This update to the bestselling 50 Years of Wildlife Photographer of the Year features 20 stunning new images which have come from the last 5 years of the competition. They showcase the advances that continue to be made in approach and technique. Featuring many of the greatest nature photographs of all time, this book charts the development of nature photography, from the first hand-held cameras and the colour film revolution of the 1960s, to the increasingly sophisticated photographs of wild animals and unexplored places that are taken today. The prize-winning images include ground-breaking portraits, breathtaking aerial shots, underwater photography, close-up imagery and much more. They are accompanied by captions that put the photographs in context, explaining their importance, and revealing the vision, talent, passion and technique of the world's leading wildlife photographers. All those who are passionate about photography and who have followed this compelling competition since its inception 55 years ago will treasure this magnificent volume.

ANSEL ADAMS: 400 PHOTOGRAPHS presents the full spectrum of Adams' work in a single volume for the first time, offering the largest available compilation from his legendary photographic career. Beautifully produced and presented in an attractive landscape trim, ANSEL ADAMS: 400 PHOTOGRAPHS will appeal to a general gift-book audience as well as Adams' legions of dedicated fans and students.
The photographs are arranged chronologically into five major periods, from his first photographs made in Yosemite and the High Sierra in 1916 to his work in the National Parks in the 1940s up to his last important photographs from the 1960s. An introduction and brief essays on selected images provide information aboutAdams' life, document the evolution of his technique, and give voice to his artistic vision.
Few artists of any era can claim to have produced four hundred images of lasting beauty and significance. It is a testament to Adams' vision and lifetime of hard work that a book of this scale can be compiled. ANSEL ADAMS 400 PHOTOGRAPHS is a must-have for anyone who appreciates photography and the allure of the natural world.

Following the very successful Ethiopia Engraved, an illustrated book of engravings by foreign travellers from 1681 to 1900, Ethiopia Photographed covers the period from the inception of photography in the country up to the Italian Fascist invasion in 1936. The people, terrain, buildings and rulers of Ethiopia - such as Emperor Melenik, Lej Iyasu and Emperor Haile Selassie - make it a highly photogenic country, as this lavishly illustrated book reveals. Situated in lofty, often inaccessible mountains between the Red Sea and the Blue Nile, and extending far into the Horn of Africa, it is a complex and mysterious country which as always exercised an extraordinary fascination for the outside world. The book begins with an introduction which gives a brief history of Ethiopia in this period, and describes the role of photography at this time. The richly captured images of Ethiopia Photographed bear witness to many personalities and places not previously seen and, in many cases, now lost for all time but for the photogenic memories recorded here.

In 1975, German readers were introduced to the Rheinlandschaften, a collection of stunning images of the Rhineland captured in the first half of the twentieth century by photographer August Sander (1876 1964). This fresh edition, now in English, brings Sander's work to a new audience and into our own time. These photographs showcase a variety of scenes, from a sunrise over Cologne to the slopes of the Rhine valley. The Rhine River flows through many of these pictures, its dynamic curves and lively current leading the eye through an intriguing mix of natural and urban landscapes. A new essay by art historian Wolfgang Kemp provides context for Sander's work while introducing his contemporaries, including the writer Hans Ludwig Mathar and the painter Franz M. Jansen. Also explored are the ties between Sander's landscapes and his portrait photography, which is celebrated worldwide. Crucially, Kemp highlights the need to consider the Rhineland's unique political situation in the 1920s and 1930s for any discussion of Sander's artistic approach. Shining welcome light on the full range of Sander's practice, this book offers a glorious journey through the landscapes that most affected him.

Ghost towns, empty streets, crumbling ruins and lost empires this book reveals these and other deserted places. Many places featured were once populated and now sit unoccupied, modern day ruins, sitting in decay. Stories, facts and photographs of 60 beautiful and eerie abandoned places from throughout the world. Time has stopped and nature is taking resident in these places mainly due to natural disasters, war or economic reasons. Places include: Severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Six Flags Jazzland has been abandoned since. Several of the rides still stand, a testimony to the resilience of New Orleans. Shicheng in China has been under water for 53 years since the Xin'an River Hydro Plant flooded the area. The city was founded 1,300 years ago. Chernobyl was totally abandoned after the nearby nuclear disaster in 1986. Due to radiation, it has been left untouched ever since the incident and will be for many thousands of years into the future. Nature now rules the city in what resembles an apocalyptic movie. Poveglia is an island in the Venetian Lagoon which under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte became a dumping ground for plague victims and later an asylum for the mentally ill. Plymouth was the capital of the island of Montserrat. The town was overwhelmed by volcanic eruptions starting in 1995 and was abandoned. St Kilda a remote Scottish Island may have been permanently inhabited for at least two millennia, the population probably never exceeding 180. The entire population was evacuated in 1930.

Why was the first human ever captured on film caught by pure luck? Where is the human blind spot, and why don't you realise you have one? What does authenticity mean in an art where originals can be reproduced infinitely and manipulated flawlessly? Packed with world-renowned photographs, from the daguerreotype to Polaroid and biographies of leading photographers, this book will capture your curiosity and expose you to new ideas about your camera, your photography and the visual culture that surrounds you. From the science of converting light into digital information, to the philosophical implications of freezing a moment in time, big ideas are tackled in bite-sized units: two pages, 300 words and one representative image at a time. Understand the 50 most thought-provoking concepts, techniques and technologies that have shaped photography into the ever-present art form it is today. The bestselling 30-Second series offers a new approach to learning whereby every title takes a popular topic and dissects it into the 50 most significant ideas at its heart, explained in just two pages that are easily digested in only half a minute.

"It amazes me that after all these years and countless books, the scope of subject matter on The Beatles is so amazingly large that writers always find a new angle. This book does that in a very unique and clever way. It's a must for every Beatles fan." -Billy J. Kramer "...It's a magical mystery tour through the band's life and times." -Yahoo Entertainment The It-List "Part biography and part map to the stars, The Beatles: Fab Four Cities is your "Ticket to Ride" and walk in the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo. It's the next best thing to actually driving their car..."-Nina Violi, Capitol File. and Gotham magazine "While the book can be used as a handy tour guide filled with addresses, maps and photos, it also makes for great reading." -Steve Matteo, The Vinyl District "But now comes a "magic carpet volume" for Beatles fans that blends travel guide with historical reference in an expanded study of The Beatles' homes, schools, pubs, venues, and important historic sites..." -Jude Southerland Kessler, Culture Sonar John Lennon said: "We were born in Liverpool, but we grew up in Hamburg." To paraphrase Lennon, we could say that: "The Beatles were born in Liverpool, grew up in Hamburg, reached maturity in London, and immortality in New York." Four cities. Four stars. The Fab Four - the Beatles - are revered the world over, but it is in these urban centres that their legacy shines brightest. Liverpool: where the band graduated from church halls, leaving their initial line-up as 'The Quarrymen' far behind. Hamburg: where their raucous stage act was honed; where arrests earned them a more notorious celebrity reputation, but they became a true emblem of rock 'n' roll. London: where The Beatles produced Sgt Pepper, and home to the iconic album cover for Abbey Road. And New York: the city that became John Lennon's home, where their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show announced them to 73 million Americans. The Beatles: Fab Four Cities invites the reader on a cosmopolitan trek across continents, tracing the Beatles' rise to fame from one metropolis to the next. Flush with timelines, stories, trivia, the numerous links and connections between the cities and both pop cultural and local history, this is a travel guide like no other.

The spirit of Berlin: a photographic journey into the city's history Berlin has survived two world wars, was divided by a wall during the Cold War, and after the fall of the Wall was re-united. The city emerged as a center of European power and culture. From 1860 to the present day, this book presents the story of Berlin in photographs, portraits, maps, and aerial views. With nearly 700 pages of emotional, atmospheric images, from giddy pictures of the Roaring Twenties to devastating images of war to heartwarming postwar photos of a city picking up the pieces?the Reichstag in ruins and later wrapped by Christo and Jeanne-Claude?this is the most comprehensive photographic study on Berlin ever made. More than a tribute to the city and its civic, social, and photographic history, this book especially pays homage to Berlin's inhabitants: full of hope and strength, in their faces is reflected Berlin's undying soul. ? Including images by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton, Ren? Burri, Robert Capa, Thomas Struth, and Wolfgang Tillmans as well as well-known Berlin photo-chroniclers such as Friedrich Seidenst?cker, Erich Salomon, Willy R?mer, and Heinrich Zille. ? Quotations from Berliners and Berlin connoisseurs such as Vladimir Nabokov, Alfred D?blin, Herwarth Walden, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, Max Schmeling, Willy Brandt, Helmut Newton, Simon Rattle, and David Bowie. Also included: an index of photographers? biographies. The author: Hans Christian Adam studied psychology, art history and communication studies in G?ttingen and Vienna. As a specialist in historical pictorial material, he has published numerous articles and books, including titless on travel and war photography. For thisbook he has researched in public and private collections, viewed tens of thousands of images and also profited from the rich collection of written material in the Berlin State Library. He is also the author of TASCHEN's Edward Sheriff Curtis: The North American Indian, Karl Blossfeldt, and Eug?ne Atget: Paris.

Texas is unique, not only because it is the only state to enter the Union by way of a treaty, but because a clause in that treaty gives Texas the right, in perpetuity, to divide into as many as five separate states. These "Five States of Texas" reflect the remarkable geographic variety of this vast landscape. From the plains and mountains, beaches and deserts, forests and rugged canyons, Laurence Parent captures the beauty of the Texas landscapes, places, and people that are as diverse as its many-faceted culture.

The border country between Wales and England is a fertile place in many senses. Settled for millennia, one of the few links we have with early man here are their surviving pagan, pre-Christian wells. Sacred wells have played an important part in the culture and landscape of the region, and continue to do so. Following his books on wells in Wales and Cornwall, Phil Cope journeys up and down the borderlands, and through history from pre-Christian times through Roman and early Christian times, the medieval Age of the Princes in Wales and on to Victorian and the contemporary period. His discoveries are recorded in striking and atmospheric photographs which are accompanied by the remarkable histories of the wells, and the legends attached to them. Wronged suitors, magic horses, Dark Age battles, the reign of King Arthur, and innumerable decapitations feature among the vividly magical tales. Alongside them rests a different kind of magic in the healing wells of the Christian saints, some of which are also sources of prophecy. As the centuries past healing mutated into health and the development of the spa, until, in the twentieth century a full circle was turned and wells once again acquired a pagan significance. Richly illustrated in colour throughout the wells from Cheshire to Monmouthshire, from the Dee to the Severn are here displayed in all their glory, be they in remote countryside or city centre.

Compare Lexington of the past from postcards with current buildings and scenery using current color photography. The author collected most of the postcards, researched them, and wrote the text to reflect the places that are landmarks in Lexington. See the downtown streets of long ago and their development today. Learn about postcard history while enjoying a block-by-block tour of the city and its gardens and cemetery. Old timers will recognize places from the postcards, while Baby Boomers and beyond will delight in the progress Lexington reflects today in new pictures.

The roots of Hallowe'en lie in the ancient pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhain, a feast to mark the death of the old year and the birth of the new. It was believed that on this night the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead grew thin and ruptured, allowing spirits to pass through and walk unseen but not unheard amongst men. The advent of Christianity saw the pagan festival subsumed in All Souls' Day, when across Europe the dead were mourned and venerated. Children and the poor, often masked or in outlandish costume, wandered the night begging 'soul cakes' in exchange for prayers, and fires burned to keep malevolent phantoms at bay. From Europe, the haunted tradition would quickly take root and flourish in the fertile soil of the New World. Feeding hungrily on fresh lore, consuming half-remembered tales of its own shadowy origins and rituals, Hallowe'en was reborn in America. The pumpkin supplanted the carved turnip; costumes grew ever stranger, and celebrants both rural and urban seized gleefully on the festival's intoxicating, lawless spirit. For one wild night, the dead stared into the faces of the living and the living, ghoulishly masked and clad in tattered backwoods baroque, stared back. The photographs in Haunted Air provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past, and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementos of the treasured, now unrecognisable, other. Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers.

An exceptional photographic report of Abandoned Italy. Robin Brinaert has been travelling around Italy for over eight years in search of these abandoned, forbidden places. He highlights the sometimes dramatic fate of our heritage — a serious reflection on safeguarding. Inside Abandoned Italy : Discover the former hunting lodge of the Duchess of Parma, a spectacular abandoned Moorish castle, the remains of film studios with the scenery from a Pinocchio film, a disused psychiatric asylum, a famous but now-forgotten discotheque in a mock medieval castle, the ruins of a renowned spa hotel ravaged by fire ... This series of photo gallery books, allows one to discover our abandoned, endangered and very often forgotten heritage. Each photograph is accompanied by the history of each place, so that the reader can travel through time and learn the story behind each forgotten place.

An intimate look at individuals who choose to be heavily tattooed. The seventy black an white photographs display both tattoos and the outstanding characters of men and women who wear them and artists who apply them. Many of the people were photographed over two decades, revealing the evolution of art on their bodies through time. This fascinating approach enables the individuals to tell their unique stories in their own words. It make fascinating reading, equal to the strong emotional impact of the photographic art that accompanies their tales. This compelling book will fascinate everyone who wears or admires tattoos as art.

Our Fair Lady: The many facets of Hepburn's beauty, on and off set. In his distinguished career as a Hollywood photographer, Bob Willoughby took iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda, but remains unequivocal about his favorite subject: Audrey Kathleen Ruston, later Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston, best known as Audrey Hepburn. Willoughby was called in to shoot the new starlet one morning shortly after she arrived in Hollywood in 1953. It was a humdrum commission for the portraitist often credited with having perfected the photojournalistic movie still, but when he met the Belgian-born beauty, Willoughby was enraptured. She took my hand like...well a princess, and dazzled me with that smile that God designed to melt mortal men s hearts, he recalled. As Hepburn s career soared following her Oscar-winning US debut in Roman Holiday, Willoughby became a trusted friend, framing her working and home life. His historic, perfectionist, tender photographs seek out the many facets of Hepburn s beauty and elegance, as she progresses from her debut to her career high of My Fair Lady in 1963. Willoughby s studies, showing her on set, preparing for a scene, interacting with actors and directors, and returning to her private life, comprise one of photography s great platonic love affairs and an unrivalled record of one of the 20th century s touchstone beauties."

This comprehensive memento is a visual guide to the city's pomp & pageantry, celebrations, carnivals & more. This title features more than 500 photographs from the vast archives of the Press Association. One of the world's great cities, Britain's capital has long been an icon not only for the seven million inhabitants who live and work there, but also for the many visitors who flock to the metropolis from nationwide and abroad. With the majestic River Thames flowing through its heart, London is home to the Royal Family, hub of finance, seat of government, a centre for the arts and host to several international sporting events. This book forms a tour of the city's historic streets of medieval and classical architecture, sumptuous palaces and distinctive bridges. It captures the rich characters of Soho and Chinatown, London's quaint squares and verdant parks, the vibrant West End, world-class restaurants, the ubiquitous London pub, fine museums and art galleries and the stadia that host sporting spectacles. This comprehensive tourist memento is a visual guide to the city's pomp and pageantry, celebrations, carnivals and glittering night life, as well as to the rich mix of diverse cultures that nevertheless exude a unique character, all revealed in more than 500 photographs hand-picked from the vast archives of the Press Association.

The title Present Perfect ambiguously relates to an “ideal present” on the one hand culminating in a “perfect” moment, and on the other hand to the English tense referring to a state or an action that began in the past and continues to the present. An allusion to the photography’s utopian attempt to enshrine the present moment, when it is only ever able to capture a moment in the past. Echoing a plethora of attentive everyday observations, Eidinger’s photographs capture oftentimes paradoxical scenes of mundane life including people’s ambivalent behaviour. In a society of singularities, reality has become a colossal photomontage. Behind it lies an abysmal world entangled in contradictions. Eidinger depicts the lonely emptiness of modern life’s non-places, provisionalities, garishly out-of-place oddities. His confrontations with insufferable incongruities turn into symbolic images of an era of exhaustion. Present Perfect assembles new images captured with his mobile phone, as well as images taken with a reflex camera, tracing Eidinger’s photographic self-explorations over the past 20 years.

There's nothing remarkable about a movie theater today, but that wasn t always the case. When the great American movie palaces opened in the early 20th century, they were some of the most lavish, stunning buildings anyone had ever seen. With the advent of television, theater companies found it harder and harder to keep them open. Some were demolished, some were converted, and some remain derelict to this day. "After the Final Curtain: The Fall of the American Movie Theatre" will take you through 24 of these magnificent buildings showing what beauty remains years after the last ticket was sold."

One of Britain's most loved cruise ships, Aurora was built by Meyer Werft and entered service in 2000. Named by HRH The Princess Royal, she was specifically designed for the British cruise market. Since entering service her annual world cruises have made her famous all over the world. Aurora's interior spaces are quintessentially British, and pay tribute to the long heritage of the P&O Line. From Anderson's to the Curzon Theatre, Alexandria Restaurant to the Uganda Room, Aurora is a much-loved modern classic. Written and photographed by well-known maritime historians Chris Frame and Rachelle Cross, this beautiful book is a must-have keepsake for anyone who has sailed aboard Aurora as well as those with a love of cruising.

Introduction by Jonathan MontaldoForeword by Brother Patrick Hart, OCSO

For twenty-seven years, renowned and beloved monk Thomas Merton (1915-1968) belonged to Our Lady of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery established in 1848 amid the hills and valleys near Bardstown, Kentucky. In Thomas Merton's Gethsemani, dramatic black-and-white photographs by Harry L. Hinkle and artful text by Merton scholar Monica Weis converge in a unique experience for lovers of Merton.

Hinkle was allowed unprecedented access to many areas inside the monastery and on its grounds that are generally restricted. His photographs invite the reader to experience the various knobs, lakes, woods, and hermitages Merton sought out for times of solitude and contemplation and for reading and writing. These unique images, each accompanied by a passage from Merton's writings, evoke personal reflection and a deeper understanding of how and why Merton came to recognize himself as a part of his Kentucky landscape.

Woven throughout the book, Weis's text explores Merton's fascination with nature not only at Gethsemani, but during his early childhood, throughout his spiritual conversion to Roman Catholicism, and while a member of the Trappist community. She examines how Merton's lifelong interaction with nature subtly revealed and informed his profound spiritual experiences and his writing about contemplation. Thomas Merton's Gethsemani replicates Merton's path on his solitary hikes in the woods and conveys the wonder of the landscapes that inspired him.