"The photographs of William Claxton define the essence of cool." - Jason Ankeny (AllMusic) "Claxton's innovative choices and airy style, which he called 'jazz for your eyes', worked sublimely to document and promote the rise of trumpeter and singer Chet Baker, especially." - Howard Mandel Born in Pasadena, California, photographer William Claxton (1927-2008) is best known for his dozens of splendid portraits of jazz stars (especially those of Chet Baker, of whom he made the first professional photos) and Hollywood stars (such as his friend Steve McQueen). In 1952, while shooting Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker at the Haig Club, he met Richard Bock, founder of Pacific Jazz, who quickly hired him as art director and house photographer. During his time at the label, Claxton snapped and designed album covers at a rate of roughly one per week, in the process establishing the visual identity of the West Coast jazz movement. Where previous jazz photographers captured their subjects in the dark, smoky environs of nightclubs, Claxton capitalised on the sun and surf of southern California, posing artists in unorthodox outdoor settings to represent a new era in the music's continued evolution. Claxton's images graced the covers of numerous music albums, and his work regularly appeared in such magazines as Life, Paris Match and Vogue. Claxton wrote 13 books, held dozens of exhibitions of his photographs around the world, and won numerous photography awards. This book presents a selection of more than 150 superb images by the great photographer. Among the multiple artists portrayed are Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Art Blakey, Clifford Brown, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Lee Morgan, Art Pepper, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, and Muddy Waters. Text in English, with an introduction in English, French and Spanish.

Photography and memory in Mexico traces the 'life stories' of some of the famous photographic images made during the 1910 revolution, which have been repeatedly reproduced across a range of media in its aftermath. Which photographs have become icons of the revolution and why these particular images and not others? What is the relationship between photography and memory of the conflict? How do we construct a critical framework for addressing the issues raised by iconic photographs? Placing an emphasis on the life, afterlife and also the pre-life of those iconic photographs that haunt the post-revolutionary landscape, Andrea Noble approaches them as dynamic objects, where their rhetorical power is derived from a combination of their visual eloquence and their ability to coordinate patterns of identification with the memory of the revolution as a foundational event in Mexican history. Richly-illustrated, this book will be of interest to all those interested in photography, memory studies, and Mexican cultural history. -- .

From the time The Big Penis Book was published, readers anticipated The Big Book of Pussy. Granted, perhaps not the same readers, but the seed had been planted and the calls and letters began flowing in. Once they had that long-awaited book, some found themselves overwhelmed by the variety and abundance, as well as the sheer size of the book. As one reviewer wrote, "let's give credit to Amazon for...the strength of its packaging. Who wants a 2-ton pussy book being 'exposed' for the mailman...?" For those who worry that there can be too much of a good thing, we've made a pared down, "best of" edition of The Big Book of Pussy, a petite little kitten of a book that puts those in-your-face photos in proper perspective. Now you can follow the evolution of genital exposure with ease, through 100 years of photos with one thing in common: the exhibitionistic pleasure with which the models present their feminine pulchritude. And with over 150 photos-36 new to this book-of the pet we love to pet, no bothersome text to interrupt the flow, all in a package that won't stress the mailman's back, we just may have produced the perfect self-gifter of the year.

Robert Mapplethorpe's black-and-white Polaroid photographs of the 1970s--a medium in which he established the style that would bring him international acclaim--are brought together in this new paperback edition. Critically praised for his finely modeled and classically composed photographs, Robert Mapplethorpe remains intensely controversial and enormously popular. This book brings together almost 300 images from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation's archive and private collections to provide a critical view of Mapplethorpe's formative years as an artist, revealing the themes that would inspire Mapplethorpe throughout his career. Included is a selection of color Polaroids and objects incorporating his early "instant" photography. Some images convey a disarming tenderness and vulnerability, others a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form. The author traces the development of Mapplethorpe's use of instant photography over a period of five years, from 1970 to 1975, when the artist worked mainly in this medium. The images include self-portraits; figure studies; still lifes; portraits of lovers and friends such as Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff, and Marianne Faithful; and observations of everyday objects. Marked by a spontaneity and creative curiosity, these fragile images offer an illuminating contrast to the glossy perfection of the work for which Mapplethorpe is best known, allowing us a more personal glimpse of his artistry.

The city of Las Cruces, situated under blue skies in the Chihuahuan desert, boasts a wealth of Native American and Wild West history. As New Mexico's second largest city, it is a modern metropolis that has held fast to its picturesque past. Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s in search of the Seven Cities of Gold, and after the United States conquered the territory, the area became a transportation hub, blossoming from its adobe beginnings into a permanent, important city. The photographs contained in this volume tell the unique story of this town of contrasts, where historic plazas sit next to modern office buildings and subdivisions sprawl alongside old Indian trails. Many of the original buildings are now restaurants, galleries, and shops, but here readers see them as they once stood, making this book a fascinating reference for those familiar with the city or exploring it for the first time.

A Sky-High Flight of Imagination When a photographer's imagination really soars, a book like this one is created. Imagine posing live models like museum statues, and transforming their photographs back into statues Then, place them in exotic digital backgrounds. The result is 240 genuinely stunning photographs in a coffee table book that will deliver many hours of enchanting viewing. Living Nude Statues began as a search for great poses for models. Naturally, the most admired poses are found in museums, so photos of nude female statues from museums around the world were used as posing guides. With this collection of statue poses to use with the models, wonderful images were created. Then, a question arose: what it would be like to turn these photographs of models in statue poses back into statues again, using photo manipulation techniques? By teaming up with a photographer who has exceptional Photoshop skills, wondering became wonderment at the results. The twelve professional models featured in this volume are from the greater Phoenix, Arizona area. Each model is featured on twenty pages in the book. Each set of photographs is shown on facing pages with the studio shot on the left and its transformation into a statue on the right.

"Clay Lancaster was infected by a love of architecture at an early age, a gentle madness from which he never cared to recover." -- From the Foreword, by Roger W. Moss It is easy to take for granted the visual environment that we inhabit. Familiarity with routes of travel and places of work or leisure leads to indifference, and we fail to notice incremental changes. When a dilapidated building is eliminated by new development, it is forgotten as soon as its replacement becomes a part of our daily landscape. When an addition is grafted onto the shell of a house fallen out of fashion or function, onlookers might notice at first, but the memory of its original form is eventually lost. Also forgotten is the use a building once served. From historic homes to livestock barns, each structure holds a place in the community and can tell us as much about its citizens as their portraits and memoirs. Such is the vital yet intangible role that architecture plays in our collective memory. Clay Lancaster (1917-2000) began during the Great Depression to document and to encourage the preservation of America's architectural patrimony. He was a pioneer of American historic preservation before the movement had a name. Although he established himself as an expert on Brooklyn brownstones and California bungalows, the nationally known architectural historian also spent four decades photographing architecture in his native Kentucky. Lancaster did not consider himself a photographer. His equipment consisted of nothing more complex than a handheld camera, and his images were only meant for his own personal use in documenting memorable and endangered structures. He had the eye of an artist, however, and recognized the importance of vernacular architecture. The more than 150 duotone photographs in Clay Lancaster's Kentucky preserve the beauty of commonplace buildings as well as historic mansions and monuments. With insightful commentary by James D. Birchfield about the photographs and about Lancaster's work in Kentucky, the book documents the many buildings and architectural treasures -- both existing and long gone -- whose images and stories remain a valuable part of the state's heritage.

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."

Harry Benson began photographing Paul McCartney in 1964, when the Beatles took America by storm, toured the world, and made their movie debut with A Hard Day's Night. The legendary photojournalist was on hand to document it all. When the Fab Four came to an end, it was Benson who had intimate access to Paul and his wife Linda, as Paul forged a new path, creatively and personally. Featuring more than 100 color and black-and-white images, this collection is a window into the life of one of the world's best-known recording artists, one who has remained enigmatic despite a lifetime in the limelight. Through Benson's lens, Paul traces the evolution of its namesake from performer to icon, father and husband. We see the young musician at the height of his fame with the Beatles, in the recording studio with Linda and their band Wings, with the family, behind the scenes and on stage during the 1975-76 "Wings Over America" tour, partying with the stars, and at the couple's quiet farm in the UK in the early 1990s. On the occasion of Sir Paul's 80th birthday, Paul gives an all-access look at a life spent making the world's most popular music. A must for any music fan.

Folk art traditions in Haiti today rise to the level of fine art in the beaded flags shown here. They demonstrate a joyful expression of living with the spirits, as the flagmakers express their individual artistic spark. Over 350 color photographs present hundreds of unique designs by dozens of contemporary artists. But this is not just a pretty book; it also explores the spiritual beliefs at the core of the designs and a folk lore expressed in this most unique format. A little history of Haiti and a little explanation of the Vodou religion helps to explain the people who create these flags. By relating personal stories, the author soon absorbs readers into the rich and devout culture that the flags represent. As the beautiful designs and exquisite craftsmanship flow across these pages, explanations are given to define the saints and relate the stories that are featured in the images. It is a powerful presentation. The glossary and recommended reading invite further study.