Only accessible for a few months a year, this beautiful travel and photo-location guidebook covers Iceland's enigmatic highlands, one of the most desolate yet beautiful locations on Earth. The interaction of wind, water and fire has sculpted a unique upland environment defined by inhospitable landscapes, extreme weather and rugged topography. A place of beauty, mystery and drama, much of the region's photographic appeal lies in this epitome of the Icelandic archetype, with no permanent habitation, a preference for unmetalled roads and very little infrastructure. A trip to this area of genuine wilderness therefore requires careful consideration and planning to ensure a safe and productive visit. The long and often difficult driving approaches make many of the locations in the highlands unsuitable for hit and run tourism. FEATURING SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS The Kjoelur Route F35 - Kerlingarfjoell Mountains F35 - Hveravellir Hot Springs F208 & F225 - Fjallabaksleid Nyrdri F225 - Raudfoss Waterfall & Raudufossakvisl Source F208 - Sigoeldufoss Waterfall F208 - Sigoeldugljufur Canyon & Waterfalls F208 - Hnausapollur / Blahylur Crater Lake F208 - Frostastadavatn Lake & Stutur Crater F208 - Landmannalaugar Mountains Laugavegur & Fimmvoerduhals Hiking Trails Langisjor Lake Eldgja canyon & Ofaerufoss waterfall F210 & F232 - Fjallabaksleid Sydri F210 - Axlafoss waterfall F210 - Holmsarlon lake & Raudibotn crater F232 & F210 - Maelifell volcano THorsmoerk / Thorsmoerk Nature Reserve THakgil / Thakgil Canyons Lakagigar volcanic fissure & Laki Loop NORTHERN HIGHLANDS F26 - Sprengisandslei F26 - Aldeyjarfoss & Ingvararfoss waterfalls F26 - Hrafnabjargafoss waterfall Askja Caldera & Dyngjufjoell Mountains Kverkfjoell mountains

The first monograph by sculptor, filmmaker, and photographer Shikeith, Notes towards Becoming a Spill brings together a series of striking studio portraits of Black male subjects as they inhabit various states of meditation, prayer, and ecstasy. Shikeith describes the work as "leaning into the uncanny," visualizing ritual and the process of excavating Black men's erotic potential, the better to exorcise the "intangible presences that haunt their bodies and psyches." The men's faces and bodies glisten with sweat (and tears)-the manifestation and evidence of desire. This ecstasy is what critic Antwaun Sargent proclaims as "an ideal, a warm depiction that insists on concrete possibility for another world." In this revelatory volume, Shikeith redefines the idea of sacred space and positions a Queer ethic identified by its investment in vulnerability, tenderness, and joy. Shikeith: Notes towards Becoming a Spill is made possible, in part, thanks to the generous contribution of 7G Foundation.

Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the great Mosque of Madinah containing the tomb of the Prophet himself, is one of the two holiest sites in the Islamic world. Since the Prophet's death thirteen centuries ago, the mosque has spread outwards from the core of the holy city. At night, it radiates a powerful light. The tomb itself within the Prophet's Chamber is a point of pilgrimage for visitors who come in their millions every year from across the globe. Moath Alofi, who was born and raised in the city, has witnessed this devotion to the Prophet all his life. It is natural that Nabawi should become the title and subject of his first photographic book. From that holy axis, he has travelled into the greater space of Madinah Province and has photographed both the desert culture and the vanishing fabric of the city and its surrounding neighbourhoods. Madinah, like its holy counterpart, Mecca, is a city in a constant state of transition. The role of the photographer as an observer of change becomes all the more important as the pace of transition inevitably escalates. This book, Nabawi, is a record of the daily life of one of the great holy sites, and a study in humanity. All manner of expression and experience are found in the faces of the pilgrims - the old and young men, women and children - who are touched by the spirit of the place and by the devotion they have so faithfully expressed.

Asylum of the Birds is a new body of work by Roger Ballen, one of the most original image-makers of our times. Ballen has always sought to push the boundaries of photographic practice and has created an aesthetic and artistic vision unlike any other contemporary photographer. The images in Asylum of the Birds have been photographed entirely within the confines of a house in a Johannesburg suburb, the location of which remains a tightly guarded secret. The inhabitants of the house, both people and animals, and most notably the ever-present birds, are the cast who perform within a sculptural and decorated theatrical interior that Ballen creates and orchestrates. The resulting images are painterly, complex and surreal. They are richly layered with graffiti, drawings, animals and found objects. In a world where photographers seek to avoid definition, and whose work is often banal, Ballen is a true original who not only defies genres, but has defined his own artistic space as well.

Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey." For Patti Smith - inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America.

Smith melds the Western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from Southern California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places - this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment. But as Patti Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope of a better world.

Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.

Kary H. Lasch (1914 - 1993) was a Czech-born photographer who moved to Sweden in 1939 and whose international model scouting network was based in Stockholm. His photographic career spanned the 1950s through the 1980s, and he attended the Cannes Film Festival consecutively for over 30 years. He travelled widely, and is well known for his iconic images of Picasso, Dali, Fellini, Sofia Loren, and Brigitte Bardot. Lasch was known to do anything to get a scoop on the best photos. In a famous instance, when Sofia Loren was on her way to Stockholm by train from Copenhagen in 1955, Kary picked up the train she was on in Copenhagen, bribed the concierge, and photographed her while she was dressing in the train car. When they arrived in the Stockholm Central Station, the Swedish press were competing for the best position for a picture while Sofia and Kary were looking out of the train window. This 3-volume set (Vol. 1: Famous; Vol. 2: Cannes; Vol. 3: Humorous), brings together works from the extensive Kary Lasch Collection, which contains more than 600,000 images.

Larry Towell first encountered the Mennonites near his home in Ontario, Canada, and his friendship with them gained him unique access to their communities. Rather than compromise their way of life, Mennonites have continually been forced to migrate around the world to maintain their freedom to live as they choose. Towell photographed Mennonites in Canada and Mexico for over ten years, and his own texts tell in detail his experiences with their communities: the harshness and poverty of their rural existence, the disciplines and contradictions of their religion, their hunger for land and work, and the constant struggle to keep the modern world at bay. This second edition, reedited and re-sequenced includes forty new images from the photographer's archive.

Overpass is about what it means to move through the landscape. Walking along a vast network of centuries-old footpaths through the English countryside, artist Sam Contis focuses on stiles, the simple structures that offer a means of passage over walls and fences and allow public access through privately owned land. In her immersive sequences of black-and-white photographs, they become repeating sculptural forms in the landscape, invitations to free movement on one hand and a reminder of the history of enclosure on the other. Made from wood and stone, each unique, they appear as markers pointing the way forward, or decaying and half-hidden by the undergrowth. An essay by writer Daisy Hildyard contextualizes this body of work within histories of the British landscape and contemporary ecological discourses. In an age of rising nationalism and a renewed insistence on borders, Overpass invites us to reflect on how we cross boundaries, who owns space, and the ways we have shaped the natural environment and how we might shape it in the future.

The extraordinary experiences of ordinary people-their suffering and their unimaginable bravery-are the subject of Judy Glickman Lauder's remarkable photographs. Beyond the Shadows responds to the world's looking the other way as the Nazis took power and their hate-fueled nationalism steadily turned to mass murder. In the context of the horror of the Holocaust, it also tells the uplifting story of how the citizens and leadership of Denmark, under occupation and at tremendous risk to themselves, defied the Third Reich to transport the country's Jews to safety in Sweden. Over the past thirty years, Glickman Lauder has captured the intensity of death camps in Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, in dark and expressive photographs, telling of a world turned upside down, and, in contrast, the redemptive and uplifting story of the "Danish exception." Including texts by Holocaust scholars Michael Berenbaum and Judith S. Goldstein, and a previously unpublished original text by survivor Elie Wiesel, Beyond the Shadows demonstrates passionately what hate can lead to, and what can be done to stand in its path. "This is photography and storytelling for our times, about what hate leads to, and how we can stand up to it. Beyond the Shadows is powerful and revealing, and sharply relevant to all of us who believe in the human family." - Sir Elton John

'Time is different in Odesa. It's a city outside of time'. As a child growing up in Kyiv, Yelena Yemchuk was fascinated by the reputation of Odesa as a free place during Soviet times. The city seemed full of contradictions - "acceptance but also danger. A place of jokes and characters, populated by outlaws and intellectuals." She first visited Odesa in 2003 and returned in 2015 to begin to photograph the city and its inhabitants over a period of four years. In 1981, when Yemchuk was eleven years old, her family immigrated to the United States from their home in Kyiv, Ukraine. They could tell no-one out of their family of their plans to leave and going beyond the 'Iron Curtain' at the time meant they could never return to their home country. Ten years later, when Ukraine announced its independence, the artist was able to return to her home country to visit

"Jean-Pierre was himself a musician, but his choice of instrument was a camera, which he never put away." - Michel Legrand "I am so happy to see Leloir's work published, because behind each image is a story - one that needs to be told and appreciated. Leloir was not just a photographer; instead he was a preserver of history. As a result, this book holds hundreds of stories that shine a light onto the lives of those who live in these pages. Leloir had a unique ability to preserve an entire atmosphere and its surrounding emotions. between the four corners of a picture, but beyond his talent as a photographers, he presented himself not as paparazzi, but a friend. He and my other brother Herman Leonard were two of a kind; they had the same passion for photography and an endless supply of vision." - Quincy Jones This book gives ample proof of Jean-Pierre Leloir's amazing ability to immortalise performers and to capture candid moments at the airport, backstage, and in the dressing rooms of the most legendary Paris jazz and concert venues: "I loved the people I photographed, so I made myself as available, yet as discreet as possible", he used to say. "I never wanted to be a paparazzi. I wanted them to forget my presence so I could catch those little unexpected moments." The selection of photographs showcased here has been carefully selected from Leloir's immense catalogue. Many of the images have never been previously published before, and can be easily catalogued as 'atypical' shots, as the musicians were captured primarily in spontaneous situations, away from the fanfare of the stage. Text in English with an introduction in English, French and Spanish.

In 1960, photographer William Claxton and noted musicologist Joachim Berendt traveled the United States hot on the trail of jazz. Through music halls and marching bands, side streets and subways, they sought to document this living, breathing, beating musical phenomenon that enraptured America across social, economic, and racial lines. The result of Claxton and Berendt's collaboration was Jazzlife, much sought after by collectors and now revived in this fresh TASCHEN volume. From coast to coast, from unknown street performers to legends of the genre, this defining jazz journey explores just what made up this most original of American art forms. In New Orleans and New York, in St. Louis, Biloxi, Jackson, and beyond, Claxton's rapturous yet tender images and accompanying texts examine jazz's regional diversity as much as its pervasive vitality and soul. They show the music makers and the many spaces and people this music touched, from funeral parades to concert stages, from an elderly trumpet player to kids who hung from windows to catch a glimpse of a passing band. With images of Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, Gabor Szabo, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and many more, this is as much a compelling slice of history as it is a loving personal tribute.

Kevin Michael Connolly is a twenty-four-year-old man who has seen the world in a way most of us never will. Whether swarmed by Japanese tourists at Epcot Center as a child or holding court at the X Games on his mono-ski, Kevin Connolly has been an object of curiosity since the day he was born without legs. Growing up in rural Montana, he was raised like any other kid (except, that is, for his father's MacGyver-like contraptions such as the "butt boot"). As a college student, Kevin traveled to seventeen countries on his skateboard, including Bosnia, China, Ukraine, and Japan. In an attempt to capture the stares of others, he took more than 30,000 photographs of people staring at him. In this dazzling memoir, Kevin Connolly casts the lens inward to explore how we view ourselves and what it is to truly see another person. From the home of his family in Helena, Montana, to the streets of Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur, Kevin's remarkable journey will change the way you look at others, and the way you see yourself.

This new and expanded edition of Roger Ballen's widely acclaimed 1979 photobook Boyhood features new and unpublished images taken by the photographer in the '70. Quoted by Andre Kertesz, Bruce Davidson and Elliott Erwitt as a rare and intimate view of the spirit of youth, these images are able to bring back the childhood of everyone. In photographs and stories, Ballen leads us across the continents of Europe, Asia, and North America in search of boyhood: boyhood as it is lived in the Himalayas of Nepal, the islands of Indonesia, the provinces of China, the streets of America. Each stunning black and white photograph (culled from 15,000 boy photos shot during Ballen's four-year quest of his subject) depicts the magic of boys revealed in their games, their adventures, their dreams, their mischief. Boyhood is able to connect boys all around the world across the borders of nationality and culture. More of an ode or a memory than a literal document, Ballen's first book is as powerful and current today as it was 43 years ago presenting a stunning series of timeless images that transcend social and cultural particularities.