Our fast-changing world seen through the lenses of 140 leading contemporary photographers around the globe. With close to 500 images, many previously unpublished, this landmark publication takes stock of the material and spiritual cultures that make up ‘civilization’. Ranging from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from our great collective achievements to our ruinous collective failings, Civilization: The Way We Live Now explores the complexity of contemporary civilization through the rich, nuanced language of photography. Featuring images by some 140 photographers – from Reiner Riedler’s families at leisure parks, Raimond Wouda’s high schools, Wang Qingsong’s Work, Work, Work and Cindy Sherman’s Society Portraits, to Lauren Greenfield’s displays of ostentatious wealth, Edward Burtynsky’s oil fields, Pablo Lopez Luz’s views on a sprawling contemporary megalopolis, Thomas Struth’s images of high technology, Xing Danwen’s electronic wastelands and Taryn Simon’s Contraband, Civilization draws together the threads of humankind’s ever-changing, frenetic, collective life across the globe. Visually epic, Civilization is presented through eight thematic chapters, each featuring powerful imagery and accompanied by provocative essays, quotes and concise statements by the artists themselves.

William Wegman is a world-renowned American artist whose paintings, photographs, videos and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. Today he is perhaps best known for his collaborations with his longstanding muses, an ever-expanding cast of Weimaraners, for whom performing elaborate scenarios or merely posing demurely for their portraits comes as second nature. Curated in close collaboration with distinguished photography author William A. Ewing, William Wegman: Being Human is the most extensive collection of Wegman's photographic work yet to be published. The book is organized thematically, presenting a wealth of exceptional work in such a way as to highlight the versatility of Wegman's everinventive mind as he explores what it means to be human. From portraits of characters we so easily recognize - a suburban housewife, a famous actor, a nightclub singer, a golfer dressed in plaid - to imagery that toys with a wide range of visual languages, Wegman quotes freely from fashion photography, Cubism, colour theory, the tradition of the nude and the history of art itself. Essays and an interview explore Wegman's approach to his subjects and their life in the studio. With over 300 images made over the last four decades, many published here for the first time, William Wegman: Being Human will delight and engage both those who are new to Wegman's work and those who have admired his art for many years.

Landscape photography has traveled far from its origins in the picturesque or pastoral. It is at the cutting edge of contemporary image-making with leading photographers creating work that transcends definitions of art or documentary. This is the first truly international survey of a vibrant, burgeoning field of photography, its masterful image-makers, and their work. William A. Ewing has selected more than 230 photographs by over 100 photographers, ranging from renowned figures such as Susan Derges, Edward Burtynsky, and Simon Norfolk, to younger rising stars including Pieter Hugo, Olaf Otto Becker, and Penelope Umbrico. Each of them represents an individual viewpoint of a shared concernfor our changing landscape and environment. Organized into ten themes Sublime; Pastoral; Artefacts; Rupture; Playground; Scar; Control; Enigma; Hallucination; and Reverie Landmark is an intelligent and poetic survey which captures a genre of photography to perfection."

A construction site offered the scenario for a big photographic project created by Carlo Valsecchi, the fruit of which is presented in the pages of this volume. The gaze of Carlo Valsecchi (Brescia, 1965) is educated by a solid artistic preparation: over the course of many years he's been using photography to investigate architecture and, in a wider sense, the landscape, both natural and artificial. Valsecchi interprets these places by offering us a vision that transcends the space and the contingent moment: his images invite us to discover a timeless reality, which perhaps will eventually come: posterius. As William Ewing points out in his long afterword, Valsecchi gives us images of ethereal, abstract spaces that border on the surreal, managing to bring out the mystery inherent in them. Text in English and Italian.

We hurtle together into the future at ever-increasing speed - or so it seems to the collective psyche. Every day and every hour, human civilization expands, evolves and mutates. While we frequently lapse into celebrating the individual at the expense of the group, in science and art, at work and at play, at home and in transit, we increasingly live the collective life. Civilization shows how contemporary photography, notably art photography, is fascinated by, and attempts to decode and communicate, the way we live today. This landmark publication is accompanied by an internationally touring exhibition produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography - a global cultural event for a global subject. Civilization is presented through eight thematic chapters, each led by breathtaking imagery and accompanied by essays, quotes, commentaries and captions to provide a deeper understanding of its theme. Visually epic and ambitiously popular in approach, it will reach out beyond the boundaries of the photography world to connect with audiences worldwide.

Influenced by artists such as Cindy Sherman, Lake's work demonstrates the innovation and continued influence of the 'Feminist Avant-Garde' movement on contemporary art today. Lake's work forms part of the public collection at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY as well as within numerous museums and galleries across Canada. Her work has been exhibited widely, including in the US at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles; National Museum of Women in Art, DC and Santa Monica Museum of Art, California. This multi-author publication considers how Lake's ideas and practice developed over time from her hometown of Detroit to Montreal to Toronto, informed by the cultural character of each city. Featuring celebrated works as well as newly commissioned series, Introducing Suzy Lake reveals the richness and originality of her accomplishments as one of North America's most influential artists working today.