cases the chapels were conceived not as isolated spaces, but as part of a more complex system, which involved the nave and the other chapels within the church, in a dialogue among the arts and the patrons of those other spaces. This volume explores this historical and artistic phenomenon through a number of examples involving the patronage of prominent Roman families such as the Chigis, Spadas, Caetanis, Cybos and important artists and architects such as Federico Zuccari, Giacomo della Porta, Carlo Maderno, Alessandro Algardi, Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Maratta.

“Mesmerizing and unputdownable – a virtuoso translation of what must surely be one of the best Thai novels to make it into English.” – Lawrence Osborne, author of Hunters in the Dark and Only to Sleep

”At its core, this novel from Veeraporn Nitiprapha has a simple dynamic: the tension between two sisters, and the young man whose life interweaves with each of theirs. What makes this novel unique is its attention to the granular, whether it’s the music that several of its characters obsess over or its author’s tendency to fill in the history or future of a specific character at a moment’s notice.” – Words Without Borders, February 2019

Watchlist On the day Chareeya is born, her mother discovers her father has been having an affair with a traditional Thai dancer. From that moment, Chareeya’s life is fated to carry the weight of her parents disappointment. With her sister, Chalika, she grows up in an insular world, until joined by the laconic orphan, Pran, and together they navigate the labyrinth of their own making, each trying to escape their fate.

The Vatican Museums is one of the most important museum complexes in the world, housing incredible masterpieces from the Egyptian Age to the late Renaissance.

The Vatican Museums hold a treasure trove of art and history, as well as an inestimable patrimony of our culture and our civilisation. This volume focuses on the paintings to be found in the collection – including The Sistine Chapel.

Text in English and Italian.