Porodina's early years were impacted by the brutalist buildings in Moscow and her mother who introduced art to Porodina's mind. Stored in her subconscious, art is what became the extension and expression of "her self", implying that every single one of her photographs is a self-portrait. Art became-and still is-an inevitable, and inseparable, part of her. Porodina's academic upbringing in post-Soviet Russia and her interest in emotional behavior led her to study clinical psychology.This background and her striving towards greater understanding of herself, her environment and others, informed her move to photography. It became a frame by which she is not limited-photography is just another medium to her that allows to stimulate the mind by showing, rather than by speaking, since the subconscious is not verbal either.

The Day May Break, photographed in Zimbabwe and Kenya in late 2020, is the first part of a global series portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction. The people in the photos were all affected by climate change, displaced by cyclones and years-long droughts. Photographed at five sanctuaries, the animals were rescues that can never be re-wilded. As a result, it was safe for human strangers to be close to them, photographed so close to them, within the same frame. The fog on location is the unifying visual, as we increasingly find ourselves in a kind of limbo, a once-recognizable world now fading from view. However, in spite of their loss, these people and animals are the survivors. And therein lies possibility and hope.

Salt's ionic lattices are one of the central elements of organic life. But even though the extraction of sea salt is one of the oldest forms of human landscaping, we rarely ask where salt comes from and how it is produced. Sea salt production sites are found all over the world, usually located around shallow shorelines. Tom Hegen has explored these magical landscapes from the air and obtained spectacular images in the process. This gorgeously illustrated book shows how the landscape has been shaped by salt mining and how the mining process has created structures that take on an almost painterly, abstract quality in Hegen's photographs. Salt Works is a study of color and geometry, an ode to beauty of the everyday.

A Candid Portrait of the 1990s New Wave of Queer Culture In the 1990s, queer youth, outcasts and artists, flocked to San Francisco to find one another and to experiment with art, self-expression, style, and gender. Rent was affordable, paving the way for queer bars, clubs, tattoo shops, galleries, cafes, bookstores, and women-owned businesses to emerge. A new wave of feminism embraced gender bending, and butch/femme culture flourished. The Mission District was the center of this queer cultural renaissance, and the feeling of community was palpable. Chloe Sherman was both a member of this community and an ardent visual chronicler. Her documentary photographic work on 35mm film stems from a commitment to capturing the vibrancy, tenderness, individuality, resilience, and joy within this subculture that was derided by mainstream society. Distilling the spirit of the time, her debut monograph is a candid portrait of a vibrant era that connects current and future generations to the pulse of San Francisco at a pivotal chapter in queer history.

Ruth Orkin is a legend of street photography - her atmospheric pictures taken in cities such as Florence, New York and London still shape the image of these metropolises today. But Orkin's specialty not only encompassed the urban but also the personal. This is evident in her unique eye that enabled her street scenes to consistently offer penetrating insights into the time and personality of her subjects. And it likewise shows in her fantastic portraits of celebrities such as Albert Einstein, Woody Allen, and Lauren Bacall. These inimitable images seemingly combine snapshot and pose to present the star in his or her role and at the same time as an autonomous individual. Published on the occasion of the photographer's 100th birthday, this illustrated book celebrates Orkin's life and work with an equally extensive and fascinating overview of this exceptional artist's oeuvre.

A close look transforms even the most ordinary things into fascinating objects full of idiosyncracies and magic. With charming tongue-in-cheek, the photographer Pascale Weber shows this through a very special object: the cat tree. Photographed as a still life against a colored background, we see the multifaceted and sometimes frivolous architectural capers of this extraordinary type of structure. Weber depicts them with their four-legged owners proudly presenting their homes. A particularly subtle humor characterizes these aesthetic studio images. Readers may suddenly wonder how this unique variety of forms could have been overlooked until now. And everyone may smile and ask themselves where they themselves would prefer to live. Languages: German and English

Roger Ballen’s new rat-human character: a gothic allegory in immaculately composed photographs

Over the past 35 years, Johannesburg-based American photographer and painter Roger Ballen (born 1950) has developed a distinctively dark and eerie style―characterized by a simple square format and stark black and white―to create images of the South African social landscape and portraits of surreal vignettes.

In his latest volume Ballen expands on his longstanding predilection for unsettling interiors and spooky characters. Roger the Rat follows the life of a creature whose body is human but whose head is that of a rat. Ballen’s rat character interacts with mannequins, people and various objects in often cramped and oppressive rooms, in ways that defy explanation but seem at once humorous and sinister. This book gathers the series, made between 2015 and 2020.

When the talk is about photographing celebrities, most inevitably think about the person in front of the camera. Actually, though, the one behind it is of much greater importance. Because it's the photographer who sets the stage, chooses the lighting, and selects the lens. The photographer's work turns the person in the picture into an icon, or the photos into the witnesses of a personality. Today, hardly anyone makes this kind of art as imaginatively as the Leica-wielding photographer Manfred Baumann does. Instead of guiding the stars through the same setting over and over, he goes to them. Long before he presses the shutter release, he develops refined concepts for the pictures that will congenially express the individuality of the other person. Caught on film, the faces also always tell a story. It can be read in the eyes, features, and stances in which readers might be all too happy to lose themselves.

There is no question that the Bauhaus was the most influential institution on architecture in the twentieth century. But does this aesthetic legacy live on in buildings? In what shape do we encounter it today, after about 100 years, in changing cityscapes? The photographer Jean Molitor has examined this question in depth all around the world. In his new illustrated volume bau2haus, he tracks the architecture that owes something to the Bauhaus and its special style across the globe. In strongly contrasted black-and-white photographs he draws attention to these fascinating structures. Selected with a meticulous eye, the photos play with perspective, perfectly balancing the openness and existing volume of each building. The result is a vivid history of architecture that readers will hardly be able to get enough of.

Female View puts the focus on women fashion photography. Although this medium has been shaped by female photographers for decades, a large number of publications or exhibitions have focused primarily on the male gaze of the female body. Numerous female fashion photographers worked for influential magazines such as Harper's Bazaar or Vogue, thus shaping the style of their time. Using exemplary positions, this book traces the transformation of the photographic image from the 1940s to the present day: from the fashion magazine to the showroom and the coffee table book to videos and digital self-staging in social media today. On display will be works by: Lillian Bassman, Sibylle Bergemann, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Corinne Day, Madame d'Ora, Ingeborg Hoppe, Nadine Ijewere, Ute Mahler, Charlotte March, Sarah Moon, Amber Pinkerton, Elizaveta Porodina, Regina Relang, Bettina Rheims, Alice Springs (June Newton), Deborah Turbeville, Ellen von Unwerth, and Yva.

The series Mi Sangre by Roj Rodriguez started as a photo documentation of a personal journey to retrace his Mexican heritage and has evolved into a fine art project aimed at highlighting Mexican culture on both sides of the US/Mexico border. It documents everyday aspects of Mexican life, the culture and popular iconography, both as they exist in Mexico and as reimagined by Mexican Americans in the US. With each of the subjects portrayed, Roj Rodriguez engaged in sometimes casual, sometimes insightful conversations. Mi Sangre includes proud and elegant charros, beautiful and skilled escaramuzas, joyful and coy children, wise and innocent elders, vibrant and talented mariachi musicians, loving and welcoming families, and even fine art re-interpretations of Loteria iconography.

Chinese Calligraphy Meets Western Performance In his paintings the Taiwanese artist Yahon Chang brings together traditional Chinese ink-wash painting and Western forms of artistic expression to produce a synthesis of East and West. Typically standing on large sheets of linen or Xuan paper and wielding a brush almost as long as he is tall, Chang creates works imbued with performative energy and characterized by large, sweeping brushstrokes. Drawing on Chinese literati and Zen (Chan) Buddhist traditions, the artist understands painting as an activity that connects body and mind. His entire body functions as an axis for these expressive paintings and is influenced by his training in calligraphy. This publication offers the first insight into the artist's extensive oeuvre and includes exhibition views as well as accompanying texts.

The photo book Like Birds by photographer Sven Jacobsen takes us back to a carefree time of youthful self-awareness, to a summer full of adventure. In their immediacy, a timeless dimension develops in his photographs of youngsters experimenting; exuberantly jumping into the water; clambering around on fences, poles, and dunes; being silly; kissing; skateboarding; or simply lying in the tall grass. In this way, the lakes, dunes, or apartments depicted become places in a collective memory. The spherical landscapes captured in this way-the snapshots of free youth with its beauty, its chaos, its silence, and its loudness-quickly develop a narrative pull. What looks like a light-hearted summer snapshot on the surface may suddenly touch deeper layers of the subconscious.

Female View puts the focus on women fashion photography. Although this medium has been shaped by female photographers for decades, a large number of publications or exhibitions have focused primarily on the male gaze of the female body. Numerous female fashion photographers worked for influential magazines such as Harper's Bazaar or Vogue, thus shaping the style of their time. Using exemplary positions, this book traces the transformation of the photographic image from the 1930s to the present day: from the fashion magazine to the showroom and the coffee table book to videos and digital self-staging in social media today. On display will be works by: Lillian Bassman, Sibylle Bergemann, Petra F. Collins, Corinne Day, Cass Bird, Madame d'Ora, Charlotte March, Ute Mahler, Sarah Moon, Amber Pinkerton, Regina Relang, Alice Springs (June Newton), Bettina Rheims, Ellen von Unwerth, and Yva.

Inspired by dioramas of wild flora and fauna found in natural history museums, Jim Naughten's digital reimaginations of a familiar yet alien world, explore the idea of wildlife becoming a lost fantasy. From orangutans swinging through psychedelic forests, to deer roaming pastel-hued canyons-Naughten's depictions of nature in an artificial color palette convey a distinct sense of dislocation and growing estrangement. His fantastical tableaus question our rose tinted image of the natural world that is largely fictional. In fact we are entering the Eremozoic-a term coined by biologist and writer E. O. Wilson to describe the current era of mass extinction triggered by human activity. Also referred to as The Age of Loneliness, the term alludes to the isolation that will follow the destruction of our deeply rooted relationships with other species.

Not only do we live in a period of rapid, exciting change, but we are also in the midst of the Anthropocene age. The environment and climate are changing in the wake of human-driven turbo-capitalism. Benedikt Partenheimer's works make it possible to imagine-sensorily as well as contextually-the close connection and increasing imbalance between humans and the earth. Photographs of fascinating, impressive elegance reveal processes of ecological and cultural transformation. What makes these pictures so irresistible is the human influence factor: the painterly mist of air pollution floating above urban panoramas, the ambivalence of mountain reflections in melted glacier water. The price of beauty is inscribed into each image. It makes Partenheimer's work aesthetically intriguing-but above all, existentially important and politically controversial.

Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait City, Manama, and Riyadh-as metropolises of the Arabian Peninsula, all of these cities are connected by more than just geography. They also stand for a booming economy and rapid urban development with avant-garde architecture set amid breathtaking landscapes. And last, but not least, these cities boast a bustling everyday life defined by immigrants from all over the world. Traditions meets western modernity. What is home to one person is a stopover for another. Busy working life collides with a partying mentality. As gigantic places of transit, these metropolises represent transience, but also opportunity and dazzling encounters. Michele Nastasi has captured them all with a distinctive sense of presence, shaping an engaging journey through the cultural diversity and pulsating life of these cities.

Summer in Siberia? What does that feel like? Is Siberia perhaps a new travel destination we didn’t know about? How is climate change making itself felt there? In several books of photographs Olaf Otto Becker has already documented the alterations in landscape caused by climate change, as well as the influence of human behaviour on nature. He became world-famous for his pictures of icebergs, whose beauty is captivating, even in the face of their melting. Now, the photographer has turned to the permafrost zone and its gradual retreat northward. He captures the inhospitable cliffs that tower above wet beaches, looking like abstract sculptures; follows a group of researchers who were taking soil samples during the “warm summer� of 2019; and finally lands in the semi-decaying harbour town of Tiksi, where children also play. An unusual, new Becker!

The beauty and tenderness of withering and decay In this gorgeous book, Brigitte Lustenberger explores the passing of time, memory and the fragility of life. She transforms flowers dried on glass used for photographic slides into delicate photographs. Celebrating the beauty of decay, Lustenberger leads us into a fascinating world of withered flowers. Her images reveal the incredible details of nature’s ingenious constructions. The artist manages to combine both the fleetingness of a drawing made with light and the preservation of a photograph. Four essays by renowned curators provide insight into the artist’s process-oriented working method, the interweaving of analogue and digital technology in her practice, and contextualize An Apparition of Memory within Western and Japanese photographic and art history.

“Eight years after moving from New York City to Berlin, a feeling of alienation still haunts me. I wander the streets alone at night, camera in hand, trying to find my place in my latest 'home.’� What does "home" mean when one is a stranger living in another country? Artist Romeo Alaeff explores this question in In der Fremde: Pictures from Home, a haunting, cinematic, and evocative survey of Berlin as seen through the lens of an eternal outsider. Framed by Alaeff’s complex familial background, spanning from Yemen to the former USSR, Poland, Israel, and the United States, the photographs are tinged with a deep sense of longing and touch on themes of migration, belonging, and the search for home. Inspiring essays by Yuval Noah Harari, Christian Rattemeyer, Charles Simic, Eva Hoffman, Rory MacLean, Joseph Kertes, and Romeo Alaeff illuminate a wide horizon of perspectives.

We often say that photography captures a moment in time. It is static and doesn't change, like an immovable mountain. Bastiaan van Aarle shows us a different way of thinking about both time and the mountain. Not as something fixed, but ever changing. He does this by capturing the change in light, caused by the rotation of the planet. It appears as a soft color palette in the images. It transforms the mountain and forces us to look differently. The book takes us on the same journey as the photographer. Past the details of erosion and the tree line to the beautiful vistas. We are given the time to stop and think what both the mountain and time can mean to us.

What happens when street photography, conceptual art, and documentation are combined? The result is a unique panorama of images, whose versatility allows it to capture the sometimes abysmal, sometimes dazzling multiple facets of Bangkok. The photographer Peter Nitsch has captured the streets, people, and life in the Thai capital with his sensitive feel for the right moment and the special detail. This illustrated book turns readers into companions on his visual tour of discovery. Nitsch’s camera makes us see the city’s rhythm as a tango, which owes its idiosyncratic movement to the interaction of different cultures. A comparison that not only rhymes with “mango� (Bangkok’s nickname) but also translates the sweet and sour taste of the fruit into visual intoxication.

Night time has always captivated those who see the world differently. When everything has come to rest, lights go out, phones have gone silent and doors have been locked, the nocturnal quiet is embraced to transcend the beauty of the world to its own. This fascination with the way things appear at night is deeply embedded in Daniel Freeman's photography, and finds its way into Midnight on Main together with strong influences of American popular culture. Away from the frantic pace of large sleepless cities, Daniel Freeman explores the quieter side of the American night as a nocturnal flaneur, portraying the charm of small towns across the United States and of a lessershown America. Complemented by stars and moonlight, he follows what is still left of the American Dream and traces the special kind of American culture, that since its invention has not failed to amaze. Midnight on Main documents the silent grace and illuminated beauty amplified through the prolonged and peaceful interludes of calm that stretch between dusk and dawn. Urban landscape at its best. Daniel Freeman (1984) lives in Buckinghamshire, England and has specialized in night photography for over a decade. He was awarded a 'Fellowship' by the British Institute of Professional Photography, and 'Qualified European Photographer' by the Federation of European Professional Photographers for his nocturnal image capture. He currently lectures in Photography and holds night photography seminars and workshops on behalf of photographic institutes.

Highways are more than mere traffic routes - they are symbols of speed and mobility; in 1930s Germany, they served propaganda purposes. Today they are central infrastructures. In this volume, photographer Michael Tewes devotes himself to the roads that have relentlessly carved paths across our country and through its nature, as well as to their special architectures. Otherwise more of an entertaining staging post for people on their way to a destination, Tewes brings the highway into our conscious perception and shows it as an architectural building form in its own right. This monograph is the result of a six-year project and is published in parallel with the exhibition at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.