A pictorial history of the world's most enigmatic city
From the first known photograph taken in Los Angeles to its most recent sweeping vistas, this photographic tribute to the City of Angels provides a fascinating journey through the city's cultural, political, industrial, and sociological history. It traces the city's development from the 1880s' real estate boom, through the early days of Hollywood and the urban sprawl of the late 20th century, right up to the present day. With over 500 images, L.A. is shown emerging from a desert wasteland to become a vast palm-studded urban metropolis.
Events that made world news-including two Olympics, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, and the Rodney King riots-reveal a city of many dimensions. The entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, and its celebrities are showcased along with many other notable residents, personalities, architects, artists, and musicians. The city's pop cultural movements, its music, surfing, health food fads, gangs, and hot rods are included, as are its notorious crimes and criminals. This book depicts Los Angeles in all its glory and grit, via hundreds of freshly discovered images including those of Julius Shulman, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton and many other superb photographers, culled from major historical archives, museums, private collectors, and universities. These are given context and resonance through essays by renowned California historian Kevin Starr and Los Angeles literature expert David Ulin.

We all want to see Snow White with tattoos, right? Well, at least photographer Robert Alvarado does. In his newest collection of high-octane pin-up images, Alvarado shows how his own style of shooting and editing, which has been called cartoonish, illustrated, and painted marries perfectly with cosplay. In more than 150 vibrant, color images, see Alvarado's take on this pop culture phenomenon as he captures models "cosing" as characters from Buck Rogers, Deadpool, Star Wars, your favorite D.C. and Marvel franchises, and much more. From fantasy to sci-fi and Disney to video games, the models embody and costume many beloved characters while striking traditional and contemporary pin-up poses. Complete with some behind-the-scenes shots and details on Alvarado's approach to working with the models, this is the perfect collection of images for fans and students of pop culture and pin-up photography.

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.

Many of the photographs are as familiar as they are iconic: Nelson Mandela gazing through the bars of his prison cell on Robben Island; a young Miriam Makeba smiling and dancing; Hugh Masekela as a schoolboy receiving the gift of a trumpet from Louis Armstrong; Henry ‘Mr Drum’ Nxumalo; the Women’s March of 1955; the Sophiatown removals; the funeral of the Sharpeville massacre victims …

Photographer Jürgen Schadeberg was the man behind the camera, recording history as it unfolded in apartheid South Africa, but his personal story is no less extraordinary. His affiliation for the displaced, the persecuted and the marginalised was already deeply rooted by the time he came to South Africa from Germany in 1950 and began taking pictures for the fledgling Drum magazine. In this powerfully evocative memoir of an international, award-winning career spanning over 50 years – in Europe, Africa and the US – this behind-the-scenes journey with a legendary photojournalist and visual storyteller is a rare and special privilege.

Schadeberg’s first-hand experiences as a child in Berlin during the Second World War, where he witnessed the devastating effect of the repressive Nazi regime, and felt the full wrath of the Allied Forces’ relentless bombing of the city, are vividly told. The only child of an actress, who left her son largely to his own devices, Jürgen became skilled at living by his wits, and developed a resourcefulness that held him in good stead throughout his life. At the end of the war, his mother married a British officer and emigrated to South Africa, leaving Jürgen behind in a devastated Germany to fend for himself. With some luck and a great deal of perseverance, he was able to pursue his interest in photography in Hamburg, undergoing training as an unpaid ‘photographic volunteer’ at the German Press Agency, then graduating to taking photos at football matches.

After two years there, Jürgen made the decision to travel to South Africa. He arrived at Johannesburg station on a cold winter’s morning. He had a piece of paper with his mother’s address on it, his worldly possessions in a small, cheap suitcase on the platform beside him, and his Leica camera, as always, around his neck.

In rural Japan the passage of the year is marked by festivals and rituals that have changed little for centuries. Elaborate outfits, crafted from textiles as well as branches, straw and elements sourced from the natural environment, are donned in agricultural and fishing communities throughout Japan to celebrate seasonal rites of fertility and abundance. Yokainoshima (literally 'island of monsters') explores the extraordinary ranges of masks, costumes and characters that reappear with each returning season. Charles Freger's photographs combine acute documentary attentiveness with individual portraiture in an entirely fresh and distinctive style. Toshiharu Ito and Akihiro Hatanaka, both specialists in Japanese folk culture and anthropology, analyse Freger's photographs, setting the huge variety of eclectic clothing in ethnographic context and describing the local festivals, dances and rituals. A final illustrated reference section describes individual costumes and masks.

"The dynamism of the images and the inventive sequencing make this not just a book of great photographs, but a great photography book full of energy and verve." "... a fitting tribute to [Shapiro's] legacy" - B&W Photography Famed photojournalist Steve Schapiro and his son Theophilus Donoghue have collaborated on seventy thirty, a photo project that is 70% Schapiro, 30% Donoghue. Seventy thirty depicts the various faces and expressions of humanity, from metropolitans to migrants, unseen homeless to conspicuous celebrities, such as Alec Guinness, Allen Ginsberg, Muhammad Ali, Robert De Niro, Rene Magritte, Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol, and the Velvet Underground. Schapiro photographs early New York skateboarders while Donoghue documents current Colombian breakdancers. Father and son both capture philosophically poignant moments that rouse reflection. Schapiro includes his classic photo "Man on Iceberg," which was the opening double-page spread of a Life story on existentialism. In a similar fashion, Donoghue contributes his contemplative "Hindsight Intersection," which was recently featured in ARTSY's 20 21 Artists in Support of Human Rights Watch benefit auction. Shooting in monochrome with an occasional dash of colour, Schapiro and Donoghue portray the proud and lofty as well as the humble and humorous. Alternately profound and playful, Schapiro and Donoghue's photographs capture a vast range of human emotion and experience. Like his father, Donoghue is equally concerned with social justice issues. For this project, Schapiro has selected images from the 60s civil rights movement and, with Donoghue, provided photos from today's Black Lives Matter protests and environmental rallies. Apart from numerous stateside locations, their project includes images from India, Italy, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. Together father and son provide a touching overview of humanity throughout the world from the 1950s to present day.

Hong Kong was first captured on camera when the British arrived to lay claim to its 'fragrant harbour' in 1841. Its fascinating history has been documented through photography ever since - from its rapid expansion as a Crown Colony to its handover to China in 1997 and its present status as one of the world's leading international financial centres. Pairing rare and previously unpublished photographs with contemporary views taken from the same location, Hong Kong Then and Now highlights the rich and varied history of this constantly evolving metropolis, from Victoria Harbour, the Hong Kong Club and the Star Ferry to Kowloon Walled CIty, Chek Lap Kok Airport and the gleaming skyscrapers of its central banking district. Sites include: Victoria Harbour, the Peak, the Star Ferry Pier, Man Ho Temple, Ladder Street, Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong Club, Prince's Building, HSBC, Noonday Gun, Happy Valley Racecourse, Tiger Balm Garden, Peninsula Hotel, Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon Walled City, Shenzhen, Repulse Bay, Chek Lap Kok Airport, St. Paul's (Macau).