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From Nigel Grierson, (photographer/sleeve designer and joint creator of the 4AD visual identity), and with an essay by esteemed photography writer, Gerry Badger, comes the first volume of his street photography from the early 1980s – created while studying at The Royal College of Art in London. Here ‘the decisive moment’ combined with Grierson’s uniquely minimalist eye, are employed to create images of great power, humor and poignancy. Pioneering ‘flash in daylight’ within British documentary photography from the late 1970s, onward (‘a time when natural light was almost a creed’ – Badger), this award winning work, is finally published. In his brief introduction, Grierson speaks of his fascination for the ‘paradoxical’ nature of the medium, being both documentation and self expression simultaneously. He states, ‘It seemed to me, that through photography and observation, there was the possibility, for the two great arcs of life; one of the outer world of reality / documentation, and the other of the inner world of fiction and dream, to come together with the single click of a shutter’.

Going against the grain of conventional street photography or humanist photography—both too traditional for his bold creative vision—Ray K. Metzker (1931–2014) uniquely appropriated urban space through its vertical and horizontal lines, with complete mastery of light. Long underrated, his work has previously only been featured in about a handful publications, all of which are now out of print. This new monograph, bringing together approximately 150 photographs, offers a fresh perspective on Metzker’s work as well as a (re)discovery of the American photographer, who developed an emotional affinity early on with the cities of Chicago and Philadelphia. His photography broke free from narrative aesthetic conventions, elevating monochrome photography to new heights.

Since 2004-05, the producers of the ‘Gute Aussichten – New German Photography’ competition have presented their winning photos at over one hundred solo shows. The competition fills a gap in the art world, which had previously left it up to chance or good luck to decide whether talented new photographers gained attention. The competition takes place every year, and the magazine Der Spiegel describes it as “Germany’s most prestigious competition for new photography.” This book showcases the top entries to the competition. The travelling exhibition starts on the 18th of November 2016 at the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf, Germany. It will appear at different venues worldwide throughout 2017. Text in English and German.

This beautifully designed book is a celebration of one of the world’s most creative, dynamic and fascinating cities: Tokyo. It spans 400 years, with highlights including Kano school paintings; the iconic woodblock prints of Hiroshige; Tokyo Pop Art posters; the photography of Moriyama Daido and Ninagawa Mika; manga; film; and contemporary art by Murakami Takashi and Aida Makoto. Visually bold and richly detailed, this publication looks at a city which has undergone constant destruction and renewal and it tells the stories of the people who have made Tokyo so famous with their insatiable appetite for the new and innovative – from the samurai to avantgarde artists today. Co-edited by Japanese art specialists and curators Lena Fritsch and Clare Pollard from Oxford University, this accessible volume features 28 texts by international experts of Japanese culture, as well as original statements by influential artists.

From wild parrots in the streets of Tokyo to prize pigeons outside New York, this book brings together the world’s best contemporary photography of birds and asks us to look anew at these mysterious winged creatures in all their complexity and majesty.

Featured photographers: Frankie Alduino, Barbara Bosworth, Xavi Bou, Giacomo Brunelli, Robert Clark, Tim Flach, Andrew Garn, Mark Harvey, Leila Jeffreys, Simen Johan, Tracy Johnson, Katerina Kaloudi, Sanna Kannisto, Tom Leighton, Neeta Madahar, Dillon Marsh, Joseph McGlennon, Yoshinori Mizutani, Yola Monakhov, Carla Rhodes, Pentti Sammallahti, Joel Sartore, Aniruddha Satam, Søren Solkær, Tamara Staples, Luke Stephenson, Julia Tatarchenko and Janice Tieken.

Both beautiful and unusual, the images in this exquisitely bound book capture the freshest contemporary photography of flora from both famous and lesser-known photographers around the world. Although enchanting, the pictures move us away from traditional and sometimes predictable images of gardens, wildflowers and tropical plants. This beautifully bound book makes a perfect gift and shows flowers in a new light, whether shot in the studio, on location or using surprisingly abstract techniques. 

To wander is to travel without a fixed route or destination, to move expectantly through the world. Wander, the second volume in Sean Palfrey’s photography book series, explores the joy of following a winding course.
Palfrey is a renowned pediatrician and child health advocate, who travels the world with his work and for pleasure. His fascination with people, places, and stories informs both his artistic and professional practices. Wander traces Palfrey’s journeys across continents and cultures over five decades and features seventy photographs of remarkable places, from the mountain ranges of South Africa to the beaches of Chile, the woods of Canada to the deserts of New Mexico, to name a few. In the text accompanying each photo, Palfrey recounts his experiences and meditations in lyrical narratives.
Wander depicts and describes vastness, intimacy, beauty, and loss. Palfrey affirms photography’s capacity to spark our imaginations: “Every photo here has a story, a backstory, a then-story, and a since-story.”

In September 1939, thousands of German soldiers were turned loose on Poland. In 1940, they descended on Holland, Belgium and France. In 1941 they went to the Balkans, and then to the USSR. Armed with Leica and Rolleiflex cameras, some of these soldiers were officially commissioned as photographers, while others were asked by their commanders to snap records of events. Among them were trainees who knew about the Bauhaus, and other, older, men who could remember Weimar. Some excelled at formal portraiture, others were storytellers, stylists or humanists who wept at what they saw. The style and content of their work changed along with the collective mood after 1942, a change that is discernible in the photographs themselves. Celebrated author and art historian Ian Jeffrey – author of How to Read a Photograph and The Photography Book – has trawled through these albums, picking out the most compelling of these works to create an intimate record of anonymous lives experiencing the unprecedented.

In a world of infinite images here is a guide to 65 of the best ever taken. From early experiments with light and form through Leica masterpieces and now artificially generated images, take it or leave it, this is our opinion as to why these particular photographs rise above so many others and how they shaped the history of photography as an art form as well as the way we see ourselves and the world. This is the third book in a new series of Opinionated Guides on art movements, mediums and ideas which builds on the success of Hoxton Mini Press Opinionated Guides to London.

Albert Dros has a passion for landscape photography. Although he travels the world in search of the most beautiful images, the Netherlands is still his favorite subject. After all these years, Albert has created extremely atmospheric, colorful and almost romantic photographs of the Netherlands. His dream images in this book show everything that makes the Netherlands the Netherlands: from tulips to windmills, from purple moors to vast river landscapes and from picturesque towns to animals in meadows and in the wild. The Beauty of the Netherlands is the result of ten years of craftsmanship by an internationally renowned photographer who captures a Netherlands that few people will ever see with their own eyes.

‘British Wine’ was once shorthand for bad imported grape mush. Not anymore. The rise of sustainable methods, youthful experimentation and, dare we say it, a new climate, mean that Britain is no longer the home of a few fine sparklings but a whole roster of dynamic reds, pinks and even oranges. This book celebrates the people who are growing, producing and championing the best of new British wine. This sumptuous coffee table book, filled with superb original photography, brings together personal interviews with some of the most inspiring people in Britain’s fast-growing, eclectic wine scene – taking you on a tour of over 30 influential winemakers, sommeliers and restaurants, from Cornish vineyards to Scottish wine bars.

“A collection of glamorous lodgings offering what Scarabeo Camp in Morocco calls “dusty luxury.” — Remodelista

“Celebrates the solitude of the desert and extraordinary places to stay.” — Wallpaper
The desert offers the great benefits of silence, slowness and space. These startling landscapes and awe-inspiring vistas can only be found in a few places in the world. Accompanied by stunning photography, this book bundles together 40 dreamy locations in one volume and shows the most luxurious and special overnight stays the desert has to offer. Get insider tips on travel to the Sahara in Morocco, the salt flats (Salar de Uyuni) in Bolivia or the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, among others.

a+u’s October issue features the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, born in 1868, in Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow grew rapidly into a modern industrialized city in the latter half of the 1800s. With this urban development came a generation of students from Glasgow School of Art, including Mackintosh and his close associates known as The Four, who started creating designs and artworks from an entirely new vantage point. As detailed in an essay by guest editor Hiroaki Kimura, Mackintosh enriched traditional architectural composition through his advocacy of the “philosophy of craft,” which brought together craft and engineering. In their distance from historicist styles and pursuit of a new environmental aesthetic, these activities paralleled other movements in continental Europe at the turn of the 20th century. This issue showcases 15 built works by Mackintosh through lavish displays of archival drawings and historical photographs.

Text in English and Japanese.

Social, relaxing and actually really good for you… saunas are replacing the pub as Britons’ favorite pastime. They can be found everywhere, from rugged Pembrokeshire coastlines and Scottish islands to inner-city car parks. Some are so traditional, they could have been plucked from Helsinki; others put an innovative – and distinctly British – spin on things, with saunas in repurposed horseboxes and pub backrooms. Many are new, boasting dynamic community events (sweaty yoga, anyone?); some are as old as Britain’s heritage spa towns. This book explores the very best of them.

The New York jewelry firm of Marcus & Co. (1892–1942) created exceptional examples of Art Nouveau and Art Deco jewelry for an art-loving, wealthy elite. Innovative in their collaboration with contemporary artists, and in their captivating window displays and advertisements, the firm captured the imagination of Gilded Age families such as the Rockefellers. This volume chronicles their story, from the founder’s apprenticeship in Dresden to the firm’s grand premises on Fifth Avenue neighboring Tiffany and Cartier. The triumphs and tragedies of three generations of Marcus jewelers, both artistic and entrepreneurial, are presented here together with exquisite jewelry and archival design drawings spanning 50 years.

This book accompanies a major exhibition in the Ashmolean Museum on the early work of internationally acclaimed German artist Anselm Kiefer. It focuses on his paintings, drawings, photographs and artist books created between 1969 and 1982, in the private collections of the Hall Art Foundation. Anselm Kiefer: Early Works is the first institutional show and publication in the UK dedicated to Kiefer’s early practice. The book introduces themes, subjects and styles that have become signature to Kiefer’s work, while providing a more intimate and complementary context for his large-scale installations that he is best known for today. The early works are accompanied by three recent paintings from the artist’s own collections and White Cube, chosen by the artist himself.

Art historians, artists, curators and experts of Kiefer’s art from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Britain and the US have contributed 46 original texts on individual works, organized in a chronological structure. An illustrated chronology at the end of the book compiled by Stephanie Biron from the Hall Art Foundation provides an overview of the artist’s early practice and life, to contextualize the works.

The book begins with Kiefer’s iconic Occupations and Heroische Sinnbilder series, created in 1969 and 1970, which Kiefer views as his first serious works. Kiefer was among the first generation of German post-war artists to directly confront the country’s troubled past and identity. Full of complex references to German socio-political history but also to culture, literature and his personal life, Kiefer’s early works carry a unique iconography, linking classic ideas of great art with a distinctive understanding of concrete artistic materiality. The landscapes in his watercolors are historically charged; hand-written words on paintings are closely linked with poetry well known to most German viewers; motifs and symbols point at Nazi ideologies and a collective feeling of guilt.

A new, thoroughly revised and expanded edition of the beloved Scotland guide by local Lauren MacCallum. Because she is so passionate about exploring new places, Lauren always has a list of new secrets ready to share. The new entries in this book include her favorite and recently discovered spots in Orkney Islands and the far north of the Highlands, like the coolest places along the North Coast 500. She also added, for example, the best activities in every season in her home area of Cairngorms.

This book isn’t your typical Scottish travel guide; instead, it aims to encourage you to define your own sense of adventure, to explore beyond the usual hot spots and get to know the real Scotland. It will help you to see beyond the tartan trinkets, Irn-Bru and haggis, and to experience the authentic life in Scotland, so you’ll understand what’s so unique about this small stretch of land and its inhabitants. The book covers an eclectic range of over 60 themes such as: unusual art spaces; gin and whisky distilleries worth a visit; amazing coastal walks; dramatic lochs and bookshops with character.

Edinburgh is rightly celebrated for its famous historical and cultural attractions. But for the discerning visitor it has much more to offer away from the well-worn tourist trail. This book takes you to hidden corners and secret sights in this city of contrasts, exploring fascinating locations unknown even to most residents, and revealing unexpected aspects of some familiar local landmarks. Marvel at a unique underground temple hewn out of the living rock; learn how a world-famous illusionist came to be buried here – with his dog; find out why the city council once commissioned an enormous electric blanket; look out for the ordinary Edinburgh post box with an explosive history. Discover the human stories behind a wide range of places, both exceptional and commonplace, bringing to life the greatly varied cityscape where people have been leaving their mark for at least 5,000 years.

‘Dark Tourism’ involves traveling to sites associated with death, disaster, or the macabre. Scotland is filled with these ‘dark places’ that embody pain, shame, and ‘difficult heritage.’ 111 Dark Places in Scotland That You Shouldn’t Miss provides an engaging, accessible, and authoritative guide to these significant sites within Scotland’s castles, ancient cities, towns, and natural landscapes. This book delves into the darker aspects of the nation’s heritage.

Scotland, while part of the UK, maintains a distinct cultural identity with a history steeped in conflict, especially with its dominant neighbor, England. The country’s legacy of turmoil has shaped its strong sense of national identity, often the core of dark tourism. This guidebook is the first of its kind, designed for both locals and visitors to explore Scotland’s dark tourism sites. It complements 111 Dark Places in England and provides a distinctly Scottish perspective on the nation’s challenging past.

A beautifully illustrated and extensively researched collection of 100 of the most famous houses of Britain’s Arts and Crafts Movement.

The Arts and Crafts Movement, founded in the philosophies of John Ruskin and William Morris, produced some of the world’s most enduring architectural masterpieces. Author and architect David Cole presents the 100 great Arts and Crafts houses, each individually described and analyzed with insightful detail and floor plans, and illustrated with stunning photography.

Beginning with Morris’s own iconic Red House, the book traces the fifty-year span of the movement, with a short chapter dedicated to each of these extraordinary houses: from the works of the pioneer Arts and Crafts architects, to the great reformer architects of the next generation, to the craftsman architects who took their lives and their work to the countryside, to the movement’s Scottish architects, and finally to the houses of the Garden Cities and suburbs built through the movement’s last decade before the First World War. The book features the great houses of some forty of the movement’s most renowned architects, including Philip Webb, R. Norman Shaw, E.S. Prior, William Lethaby, C.F.A. Voysey, Edgar Wood, Ernest Gimson, the Barnsley brothers, C.R. Ashbee, M.H. Baillie Scott, Edwin Lutyens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Robert Lorimer, Parker and Unwin, and many others.

As Morris famously said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

Fife is an ancient Scottish county, proudly known as the Kingdom. Its distinctive, self-contained identity is summed up in the old adage ‘Bid farewell to Scotland, and cross to Fife!’ A compact peninsula shaped like the head of a Scottie dog nosing the North Sea, it boasts magnificent approaches from south and north via the celebrated bridges over the Forth and Tay. Tourists flock to the world-famous golf courses in the old university town of St Andrews. But Fife is packed with all manner of much less-visited treasures, places of stunning natural beauty as well as fascinating monuments of every era, from prehistoric to post-industrial, testaments to its long and eventful past and richly diverse cultural heritage. You will discover a land where generations of the illustrious and the powerful, the humble and the hard-working have all left their mark, from kings and queens to miners and fishermen, from bishops, earls and industrialists to scholars, artists and sportsmen – to say nothing of the internationally famed Fifers whose legacies have changed history. This book will introduce visitor and native alike to a whole host of unexpected and contrasting sites and sights that celebrate the delightful otherness of this unique little Kingdom.

In the last twenty-five years contemporary art in Scotland has grown from a tiny and tightly knit community to a globally recognized center of artistic innovation and experiment. This book provides the first comprehensive and fully illustrated guide to the art of the period. Featuring the work of more than eighty contemporary artists who first made their careers in Scotland including Turner Prize winners Douglas Gordon, Simon Starling and Martin Boyce. An accessible introduction for new audiences and a handy reference guide to the art of this period.

Portrait Miniatures from the Merchistion Collection is the fifth in a series of titles which examines the portrait miniature. This collection, which has never been on public display, was assembled on the London art market during the 1970s and 1980s. Scottish miniaturists from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are particularly well represented with fine works by Scouler, Bogle, and Skirving and Sir William Charles Ross. Of outstanding interest is Nicholas Hilliard’s matching pair of tiny lockets of Queen Elizabeth and her admirer Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Stephen Lloyd’s essay discusses the formation of the collection and the impact of the invention of photography on the art of miniature painting. It also explores the social history of the miniature. Twenty of the key works are illustrated in color, with extended captions, and a complete list of the collection is also included.

“…Modern British Jewellery Designers 1960-1980: A Collector’s Guide, is an ode to an extraordinary period in British jewelry history.”— Phyllis Schiller, Rapaport

“This book, in my opinion, fills a significant gap in the literature providing a good starting point for anyone thinking of collecting jewellery from the 1960s and 1970s, and for anyone interested in jewellery from that era.” —Elizabeth Passmore, Scottish Gemmological Association

“Another classic that belongs in every jewelry aficionado’s library is Modern British Jewellery Designers by Mary Ann Wingfield…” — Instore

In the 1960s, British jewelry underwent a revolution. Natural, uncut stones exploded into vogue and a 1961 exhibition at the Goldsmith’s Hall kickstarted the nation’s new obsession with gold. The women who shopped at Quant’s Bazaar and Hulaniki’s Biba no longer just received jewelry as gifts. They placed their own orders, exploring Grima’s drizzled gold and Flockinger’s fused metallic experimentations; John Donald’s textured gold cubes and the House of Munsteiner’s curious new gem cuts. This was an era of innovation – captured here through insights into the work of 25 major jewelers and sumptuous pictures of their work. 

This book introduces the most influential British designers, jewelers, goldsmiths and silversmiths of 1960-1980. Tracing the evolution of style across these decades, Modern British Jewellery Designers reveals the designers’ inspirations and the identifying signatures of their work. Accompanied by new photography showing each designer’s creations, this is the perfect introduction for anyone with an interest in collecting, or learning more about this transformative period in British jewelry design.