The transformation of man to beast is a central aspect of traditional pagan rituals that are centuries old and which celebrate the seasonal cycle, fertility, life and death. Each year, throughout Europe, from Scotland to Bulgaria, from Finland to Italy, from Portugal to Greece via France, Switzerland and Germany, people literally put themselves into the skin of the 'savage', in masquerades that stretch back centuries. By becoming a bear, a goat, a stag or a wild boar, a man of straw, a devil or a monster with jaws of steel, these people celebrate the cycle of life and of the seasons. Their costumes, made of animal skins or of plants, and decorated with bones, encircled with bells, and capped with horns or antlers, amaze us with their extraordinary diversity and prodigious beauty. Work on this project took photographer Charles Freger to eighteen European countries in search of the mythological figure of the Wild Man: Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Croatia, Finland, Romania and the UK.

The theme of Margaret M. De Lange's second book published by Trolley is one of loneliness. It is a personal documentary, which follows people close to her as well as some that she has met only briefly, and the solitude they encounter.

Nobody photographs libraries, those splendid and intimate cathedrals of knowledge, as beautifully as Candida Hoefer. Her photographs are sober and restrained - the atmosphere is disturbed by neither visitors nor users, especially as she forgoes any staging of the locations. The emptiness is imbued with substance by a subtle attention to colour, and the prevailing silence instilled with a metaphysical quality that gives voice to the objects, over and above the eloquence of the furnishings or the pathos of the architecture. This sumptuous volume contains Hoefer's famously ascetic images of the British Library in London, the Escorial in Spain, the Whitney Museum and the Pierpoint Library in New York, the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, the Villa Medici in Rome and the Hamburg University Library, among others. Umberto Eco introduces the collection with a witty reflection on the role of libraries in all our lives. Almost completely devoid of people, as is Hoefer's trademark, these pictures radiate a comforting serenity that is exceptional in contemporary photography.

Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was a pioneering figure in 20th-century photography. As well as being the first African-American photographer to join the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and to become a staff photographer for Life magazine, he was also a writer, film director and composer. Although best known for documenting issues such as poverty, race relations and civil rights, he was remarkably versatile, turning his gift for visual narrative to subjects as diverse as news coverage, fashion, art and sport. He also captured prominent figures of his era, from Malcolm X to Marilyn Monroe, in a series of memorable portraits. Working in the US and around the world, he was driven by a commitment to social justice: 'The common search for a better life and a better world is deeper than colour or blood.'

Emotionally resonant photographs of everyday life in the Jewish Lodz Ghetto taken during WWII From 1941 to 1944, the Polish Jewish photographer Henryk Ross (1910-91) was a member of an official team documenting the implementation of Nazi policies in the Lodz Ghetto. Covertly, he captured on film scores of both quotidian and intimate moments of Jewish life. In 1944, he buried thousands of negatives in an attempt to save this secret record. After the war, Ross returned to Poland to retrieve them. Although some were destroyed by nature and time, many negatives survived. This compelling volume, originally published in 2015 and now available in paperback, presents a selection of Ross's images along with original prints and other archival material including curfew notices and newspapers. The photographs offer a startling and moving representation of one of humanity's greatest tragedies. Striking for both their historical content and artistic quality, his photographs have a raw intimacy and emotional power that remain undiminished. Distributed for the Art Gallery of Ontario

Brilliant and sophisticated fashion photographer, leading artist of Vogue magazine for six decades, Horst P. Horst has become a reference for entire generations in this photographic genre. This volume traces Horst's main creative periods, from the beginning of his career to his latest creations, with a focus on some highlights of his production: the link with classical art which, nevertheless, doesn't elude the influences of the avant-gardes, and surrealism in particular; the visual investigation of the human figure's harmony and elegance, embellished by the perfect mastery of scene lighting; the fruitful and lasting collaboration with Vogue, a magazine for which the photographer has provided dozens of covers; the portraits of stars from the world of fashion and art, often set in their own homes, which once again reveal his indisputable compositional skills. Over 120 works, chosen from among his best known ones by the author himself, alongside a series of surprising previously unpublished works, testify to the talent and creative vision of one of the leading figures in 20th century photography. Text in English and Italian.

William Henry Fox Talbot is celebrated today as one of the English inventors of photography. He made early photographic experiments in the 1830s, released the details of his photogenic drawing process in January 1839, and introduced important innovations to the medium in the 1840s and 1850s. Drawing on archive material in the Bodleian Library, including three albums given by Talbot to his sister, Horatia Feilding, as well as his illustrated books, Sun Pictures in Scotland and The Pencil of Nature, this volume shows how Talbot was continually inventing photography anew. A selection of eighty full-page plates provides a thematic survey of Talbot’s work, reproducing images that document his travels, his home and his family, as well as his intellectual interests, from science to literature to ancient languages. An illustrated introduction places Talbot’s work within the context of a modernising Britain, as well as within his own social and intellectual milieu, and explores how the competing daguerreotype process spurred Talbot to improve his own techniques and seek new functions and uses for paper-based photographs. This evocative selection is testament to Talbot’s constant quest for new photographic advances, offering a compelling window into the archives of an extraordinarily determined and creative man.

'A beautiful memoir in which Oliver Sacks comes wonderfully to life ... Exquisitely wrought, heartrending and joyous' Joyce Carol Oates

Bill Hayes came to New York in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at forty-eight years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.

And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance is captured in funny and touching vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age seventy-five to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015). Insomniac City is both a meditation on grief and a celebration of life. Filled with Hayes's distinctive street photos of everyday New Yorkers, the book is a love song to the city and to all who have felt the particular magic and solace it offers.

An iconic project made at the height of the 'Troubles', Troubled Land deals with the small but insistent signs of political division embedded in the landscape of Northern Ireland. At the heart of the Irish conflict lays the land - who owns it, who controls it, whose history it expresses. Paul Graham's quietly radical book keeps this material truth in mind as it uniquely combines landscape and conflict photography, seducing us with bucolic views in which telling details only gradually appear: painted kerbs, distant soldiers or helicopters, flags and graffiti, paint-splattered roads, each tacitly aligning that location to its Republican or Loyalist allegiance. Pastoral photographs of green fields and hedgerows reveal themselves to be images of conflict and dispute - despite the steadiness of the photographic frame and the clarity of Graham's vision, this is unsettled land. Originally published in 1986, Troubled Land is reprinted here for the first time in thirty-five years. Controversial then for its use of colour and refusal to follow the cliched tropes of photojournalism, the book was pivotal in providing a fresh perspective on Northern Ireland's 'Troubles' and left a lasting impact on landscape photography, suggesting how it might engage with politics and society rather than escape from them. Together with A1 - The Great North Road and Beyond Caring, it completes a new edition of the remarkable trilogy of books Graham made in 1980s UK.

Boston's most celebrated photographer offers her finest new color images of the city in a handy paperback format.

Decades' worth of images have been distilled down to 512 pages of photographs in this ultimate retrospective collection of Nobuyoshi Araki's work, selected by the artist himself. First published as a Limited Edition and now back in a new format to celebrate TASCHEN's 40th anniversary, the curation delves deep into Araki's best-known imagery: Tokyo street scenes; faces and foods; colorful, sensual flowers; female genitalia; and the Japanese art of kinbaku, or bondage. As girls lay bound but defiant and glistening petals assume suggestive shapes, Araki plays constantly with patterns of subjugation and emancipation, death and desire and with the slippage between serene image and shock. Describing his bondage photographs as "a collaboration between the subject and the photographer", Araki seeks to come closer to his female subjects through photography, emphasizing the role of spoken conversation between himself and the model. In his native Japan, he has attained cult status for many women who feel liberated by his readiness to photograph the expression of their desire. About the series TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

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.

Learn How the Photography Pros Do it!"Marc's new book is an all-in-one, easily accessible handbook drawn from his huge library of interviews with top photographers and packed with information that can be put into action immediately." Chase Jarvis, Multi-award-winning photographer and CEO/Founder of CreativeLive. #1 Best Seller in Photography Photography tips from professional photography masters. Easy-to-understand photography tips for beginners and amateurs all in one compact book that fits into your camera bag. Included are tips on landscape, wedding, lifestyle, sports, animal, portrait, still life, and iPhone photography. Take stunning pictures. Learn professional photography tips and tricks from masters of this art form. In Advancing Your Photography, Marc Silber provides the definitive handbook that takes you through the entire process of becoming an accomplished photographer. From teaching you the basics to exploring the stages of the full "cycle of photography," he makes it easy for you to master the art form and create stunning pictures. Begin a lifetime of enjoyment and satisfaction. Photography and the technology associated with it is constantly evolving, but the fundamentals remain the same. Advancing Your Photography can start you on a lifetime of enjoying the art of photography. Advancing Your Photography features: Top tips from iconic photographers and many other leading professional photography masters of today Numerous step-by-step examples Guidance on training your eye to see composition with emotional impact Tips on mastering the key points of operating your camera like a pro Secrets to processing your images to professional standards If you have enjoyed photography books such as Understanding Exposure, Extraordinary Everyday Photography, Learning to See Creatively, or Marc Silber's Create, you will love Advancing Your Photography.

Australian photographer and film maker Frank Hurley became an international celebrity through his reporting of the Mawson and Shackleton Antarctic Expeditions, the First and Second World Wars, the England-Australia air race of 1919, and his own expeditions to Papua in the 1920s. This book is an account of his stage and screen practice in the context of early twentieth-century mass media.

'Photography, Early Cinema and Colonial Modernity' is not a biography of Frank Hurley the man; it is instead an examination of the social life of the many marvellous and meaningful things he made as a professional photographer and film maker in the early twentieth century: the negatives, photographic prints, lantern slides, stereographs, films, diaries and newspaper articles. His stage and screen practices offer an insight into Australia's engagement with the romance and wonder of international modernity in the early years of the twentieth century. The level of description at which this volume works is not that of personality or the originary events of Hurley's life - the Mawson and Shackleton Antarctic Expeditions, and the First and Second World Wars - but the media events he worked so hard and so professionally to create. He called them his 'synchronized lecture entertainments'.

These media events were at once national and international; they involved Hurley in an entire culture industry comprising many kinds of personnel, practices and texts that were constantly in movement along global lines of travel and communication, and in a variety of institutional locations around the world. This raises complex questions both about the authorship of Hurley's photographic and filmic texts - which were often produced and presented by other people - and about their ontology, since they were in a more or less constant state of re-assemblage in response to changing market opportunities. This unique study re-imagines, from inside the quiet and stillness of the archive, the prior social life of Hurley's creations as they were once accelerated through the complicated topography of the early twentieth century's rapidly internationalizing mass media landscape. As a way to conceive of that space and the social life of the people and things within it, this study uses the concept of 'colonial modernity'.

A celebration of the visual and cultural landscape of contemporary African photography. Edited by Osei Bonsu, curator of International Art at Tate Modern, this stunning exhibition book offers critical insight from the perspectives of Africa’s leading artists and thinkers.

Since the invention of photography in the 19th century, Africa has been defined largely by Western images of its cultures and traditions. From the colonial carte de visite and ethnographic archive to the rise of studio portraiture and social documents of racial surveillance, the fraught relationship between Africa and the photographic lens has become inseparable from the discourses of postcolonialism.

Challenging these dominant images of exoticism and otherness, this book illustrates how photography has allowed artists to reimagine African histories through the lens of the present, to shape our understanding of the contemporary realities we face.

Bringing together a diverse range of artists and thinkers to present varied perspectives on issues such as cultural heritage and restitution, spirituality, urbanism, and climate change, A World in Common reveals how innovative contemporary photography challenges perceptions of history, culture, and identity.

The perfect primer on acclaimed French artist Sophie Calle. Sophie Calle is a French writer, photographer, installation artist and conceptual artist. Her work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is renowned for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives, which she has deployed in her acclaimed works Suite Venitienne, The Hotel and Address Book. She has had major exhibitions all over the world, including at the 2007 Venice Biennale, the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and has worked closely with the writer Paul Auster. The Guardian called her 'the Marcel Duchamp of dirty laundry', and she was among the names in Blake Gopnik's list 'The 10 Most Important Artists of Today', with Gopnik arguing, 'It is the unartiness of Calle's work - its refusal to fit any of the standard pigeonholes, or over anyone's sofa - that makes it deserve space in museums.'

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.

A landmark in the history of modern art, People of the 20th Century presents the fullest expression of the German photographer August Sander's lifelong work: a monumental endeavor to amass an archive of twentieth-century humanity through a cross section of German culture. Sander photographed subjects from all walks of life, capturing bankers and boxers, soldiers and circus performers, farmers and families, to create a catalog of the German people, arranged by their profession, gender, and social status. First imagined in the 1920s, he pursued the project for more than fifty years during a politically charged and rapidly changing time, fraught by two world wars and the devastating repercussions of Nazism. Sander never finished the seven-volume, forty-nine portfolio magnum opus, continually refining and shaping it to convey an understanding of the world in which he lived. The photographs, remarkable for their unflinching realism and deft analysis of character, provide a powerful social mirror of Germany between the wars and form one of the most influential achievements of the twentieth century. Now made available again, People of the 20th Century brings together the exquisite reproductions and principal texts of the long out-of-print, seven-volume edition, as well as the main scholarship from the accompanying study edition. This all-in-one edition, with 619 photographs, offers the most comprehensive iteration of Sander's still-essential vision.