The 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a good reason to put the topic emphatically into the public focus. UNICEF Germany and GEO – with the support of the world’s best photographers and Edition Lammerhuber – do exactly that in this joint pro-bono project. In 40 photographic reports from 15 years, a selection of particularly striking pictures from the UNICEF Photo of the Year competition forms a fervent appeal to respect the rights of the child and to guarantee every girl and boy in the world a childhood in dignity. The volume is edited by Jürgen Heraeus, the Chairman of the German Committee of UNICEF, and Peter-Matthias Gaede, long-serving Editor-in-Chief of GEO. We the Children draws attention to the suffering and hardships, but also to the wishes and dreams of today’s children. We the Children is a book full of hope for a child-oriented world. Text in English and German.

A sumptuous celebration of one of the world’s most striking photograph collections from 1967 to 2017. This publication celebrates fifty years of collecting photographs at the National Gallery of Canada. In 1967, when the collection was established, the photography market was in its infancy and the collection reflects the availability of in-depth collections of work by some of the forefathers of the medium such as Charles Nègre, William Henry Fox Talbot, Gustave Le Gray and Roger Fenton, among others. Within a few short years of starting to build the collection the science of photographic preservation and conservation was making remarkable strides and influencing the acquisition and exhibition of photographs in museums. This publication celebrates the collecting of photographs, the historical and art historical context of their making and the deepening of our understanding of their physical nature. The work of 164 artists, such as: Benoit Aquin; Diane Arbus; Eugène Atget; Nicolas Baier; Edouard Baldus; Brassaï; Julia Margaret Cameron; Henri Cartier-Bresson; Lynne Cohen; Benjamin John Dancer; Walker Evans; Robert Frank; Lee Friedlander; Isabelle Hayeur; Arnaud Maggs; Robert Mapplethorpe; John Max; Lisette Model; Eadweard Muybridge; Charles Nègre; William McFarlane Notman; Marc Ruwedel; Jospeph Sudek; William Henry Fox Talbot and vernacular and news photographs by unknown photographers will also be included.

The fashion, history, and development of Jewish dress tells a story that spans the globe and crosses many cultures. In this colorful volume, Jewish communities – particularly those established for centuries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa – are revealed through their garments. Stunning photographs spin tales of family traditions and religious devotion, with a special section dedicated to jewelry worn by brides and grooms. Superb photographs of specific garments, with many close-up details, are juxtaposed with rare contextual photographs from The Israel Museum’s archives to create a tapestry of a people revealed through textiles, costume, and images. More than 350 revelatory illustrations tell us how these precious articles of dress were originally worn.

The most destructive epoch in Japan’s long history of civil strife, the Warring States period began when the dearly won supremacy of the Ashikaga clan was squandered by a weak and indecisive ruler, allowing the jealous rivalry between local warlords to spiral irrevocably out of control. It was a time when thousands upon thousands of warriors either perished on the battlefield, or persevered simply on the strength of their martial skill. In spite of all the mayhem and bloodshed, these were also men with an inextinguishable moral core, who adhered with almost religious devotion to the bushido dictates of duty, fidelity, decorum, indeed, even of benevolence. Two such men were Lizasa Choisai Lenao and Kami Izumi Nobutsuna. Both not only witnessed but actively participated in the dramatic events of the period at hand. Their true stories, told against the greater historical backdrop of ruthless political intrigue and vast military campaigns, is a story of the tragedy of civil war experienced at the personal level. It is a story of sacrifice, of blind devotion, of seemingly insurmountable setbacks, yet it is at the same time a testimony to the kind of perseverance and dedication that can have no equal in times of peace.

An impressively tattooed but unnamed Easter Island (Rapa Nui) man appears often in the pages of Pacific Island histories and museum catalogs. The Swedish ethnographer Dr. Knut Hjalmar Stolpe knew him only as Tepano, the Tahitian version of the Christian name Stephen. But what was his real Rapanui identity, and what can his life story tell us about the history of Easter Island?

This book reveals his identity, who illustrated him, and how he transcended the tragic events of 19th-century Rapa Nui to become one of the most iconic faces of the Polynesian past. The authors summarize the history of tattoo as practiced by Rapanui artisans, link that history to island geography, and present rare barkcloth sculptures as a visual record of tattoo patterns.

This title is the first in a new series on Polynesian Arts & Culture by Mana Press, in partnership with Floating World Editions.

For a list of future titles, visit: www.FloatingWorldEditions.com. For more on Rapa Nui, the Mana Gallery and Mana Books, visit: www.eisp.org.

Since the early seventeenth century, Taoism – the native religion of China – has been generally regarded by authorities there as base superstition and potentially subversive. The Taoist poetry of medieval China was consequently ignored by Chinese arbiters of taste and, until recently, most Western scholars and translators have accepted this judgment uncritically; a body of beautiful verse, with analogs in the poetry of Christian mysticism, has remained virtually unknown in our time. This book augments the efforts of a few contemporary Western scholars to recover the meaning and value of this literary heritage. The eminent sinologist Edward H. Shafer translated all the surviving verse of the ninth-century poet Ts’ao T’ang, and to the selections published here has added introductory remarks on the source of the poet’s imagery and short essays on his treatment of figures of the Taoist pantheon. Ts’ao T’ang has placed these deities in celestial gardens, sparkling palaces on the summits of sacred mountains, and secret places of rendezvous on magic islands in the eastern sea. The poet creates a world of illusions, in which it is difficult to distinguish vestments from rainbows, castles from crags, birds from spirits, sea-waves from sea-mounts – even lords from ladies. These contrived wonders are all metaphors for a world completely inaccessible to our mortal senses.

One of two seminal texts for understanding the life of Miyamoto Musashi (c.1584-1645), the most celebrated swordsman in Japanese history, completed in 1755 by Toyoda Masanaga, senior retainer to the Nagaoka clan; with the Bushû denraiki (also available from Floating World), the Bukôden stands as the most reliable record of Musashi’s life and exploits outside those from the hand of the master swordsman himself. Now, for the first time in two-and-a-half centuries, Masanaga’s insight into this enigmatic and solitary swordsman has been made available to the English reader. It throws a new and refreshing light on many aspects of Musashi’s life, especially his later life – his adoption of Iori, his return to Kyushu in 1634, and of course the gestation of his great work on the philosophy and art of Japanese swordsmanship, the Book of Five Rings.

Although Chinese scholars’ stones fascinate, they do not speak; they reveal their mysteries only grudgingly to those who take the time to observe and to investigate. In seven essays the author relates important lessons learned over a lifetime of collecting and researching these intriguing creations of nature. What did Chinese connoisseurs of a thousand years ago mean by the enigmatic terms shou, zhou, lou, and tou? Were ‘ink mountain stones’ the earliest collected stone form, and were they valued primarily for their utilitarian function? What are the ‘Qingzhou stones’ mentioned in one early text, but ignored in subsequent writings? What should we be looking for when we evaluate an ancient stone? How can we tell if it is ancient without written records and how much weight can be given to any documentation? Finally, using the tools of connoisseurship and textual evidence, is it possible to verify that a stone first collected in the former Han dynasty is the stone we are looking at today? In exploring these and other issues, Kemin Hu illuminates a depth and complexity of stone appreciation not touched upon in other publications, yet understood and appreciated by serious modern collectors as well as Chinese stone lovers of old.

This popular work sheds lights on Taoism, China’s great indigenous religion during this vibrant and glorious period of Chinese history. Without these insights, we can have only limited understanding of an important aspect of China’s social, political, and of course, religious life.

By the early seventeenth century the Tokugawa shogunate had achieved supremacy over the islands of Japan. Meanwhile, the great Ming dynasty of China, which came to power in 1368, was on its last legs. North of the Great Wall, the nomadic Jurchens were beginning to cause the Ming government trouble. Across this stage of international conflict and intrigue wanders a completely unlikely couple, the Jurchen princess Abiya, shipwrecked on the island of Hirado, and the minor samurai Katsura Shosuke, charged by his lord with returning her to her North China homeland. Neither has any inkling that they will soon become caught up in events that will shape the history of East Asia, and will bear witness to the birth of two remarkable and enduring regimes. An epic of colorful characters animating pivotal events taken straight from documented history, The Tatar Whirlwind was penned by Japan’s most popular writer of historical fiction and rendered in a masterful and accurate translation by a noted scholar of East Asian history.

This is the first book in English to present a comprehensive history of Japanese theater illustrated with monochrome photographs of performances, costumes, masks and props.

In the seventh century the great T’ang nation was obliged to reconquer the southern most portion of what had been considered Chinese territory for many centuries. The region had in fact remained largely an unassimilated wilderness, whose heavily forested marshes – monsoon lands with fringes of the true tropics – corresponded roughly with modern North Vietnam, along with the Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong. The Vermilion Bird attempts to recover the actual character of the monsoon realms of T’ang: a scattering of palisaded garrisons, isolated monasteries, and commercial towns, all surrounded by dark, haunted woods. The soldiers, administrators, colonists, and political exiles who lived there were constantly threatened by hostile inhabitants, disease, wild animals, and supernatural powers. On the other hand there were new and beautiful flowering plants and luscious fruits for the delectation of the connoisseur, enchanting limestone grottoes ready to be explored, and every sort of ravishing image available for the exploitation of poets. Professor Schafer examines the thoughts, emotions, imaginations, and daily lives of the men.

Although China is the colossus of our times economically, its equally prodigious output of contemporary poetry is relatively unknown. In this anthology, work of the so-called Fourth Generation of poets is selected and introduced by a scholar and former dissident, and translated by a distinguished international team of poets and writers. It offers for the first time in bilingual format the outstanding poetry emerging from a vibrant and rapidly developing cultural scene, and also introduces some of China’s hottest visual artists and their work. An introduction provides an historical and critical framework, while textual commentary and notes, biographical sketches, bibliography, and notes make this a necessary addition to any library of Chinese literature.

An extraordinary witness to religious faith, the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi is one of the great monuments of Italy, a treasure trove of masterpieces by great painters such Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti. The book illustrates the entire artistic patrimony of the Basilica, showing the frescoes that were damaged or destroyed during the 1997 earthquake, both in their original condition and as they now appear after restoration. Texts by G. Bonsanti, M.M. Donato, G.B. Fidanza, A. Franci, A. Iacuzzi, P. Magro, F. Martin, L. Meoni, P. Mercurelli Salati, A. Monciatti, E. Neri Lusanna, R.P. Novello, G. Rocchi Coopmans de Yoldi, G. Ruf, G. Sapori. Photographs by E. and S. Ciol, G. Roli, G. Ruf Text in Italian. Mirabilia Italiæ is a unique series. It owes its existence to an innovative and ambitious project: an atlas of the great monuments of Italy that will display them in all their details, from the best known to the least. This series represents a completely new way of documenting art. Mirabilia Italiæ provides a guided tour of each monument, fully and accurately explained. Each atlas contains hundreds of color photographs, arranged in a precise topographical sequence and accompanied by diagrams showing the exact location of each detail. The atlas is complemented by a volume of texts edited by the premier scholars in the field, consisting of critical essays and descriptive notes. Essays examine the monument from the art-historical point of view, and record the alterations it has undergone over time. Descriptive notes analyze the content and significance of the images. Extensive cross-references link the essays and notes to the images, facilitating consultation of the work. The General Editor of Mirabilia Italiæ is Salvatore Settis, Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.

In the eleventh century the architect Buscheto built the most important Romanesque cathedral in Europe, the Cathedral of Pisa: an extraordinarily beautiful building that was an expression of the immense economic power of the maritime republic. Completely sheathed in white marble, much of which was recovered from Roman buildings, The Cathedral of Pisa reveals the splendor of a thousand years of artistic history: the mosaics by Cimabue, the tomb of the emperor Henry VII by Tino di Camaino, the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano. Over two thousand photographs as well as essays and copious critical notes document the richness and complexity of a unique monument in Italian art. Texts by A. Ambrosini, C. Baracchini, C. Casini, R. Coroneo, A. Milone, C. Nenci, R. P. Novello, A. Peroni, S. Settis, G. Tedeschi Grisanti. Photographs by A. Angeli, A. Corsini, G. Martellucci, A. Mela. Text in English and Italian. Mirabilia Italiæ is a unique series. It owes its existence to an innovative and ambitious project: an atlas of the great monuments of Italy that will display them in all their details, from the best known to the least. This series represents a completely new way of documenting art. Mirabilia Italiæ provides a guided tour of each monument, fully and accurately explained. Each atlas contains hundreds of color photographs, arranged in a precise topographical sequence and accompanied by diagrams showing the exact location of each detail. The atlas is complemented by a volume of texts edited by the premier scholars in the field, consisting of critical essays and descriptive notes. Essays examine the monument from the art-historical point of view, and record the alterations it has undergone over time. Descriptive notes analyze the content and significance of the images. Extensive cross-references link the essays and notes to the images, facilitating consultation of the work. The General Editor of Mirabilia Italiæ is Salvatore Settis, Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.

“When one is tired of London, one is tired of life.” – Samuel Johnson London has long been a center of the literary world. From Shakespeare to Amis, Byron to Blake, Plath, Thomas, Christie and Rowling; many of the greatest names in literature have made this metropolis their home. Writers’ London guides the reader through homes, bookshops, pubs and cemeteries, in search of where literary greats loved and lost, drank and died. Discover the Islington building where Joe Orton was murdered by his lover, the Soho pub where Dylan Thomas left his manuscript, the Chelsea hotel where Oscar Wilde was arrested, and the Bank of England where Kenneth Graham was shot at (and missed) three times. Gathering hundreds of famous and less-well-known anecdotes, this meticulously researched volume will entertain any lover of literature. Also in the series: Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156 Rock ‘n’ Roll London ISBN 9781788840163 Art London ISBN 9781788840385 London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182

How does one view the cumulative work of one’s life? For Gautam Bhatia, this publication is not merely a record of his personal or professional legacy, but rather it is a profound examination of his life in architecture.

According to the author, architecture is, by its very nature, a practice of contradictions. It operates under influences from sociology, design, engineering, landscape, anthropology, urbanism and civic practice in order to impose its will on the nature of space. This publication brings together several of the author’s built works, from commercial and residential buildings to large public spaces, from places of leisure to places of worship. Together with detailed essays, drawings and photographs, the author lays out his philosophy of design to illustrate how architecture became not just a conquest of the imagination, but also of reality.

To physically will a building onto a site is an act of design, but to set it free onto a course of transformation is an act of architecture – into a realm beyond the present, where the space is not just made, but lives and dies. The author demonstrates how his practice became not just a tool for solving problems, but also a mode of personal expression, making this volume an invaluable resource for students and practitioners of architecture alike.

This richly illustrated publication explores the work of contemporary artist Nathan Coley. It offers a detailed look at three of his most significant sculptural works: The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh 2004, 2004; Paul, 2015; and Tate Modern on Fire, 2017, which is reproduced and discussed here for the first time. In a newly commissioned text, award-winning novelist, screenwriter and director Ewan Morrison focuses on these three sculptures to explore the complexity and ambiguity of Coley’s artistic practice. Morrison brings into play different narrative forms and voices to draw attention to the realms of history, art history and politics that Coley’s work inhabits, as well as the deeply personal responses that Coley’s work can generate.

At the pinnacle of French power in India, Pondicherry sparked the imagination of those back home. Pondicherry was the French window on Indian culture, proudly seen as the Gallic Gateway of India.

For over three centuries this gateway witnessed the busy trade of spices, beautiful textiles, woven cloth and later peanuts in return for a steady flow of gold, silver, weapons, merchants, priests, soldiers and adventurers. Later, as the English tightened their noose around Pondicherry, the beleaguered French were caught up in their own fateful and impossible attempt to combine colonial and republican principles. History was played out street by street in old Pondicherry and the wealth of these experiences have left an indelible mark on the unique cosmopolitan city that is Pondicherry today.

The purpose of this book is to present a brief, illustrated history of these places that once were French.

This essential travel guide to Southern India’s varied heritage covers all the major Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and European historical monuments and sites in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. There are amazing descriptions of forts and palaces, temple architecture, sculpture and painting, mosques and tombs, churches and civic buildings. Plan trips by using the travel-friendly itineraries, accompanied by useful location maps. This essential travel guide contains comprehensive coverage of the region’s cities and monuments, museums, and archaeological sites. It includes all the major sites the great port cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi; the citadels of Golconda, Vijaynagara and Gingee; the rock-cut sanctuaries at Ajanta and Ellora; the temples at Badami, Halebid and Thanjuvar; the mosques of Hyderabad and Bijapur; and the cathedrals at Goa and hundreds of less well-known places.

Faith Flowers is a guide to arranging flowers in places of worship. The book starts with the fundamentals of flower arranging and works up to advanced designs for festivals. Step-by-step instructions and photographs clearly show how to create many different arrangements. Flower recipes are included describing what is needed for each design. Lots of inspiration for new ideas and colour combinations. Flower designs are provided for regular services, weddings, funerals, Christmas, Easter and much more. Learn how to create a volunteer group to provide flowers for your worship services. Author Laura Larocci shares her knowledge from 16 years as Flower Guild Chair of one of the largest cathedrals in the country. Over the years she has organized, led and taught hundreds of volunteers at the cathedral and churches across the US. She shares the triumphs and struggles of creating beautiful flowers within budget and volunteer flower guilds. The book has good reference guides with photos of flower varieties, greenery and materials needed, sample ordering forms, budgets and tips for saving money. Sources for flowers and materials are also discussed.