Nudity, lasciviousness, sensuality, provocation, shamelessness, or obscenity. During the 19th century, eroticism takes on a new place in Western visual culture, in particular thanks to the development of reproduction such as photography, press or lithography.
Result of long and meticulous research, this book reviews the major reflections carried out on the theme of nudity in the field of art history and the history of sensibilities. It studies the reception of nudity in France, based on documentary and iconographic sources renewed (little-known works, drawings and photographs, newspapers, archives, texts of laws) and allows us to better understand this history of erotic art of the nineteenth century, long perpetuated by the sole taste of description.
By placing the works in their context, by comparing expressions and aesthetics, and studying visual culture of time, Claire Maingon opens up new fields of reflection, while allowing to discover unknown or forgotten artists such as Broc, Gavarni, Dubufe, Galimard, Ranft, Eakins, alongside the big names in the history of 19th century, David, Ingres, Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Rodin.
Text in French.
“That said, the book is about far more than the history of photography or even historical record; it’s an act of remembrance and resistance.” —Attitude
LOVING: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s – 1950s (ISBN 9788874399284), was published in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Despite that, the book was available in five languages, the first US printing sold out in six weeks; the response to the book was overwhelming and emotional; and five years and multiple printings later, LOVING remains a best-seller. For LOVING, the collectors drew from 2000 photographs; now, in 2025, more than 25 years after they purchased their first picture, the collection has 4000 images. It seems logical then – even necessary – to publish a new volume with all new photographs from those acquired since 2019. LOVING II continues with more stunning vintage vernacular photographs of romantic male couples, with all the emotional power of the first book in intact. This new selection continues the story of the unadulterated joy – longed for by all of us and recognizable to anyone – of being in love.
As with the first LOVING, these photographs and what they convey, whether directly in an embrace or more subtly in a furtive touch, move – in fact change – those who encounter them. Indeed, anyone who has ever loved will identify with the elation – and peace – that these couples share. The collecting criteria have not changed: starting from the earliest years of photography and continuing through the 1950s, the Nini-Treadwell archive includes daguerreotypes, silver gelatins, tintypes, ambrotypes, snap shots, and many more – a historical capsule of a century of photographic technique. The subjects come from all walks of life: soldiers, farmers, students, the young and old, poor and affluent. Their creation happened between loving couples from all around the world. Each photo is the story of two told in an instant.
Image credit: © Nini-Treadwell Inc.
This is the first book to be entirely dedicated to the artwork of Jivya Soma Mashe. Through the quality of his work, Jivya Soma Mashe stands comparison with other outstanding enigmatic artists, such as Bill Traylor or Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, who broaden our understanding of the diversity of forms and cultures.
Jivya Soma Mashe (1934–2018) is a legendary figure among his people, the Warli, a tribe of around 300,000 inhabiting an area 150 km north of Mumbai (Maharashtra, India). Its members are animists and speak a language that has never developed a written form. To the best of human memory, it is Warli women who have always painted ritual and ephemeral paintings directly on the walls of their huts. The Warli have developed an extremely basic pictography based on circles, triangles, and squares to express their animist culture and represent their only deity, the mother goddess Palghatta, at the center of each painting.
After losing his mother at a young age, Jivya Soma Mashe took refuge in drawing, immersing himself in a personal style that first elicited the admiration of his peers and later that of regional, national, and international authorities. Jivya Soma Mashe received his first national award in 1976 – from Indira Gandhi herself. His works featured prominently in the Magiciens de la terre exhibition (Centre Pompidou, Paris 1989) and in the exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Cartier Foundation (Paris 2014).
Text in English and French.
Refusing to be content with a single form of expression or confined by a single artistic movement, the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) explored a variety of styles and techniques that few artists can rival.
Works from her entire career are presented in this publication, from her paintings and prints from the 1940s to the Cells she created in her final decades. These works enter into dialog with artworks by Pablo Picasso, Carol Rama, Arshile Gorky, Louise Nevelson, Senga Nengudi, Alina Szapocznikow, Seni Awa Camara, Nan Goldin, Robert Gober and Anna Maria Maiolino, among others.
Text in English and Norwegian.
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.
A new title in the Design series and an excellent introduction to the life and work of this versatile Russian artist. Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1953) was a central figure in the Russian Constructivist art movement; a radical activist, a pioneer of photomontage, a theorist, and a teacher. He was an active force in the organization of the first museums of modern art that arose in Russia in the first years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Attending art school in 1914 in Kazan was to be a defining influence: that year Russian Futurists performed in the town, and Rodchenko saw their leading figures in action. It transformed his vision and he was still working with Futurist artists and their ideas twenty-five years later. And it was at art school where Rodchenko first met the artist Varvara Stepanova, with whom he collaborated extensively, and who would become his life-long partner. Central in the re-examination of art and its place in society after the Revolution, and in the search for a new culture without the class implications of the past, Rodchenko’s radical approach proposed a new understanding of a constructed, rather than a tastefully composed, culture. This concise, comprehensive and informative work focuses largely on Rodchenko’s graphic work in the form of book jackets, posters and advertising. Also avaliable: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778
Traditional country parks, which originated in the United Kingdom, are very different to the country parks we know today. With the development of urbanization and the improvement of living standards, city dwellers were no longer satisfied with small urban green spaces, and a new style of country park was born. Conveniently located in the outer city suburbs, with tranquil, natural environments, this new type of park met society’s desire to return to nature, and theses spaces have since become hotspots for tourism and leisure. Country Parks includes detailed theory and case studies showcasing outstanding international country park design; analyzes and promotes the current status and development of the country park and its role in urban development; and provides valuable guidance for professional designers working in the field today.
The red-figure vases from the National Museum “Domenico Ridola” in Matera and the Rizzon Collection – rich in precious Apulian and Lucanian pieces – offer a unique opportunity to grasp Magna Graecia antiquity from an unusual perspective through the photographs by Luigi Spina. Significant testimony to vase painting between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, the museum’s artifacts largely date back to the discoveries of Domenico Ridola (1841-1932) and form part of elaborate funerary assemblages, possessing great aesthetic and historical value through which everyday life is reflected in myths.
In the book, black is the protagonist: it enhances the red figures and brings out the keen eye of photographer Luigi Spina. Anatomical details, drapery, and decorative motifs emerge in all their strength without the filter of museum cases, while touches of white enrich the vases’ bichrome palette.
Photographing a work of art means capturing its deep meaning to communicate it to the world. Far from the idea of a museum catalog, the volume is rather a figurative atlas of antiquity.
Text in English and Italian.
The monograph on Maxime Old (1910-1991) chronologically retraces the career and work of this great decorator, through an in-depth study of his production notebooks, his archives and his participation in Salons. Maxime Old completed his training in the studio of Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann. Born at a pivotal time when the society will experience unprecedented upheavals, raised in the respect of a craftsmanship tradition of quality and know-how, Maxime Old represents a link between the great era of decorators and modern times. He embodies the survival of an interwar style which merges in the era of design. The Mobilier national and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed numerous orders for the French embassies in The Hague, Helsinki and Ottawa. In addition to a private clientele who remained loyal to him throughout his career, he was in charge of such important projects as the fitting out of the headquarters of the Société des forges et ateliers du Creusot, the Marhaba hotel in Casablanca, the Marignane airport terminal, or the liner France.
Text in French.
Michael Gericke is one of the most influential graphic designers in the world today. This much anticipated monograph covers four decades of work by the acclaimed graphic designer and Pentagram partner. Lavishly illustrated throughout at close to 500 pages, the book is driven by a celebration of places, telling stories, and making images and symbols – predominantly through Gericke’s work with projects for buildings, civic moments, exhibitions and visual identities, including for posters, magazines, New York’s AIA chapter (America’s largest) and the Center for Architecture that, through graphics and images, continues to portray the spirit of architecture and design in New York City today. Prefaced by the prize-winning architect Moshe Safdie, with commentary by Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic and educator Paul Goldberger, this encyclopaedic compilation is a must for all collectors and aficionados of contemporary design, branding, and visual identity.
“Legendary Bruce Springsteen photographer’s iconic travel images showcased in lavish new coffee-table book, from storms in South Dakota to penguins in Antarctica.” — The Daily Mail
“… a dazzling collection that bursts with vibrant colours and energy. This book is more than just a visual feast; it’s a journey into the stories behind each photograph, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look.” — Digital Photographer Magazine
“This richly designed monograph is both a masterclass in color photography and a deeply personal reflection on a life spent chasing light.” — About Photography
Multi-award-winning photographer Eric Meola is a master of using color and light in photography, creating vivid, evocative, and graphic images. From his famous “Coca Kid” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” album cover to his Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023, Meola has had an extraordinary five-decade career.
Bending Light: The Moods of Color is a retrospective bursting with color. It features 100 iconic photographs from Meola’s editorial, advertising, and personal work, as well as his recent experiments with color abstracts. Meola also takes readers behind the lens to reveal the stories and anecdotes behind the creation of each image. Through this intimate and personal account of his creative process and self-expression, the photographer examines his use of color, its symbolism, and how it affects our moods.
For professional and aspiring photographers, and people who appreciate photography, art, and a colorful perspective of the world, this extraordinary collection of images, captured over more than fifty years, showcases why Meola is considered a true innovator in color photography.
It began with a new camera, a retirement present from the author’s wife. The Kameng area in Arunachal Pradesh, familiar to the author’s family for over six decades, and the Monpa people provided the perfect subjects to indulge his interest in photography. Over time, the idea of a book firmed up, and the photographs coalesced into what was envisioned as a sensitive, not necessarily comprehensive, look at the Monpa way of life and their land, Monyul. The intent was not to be ethnographic or academic, but to portray the rapidly changing world of the Monpas. A meditative travelog in images that transforms into a thoughtful exploration, the book captures the lives of the people and the region. The author’s personal stories, interspersed throughout the book, tell of the Monpas’ hospitality and warmth, providing insight into the everyday lives of a spiritual community.
The extraordinary life of Barbara Cartlidge (b. 1922 in Berlin) – influential gallerist, curator, jewelry artist and author – together with the history of her legendary Electrum Gallery, which she founded in 1971 with Ralph Turner in London, are documented for the first time in a single publication. Pioneers and colleagues as well as around seventy internationally renowned artists of the gallery all have their say and, in anecdotes and recollections, countless illustrations and hitherto unpublished images, tell of a strong and resolute woman and the significance of her gallery as a promoter and platform for the understanding of contemporary art jewelry. Particular attention is paid to the life of Barbara Cartlidge, who fled from Germany in 1938. For over fifty years she was a driving force in what she described as the ‘the brotherhood of jewelers who make modern and thought-provoking jewelry all over the world’.
Washington, DC-area architect Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, designs ecologically aware modern homes using natural materials and varied construction methods. This latest volume in IMAGES’ Master Architect Series features photography and drawings of more than a dozen of Gurney’s most recent projects. Gurney is dedicated to design of modern, meticulously detailed, thoughtfully ordered residential and commercial projects sensitive to site, program and budget. Materials are employed with honesty, integrity and ecological awareness. Whether working in complex historical districts or on a vacant site, the design process involves an understanding of site-specific issues of location, landscape, history, availability of materials and construction methods.
There are many ways to perceive and interpret contemporary craft objects – for instance, as works of representational art in materials like ceramics, glass, textile, metal or wood, or as functional, handmade everyday objects. In this publication, the editors have invited different voices in craft theory to investigate the perception of contemporary craft as a particular discourse and aesthetic vocabulary. According to the editors, contemporary crafts can benefit from being discussed as representations of reality that do not rely on the concept of autonomy. As such, neither do they rely on the conventional dualism between aesthetic objects and everyday things. The authors investigate the possibility to perceive craft objects from perspectives that relate to the aesthetic tradition of materialism.
The Alice and Louis Koch Collection of finger rings was originally collated by a jeweler from Frankfurt am Main, once described as the German ‘Cartier and Fabergé’. By 1909 the collection comprised 1,722 rings from Antiquity to 1900. Rene Lalique, a contemporary of the time, was included, undoubtedly as a modernizer of the ring form. In the past twenty-five years the fourth generation of the family continued where Louis Koch and his wife Alice left off and expanded the collection to include rings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
This publication will present the complete collection of contemporary rings, now kept in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich. Nearly 600 rings by artist jewelers from around the world document how these miniature works of art have become modern sculptures showcasing new materials and techniques, daring designs and current themes.
Text in English and German.
Saint Benedict the Moor, or Binidittu as the Sicilians fondly rechristened him, was an Afro-Sicilian hermit friar, the son of African slaves born in Sicily in the 16th century. Canonized in 1807, he was the Catholic Church’s first Black saint and was made Patron Saint of Palermo. These photographs address the lives of African migrants in the Mediterranean today through the historical figure of Binidittu. This project retraces his improbable life, explores the historical sites of his hagiography, the worship of relics, and the religious and secular practices devoted to him in Sicily and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. This book is part of Lo Calzo’s long-term photographic project, Cham, about the living memories of colonial slavery and anti-slavery struggles.
“Binidittu emerges in this work as an allegory of our time: an encounter between the Mare Nostrum and the world, between oblivion and memory, between racism made commonplace and our shared humanity, between the Sicilian people’s aspirations and African migrants’ hopes of freedom and dignity as they drift towards Europe’s shores.” Nicola lo Calzo
Text in English and Italian.
Chosen for the 59th Venice Biennale, to represent contemporary creation at the Lebanese pavilion Ayman Baalbaki is a Lebanese artist born in Beirut in 1975. He first trained at the Institute of Fine Arts of the university Lebanese school in Beirut, then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Five years after his arrival in France, he received the silver medal in painting at the Francophone Games and then participated in several exhibitions worldwide. Lebanon, France, Great Britain, Argentina, Egypt and Niger are all countries that welcome the works of the artist.
His productions of the last 10 years have been compiled through this unpublished work, published in French, English and Arabic. The authors endeavor to decipher his paintings and installations, crossed by societal issues specific to Lebanon: war, abortive revolt, political and financial bankruptcy, the tragedy of the port of Beirut or even pandemic. The artist paints anonymous portraits of his contemporaries, which have today become symbols of the Middle East. It represents the city, its buildings, erected, but also in ruins. His art is vibrant, dynamic and textured.
Text in English, French and Arabic.
“It reveals a unique look into the profession of photography.”—Gerd Ludwig Photography
Charles Moriarty, Stills department manager for Star Wars and photographer for Amy Winehouse, presents Photographers on the Art of Photography: a series of intimate conversations with some of the most highly regarded names in photography. From celebrity portraitists such as Terry O’Neill, to famed fashion photographers like Jerry Schatzberg and wildlife specialists Tim Flach and Sue Flood, this book offers a unique insight into all angles of the profession. Twenty celebrated photographers discuss how they got started, as well as their favored techniques, motivations, inspirations and greatest accomplishments. Discover each artist’s vision in their own words and reflect on what makes their talents unique.
Interviews from: Ed Caraeff (music); Terry O Neill (celebrity portraiture); Norman Seeff (music); Johnathan Daniel Pryce (fashion); Douglas Kirkland (Hollywood); Gerd Ludwig (National Geographic); Slava Mogutin (queer fine art); Jerry Schatzberg (fashion, film, music, portraiture); Tim Flach (wildlife); Richard Phibbs (fashion, commercial, portraiture); Eva Sereny (Hollywood, celebrity portraiture); Sue Flood (wildlife); Tom Stoddard (photojournalism).
Manish Pushkale, born in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, is an autodidact who honed his artistic style and sensibility at Bharat Bhavan’s fertile and creativity-filled ambience of the time. His engagement at the art center cemented Pushkale’s deep engagement with indigenous folk and tribal traditions. The installation To Whom the Bird Should Speak? is a visual enquiry into the significance of language as a medium of communication. Pushkale’s artistic research into indigenous cultures was inspired by the story of the Aka-Bo tribe in the Andaman Islands and their oral tradition of communicating with birds that was lost to the world after the death of its last speaker, Boa Sr.
As a contemporary artist and an abstract painter, Pushkale works at the intersection of linguistics and archaeology in an immersive 125 square meters of hand-painted installation, as he imagines a visual ‘script’ of a lost history that we would like to recover, or should it be allowed to fade inexorably into oblivion?
With contributions by Claire Bettinelli, Yannick Lintz, Ganesh Devy and Devika Singh, and a poem by Ashok Vajpeyi.
Text in English and French.
“This book is a fascinating look at a history rarely told.” —The Guardian
“a fascinating look at a history rarely told” — The Observer
“In his new book “Around the World in 200 Globes” (Luster), he spot-lights some of the most significant and interesting, shpwing that a globe is more than a map on a ball.” — Wall Street Journal
“…a superb illustrator of changing boundaries and national self-regard” — Strong Words
“…exquisite examples that speak to our species’ ever-shifting ideas of who we are and where we live” — National Geographic Traveler
“…beautifully put together – and the photographs of the globes are straightforward but show off the magnificence of the collection admirably” — Amateur Photographer
The Dutch architect Willem Jan Neutelings (co-founder of Neutelings Riedijk Architects) is known as the architect of, among other things, the MAS in Antwerp and the Gare Maritime in Brussels’ Tour & Taxis district. Few people know, however, that Neutelings is also an avid collector who, over the years, has built up a very extensive and also very specific collection of hundreds of globes, made between 1900 and 2000. In this book, he presents his collection to the public for the first time. He selected 200 globes, each telling a very individual and interesting story about the time and place when and where they were created. Some globes bear witness to technological innovations by the way they were made, some show how advanced people’s knowledge of space was at the time, some were intended as navigational aids. Neutelings’ collection includes globes in cast iron, steel, wood and even paper; some look very old and fragile, others are very colorful, and some even give off light. Each one is a beautiful and intriguing object that teaches us a lot about the ever-changing world view of mankind. This beautiful and skillfully crafted book is an ode to these stories, to the unique objects often anonymous craftsmen produced in the last century, and to the special dedication of collectors.
This richly illustrated publication accompanies the first comprehensive retrospective of Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) in the Netherlands, one of the most celebrated figures in modern Indian art. Often called the “Frida Kahlo of India”, Sher-Gil combined elements of Western modernism with the aesthetics and subjects of traditional Indian art, forging a distinctive style that profoundly influenced later generations of artists. The book offers new insights into Sher-Gil’s life and artistic journey, from her Hungarian-Indian heritage and training in Paris to her groundbreaking work in India during the 1930s. Essays by experts from India and the Netherlands explore her cultural context, artistic development, and enduring legacy.
Featuring rarely seen works from India’s national collections, this publication provides an unprecedented opportunity to rediscover an artist whose vision bridged continents and redefined modern art in the 20th century.
Designer and interior decorator Dorothy Draper’s color-filled life story is one of high society, money, gossip, and throughout it all, reinvention. Carleton Varney has owned and directed Dorothy Draper & Company, Inc., for almost 60 years. He worked with Mrs. Draper at the end of her illustrious career, and wrote the only biography of her life, The Draper Touch: The High Life and High Style of Dorothy Draper, in 1988. In the book, Varney sets the scene and defines the milieu that Draper was born into in 1889 and from which she escaped to become one of America’s leaders in design—a true visionary entrepreneur. Thirty-three years later, Shannongrove Press is releasing this deluxe edition of The Draper Touch. With a new foreword by Varney, newly found photographs, recently discovered historical documents from a private collection, and archival ephemera from Draper’s family, this beautiful tome reveals Draper’s fascinating journey and the real stories behind her ground-breaking work.
Pioneers of Art in Oman: Rasheed Abdulrahman celebrates one of Oman’s most influential visual artists through a stunning bilingual presentation in English and Arabic. This definitive volume features over 60 meticulously curated paintings and sculptures that chronicle Rasheed’s remarkable artistic evolution and his pivotal role in shaping Oman’s cultural landscape.
Beyond showcasing his visionary work, this book offers intimate biographical insights into the artist who transformed raw materials into vibrant masterpieces and mentored countless emerging talents. Detailed analyses of selected artworks reveal the profound symbolism and philosophical depth that characterize his unique artistic vision.
As the inaugural edition in a prestigious series documenting Oman’s artistic heritage, this publication represents a collaboration between the National Museum of Oman and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth. For art enthusiasts, collectors, and cultural historians alike, this book provides unprecedented access to Rasheed Abdulrahman’s legacy – a testament to his enduring influence on contemporary Omani art and his ability to illuminate tradition while pioneering new artistic frontiers.
Text in English and Arabic.