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“With his legendary swag, Norman Anderson, aka Normski, hip-hop ambassador in the United Kingdom since its emergence in the 1980s, is the great archivist of these glory days he captured London to Detroit.” — Rolling Stone France
“The difference between Normski’s photograph of me and any other is that it captures my soul.” — Goldie

“He was a larger-than-life character, full of energy and totally motivating. He really was the hip hop photographer of the day in the UK.” — Stereo MC’s
“This book contains a striking catalogue of images, many of which have been exhibited by establishments such as Tate Britain, the V&A, Somerset House and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.” — Marcus Barnes

“On the heels of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary, Man with the Golden Shutter is a celebratory record of hip-hop as much as it is a definitive collection of Normski’s incredible photographs.” — GQ Middle East

Normski was a vital witness to the period known as the Golden Age of Rap, when big US artists like Run DMC, LL Cool J and Public Enemy started to play in the UK. At the same time, a British music scene born of Black music and myriad multicultural influence was developing, giving birth to Jungle, Garage and Techno.

The author, who describes himself as having been a “young Black British homeboy photographer”, was in the right place at the right time to document the emergent music, community and social movements of hip hop and rap in the UK. Normski: Man with the Golden Shutter presents Normski’s personal journey through that world from the mid-1980s to early 1990s.

The book includes Normski’s often previously unseen photographs of Public Enemy, N.W.A., Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Goldie, Ice-T, Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan and many others, alongside the photographer’s stories and anecdotes from the centre of what would become a hugely influential cultural movement.

Quartier Brugmann – L’Art de Vivre in Brussels’ Most Stylish Area translates the unique atmosphere of this neighbourhood, compared to London’s Notting Hill and Paris’ Saint-Germain, into a book of three parts:

I. A short architectural introduction through the Brugmann district, explaining the origins of the place and the important houses and buildings of the Brugmann square, the Avenue Lepoutre, the Avenue Molière…

II. Interviews with 30 Ambassadors who talk about their interest in the neighbourhood: why they live and/or work there, which are the addresses they can recommend…

III. A walk along the best addresses (galleries, boutiques, restaurants…) of the place Georges Brugmann, the Rue Franz Merjay and the surrounding avenues and streets.

Text in English and French.

Almost everything that landscape architects design is ultimately for a community. Community can be the boon or bane of a project, and oftentimes both. LA+ COMMUNITY aims to explore how, over time, each of us moves in and out of multiple communities, shaping them as they shape us, and in turn shaping our landscapes and cities. We ask how different disciplines construct different ideas of community and how those communities are anchored in space and time, whose interests they serve, and what traces they leave. And we examine how — in this pluralistic, fragmented, and fluid world — designers can meaningfully engage with communities. Contributions from:

Pioneering Edinburgh photographers David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848) together formed one of the most famous partnerships in the history of photography.

Producing highly skilled photographs just four years after the new medium was announced to the world in 1839, their images of people, buildings and scenes in and around Edinburgh offer a fascinating glimpse into 1840s Scotland. Their much-loved prints of the Newhaven fisherfolk are among the first images of social documentary photography.

In the space of four and a half years Hill and Adamson produced several thousand prints encompassing landscapes, architectural views, tableaux vivants from Scottish literature and an impressive suite of portraits featuring key members of Edinburgh society.

Anne M. Lyden, International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, discusses the dynamic dispute that brought these two men together and reveals their perfect chemistry as the first professional partnership in Scottish photography.

Illustrated with around 100 masterpieces from the Galleries’ unique, vast collection of the duo’s ground-breaking work.

This love letter in photographs to the unique beauty and mystery of Venice is an evocative compilation of vintage photographs, prints, and ephemera. It is a tactile ode to the sensuality of the city, filled to the brim with all manner of Venetian memorabilia: 19th century photographs, engravings, hand-coloured magic lantern slides, vintage postcards, old luggage labels, keys from long-lost luxury hotels, golden ducats from the 18th century, Carnival ball invitations. With gilt-edged pages and antique Venetian lettering, it is not a travel or walking guide, but an atmospheric pilgrimage that pays homage to this ever-fascinating city. Serge Simonart’s engaging commentary on Venetian history and culture introduces each subject with affection and insight.

“Every day, a nervous traveller visiting the City of Doges for the first time asks the best way to get to their hotel. ‘The shortest or the most beautiful?’, I once heard the concierge at Hotel Des Bains ask. The tourist who opted for the most beautiful route is still wandering around the city. This is a unique photobook in which to wander and lose oneself.” – Serge Simonart

After the First World War, the town of Ypres was reduced to ruins. It was literally rebuilt from the ground up. The Menin Gate was also restored; the place where tens of thousands of soldiers left for the Front, never to return. Today the Menin Gate is inscribed with the names of 55,000 soldiers from across the British Empire. It is a monument for those who fell and were forever lost, those who could not be buried. Their names are ordered hierarchically by unit and rank, but many of these men were conscripted civilians, not professional soldiers, serving their country only for the duration of the war. The Menin Gate is recent, living history and still an extremely evocative and haunting place. Thousands of men, fathers, sons, brothers…a whole generation lost, but not forgotten. Every day at 20.00 hrs, a lone bugler at the Menin Gate sounds the Last Post and the fallen are remembered. Text in English, Dutch and French.

Upon setting foot in Dhaka, with its beautifully landscaped gardens adorning ancient mosques and monuments, it becomes clear that this is a city steeped in history. One of the oldest settlements in Bangladesh, it is today among the largest cities in the world, and rapid, often unplanned, urbanisation has vastly outpaced sustainability, threatening the historic buildings and communities that make up the city’s cultural soul. But, despite bursting at the seams, Dhaka’s six centuries of history are still visible if we look carefully in the shadows of the tall buildings, in the spaces between the speeding cars. Dhaka-based architect Kashef Chowdhury’s camera captures a record of the capital city of the local character that may soon be lost due to urban development. In Chowdhury’s photographs, a woman hangs sheets of polythene to dry and resell, a blind man sings mystic love songs. Other photographs reflect Dhaka’s state of social and cultural flux, like an image of weary night-shift workers returning from a wholesale market in the late morning or of the barely visible lights of a pick-up truck concealed to prevent theft. Chowdhury is one of South Asia’s most renowned architects, and Dhaka: Memories or Lost constitutes his deeply personal tribute to the city.

Before they became two of America’s most iconic pop artists, Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana were young aspiring creatives, living in New York. There, they met and befriended William John Kennedy, who would take some of the first photographs of these artists in their career. Many photographers worked with Andy Warhol, but few so early on in his career or in a such a uniquely collaborative fashion. After establishing a friendship with Robert Indiana and taking some of the first, important close-up images of him in his studio, Kennedy went on to work in a similarly creative way with Warhol.

These striking images of the young Warhol and Indiana were lost for nearly 50 years before being rediscovered. They were immediately recognised as important documents by the Warhol Museum and by Robert Indiana, and presented in the Before they were Famous exhibition, which travelled to London and New York. The story of the re-discovery of these photographs was made into an acclaimed documentary in 2010 – Full Circle: Before They Were Famous, Documentary on William John Kennedy.

William John Kennedy: The Lost Archive: Photographs of Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana will be the first of William John Kennedy’s books devoted solely to the time he spent with Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. The book features pictures of both artists as well as images of Taylor Mead, UltraViolet and other members of Warhol’s circle.

When we see a bird, do we really see it? It’s perfectly possible to go through life with an almost total disregard for birds. However, in Britain, there are more than a million members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. And thanks to Instagram – and other networking sites – there is also a growing number of bird photographers opening our eyes to unimagined treasures.

From the giants of our skies to the sweetest singing garden warbler, from Matthew Stadlen’s London street to the Indian jungle and taking in countries as far afield as Albania and Australia, this book is, in a way, also a story of his life. 

This book is a photographic odyssey through the lands of the First World War. For more than ten years the photographer traveled from the dust of the Namib deserts to the frozen heights of the Vosges to create a unique collection of images that document how time and nature have transformed these places of horror and killing into landscapes of great beauty and tranquillity… If anyone wants the reason for these photographs then they need look no further than the thoughts of a veteran leaving the shattered fields of the Somme who wrote: “No, they would not be lonely, I saw that bare country before me… the miles and miles of torn earth… the litter, the dead trees. But the country would come back to life, the grass would grow again, the wild flowers return. They would lie still and at peace below the singing larks, beside the serenely flowing rivers. They could not feel lonely, they would have one another. And… though we were going home and leaving them behind, we belonged to them, and they would be a part of us for ever.” (P. J. Campbell).

Text in English, French, and Spanish.

“I have never read a text which goes even half as far as this one in expressing the particular poignancy which lay at the heart of the impressionist movement. I say this as an art critic. As a novelist I would simply like to pay my tribute to the mastery of language, portraiture and storytelling which Figes has now at her command.” – John Berger
“A small masterpiece” – Susan Hill
“A luminous prose poem” – Joyce Carol Oates

This shimmering novel is an extraordinary portrait of a day in the life of an artist at work and at home. In prose as luminous as the colours Monet is using to portray his garden, Eva Figes guides us from dawn (‘midnight blueblack growing grey and misty’) through midday (‘the sun was high now… shrinking what little shadow remained, fading colours, the pink rambler roses on the fence by the railway track looked almost white’) to evening (‘the tide of shadows rising as the sunset glow faded outside.’) Monet’s wife, grieving for a lost daughter; a living daughter, fretting that she will not be able to marry the man she loves; their friend the abbé, eating and drinking with them; two children playing, closest to Monet in the freshness and certainty of their vision; all experiencing in different ways the richness of the light that Monet works unceasingly to pin down in his last, great paintings.

British Silver Boxes 1640 – 1840 catalogues the remarkable diversity and depth of the Lion Collection. Assembled with a passionate and discerning eye over several years, the collection has been distilled to include only the most interesting, rare and varied of antique British silver boxes.
The featured boxes were made predominantly to carry snuff and tobacco, and the book provides fascinating insight into the habits and customs that shaped their development. A handful of nutmeg graters, vinaigrettes and counter boxes of particular interest or rarity are also included. Maker’s marks are given when present, and many of the boxes’ engravings and details are explored, often providing clues about the objects’ former owners.
Arranged chronologically, enabling the reader to chart the development of British silver boxes over the course of two centuries, the boxes have been expertly photographed and researched. Details of provenance and other literary references help to complete the story of each piece in the collection.

Tribal Rugs: Treasures of the Black Tent is the definitive work on this subject. Dedicated to one of the most ancient crafts of the world, this book leads its reader through the history of the tribal rug. Featured content ranges from the oldest complete rug in the world (dated to the fifth century BC) to the weavings of the nomadic peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia, compiled from the 19th Century up to the present day. Each chapter introduces a different group of tribes, illustrating the rugs, carpets, kilims and utilitarian bags attributed to their weavers. This book is both a celebration of the woven legacy left by the tribes and a tribute to the skill and artistry of the women who created these magnificent artworks. It aims to provide an introduction for the novice, and entice the more knowledgeable to further study. This new 2017 edition features a marvellous array of new photography showcasing the finest work of each tribe, which will excite anyone with an eye for the tribal aesthetic.

This book grants unexpected, beautiful and provoking insights into the diversity of the collection of treasures held in Leipzig’s GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts. Focusing on the joy of contemplating the works, its hope is to awaken the desire for a personal encounter with them. The sequence of illustrations highlights exciting connections, diversions and views between the objects. Chronological records or even the stringent arrangement of the collections and materials play no role here, allowing surprisingly novel, latent qualities that are frequently otherwise hidden, to be revealed.

In this publication the works meet face to face and present a wonderful survey of the diverse forms of applied art and design.

Ever since at least the ninth century, the Chinese province of Zhejiang has been known for its fine celadon porcelain with wonderful shimmering surfaces in qing, the magnificent shades of green. Chinese celadon enjoyed its golden age from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, a time when it found its way into the Imperial collections and was exported worldwide. A decline of craftsmanship followed, and by the end of the nineteenth century celadon had almost completely disappeared. It was not until the 1950s that this style of pottery was successfully brought back to life. In the 1990s changes to the market economy forced porcelain artisans to reorient; to this day they have been able to successfully align themselves, similar to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage system, as ‘Living State Treasures’ with their unparalleled celadon glazes. Seladon im Augenmerk offers an exciting social anthropological insight into the cultural history, technology and sociality of celadon production in the porcelain metropolis of Longquan, PR, China, up to the present day.

Text in German.

From Sumatra to Java, from the Moluccas to Papua, across the whole of Indonesia, ancestors have played and still play a leading role. The cults and representations are evidence of an enormous diversity, power and poetry. This unique introduction to Indonesia starts from a cultural heritage perspective, but also poses topical questions about the place of traditions and rituals in contemporary society. Never before exhibited archaeological and ethnographic treasures are brought together with unique footage and interviews. In collaboration with the National Museum in Jakarta and numerous collections from all four corners of the archipelago.

The National Galleries of Scotland comprises three galleries: the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Gallery. Together these galleries house one of the finest collections of art to be found anywhere in the world, ranging from the thirteenth century to the present day. Many of the greatest names in Western art are represented by major works, from Titian, Rembrandt and Vermeer through to Picasso, Hockney and Warhol. This lavishly illustrated book contains one hundred of the National Galleries of Scotland s greatest and best-loved treasures. The selection made by the Director-General Sir John Leighton is intended to evoke the special character of the collection at the National Galleries with its distinctive interplay between Scottish and international art as well as the many conversations that it establishes between the art of the past and the present.

The largest maps in the world are to be found in the floor of the Citizens’ Hall, in the heart of the Royal Palace Amsterdam. The three circular mosaics, each measuring over six metres in diameter, together depict the known world and the night sky. They remain to this day an iconic and beloved part of the majestic palace, which was originally built in the mid-17th century to serve as Amsterdam’s town hall. At that time, the city was the world’s leading cartography centre. The prominent place of the floor maps relates directly to that primacy. This book tells the story of these unique maps and of the flourishing of cartography in Amsterdam in the 17th and 18th centuries.

For centuries, the stories of the world’s great jewellery collections have lain hidden within the archives of Christie’s, the celebrated auctioneers. From the tragic European queens, Mary, Queen of Scots and Marie Antoinette – both beheaded – to Hollywood royalty such as Elizabeth Taylor, the vaults sparkle with the most celebrated (and occasionally notorious) names of the last 250 years. Following on from the success of his books on Boucheron: The Secret Archives, Van Cleef & Arpels: Treasures and Legends and Mellerio: Jewellers to the Queens of Europe, author Vincent Meylan explores these remarkable jewellery archives, revealing the mysteries within for the first time.

Each sale had its intrigue, each its story to tell. The first auction of jewellery from the British royal family took place at Christie’s in 1773, after the death of the Princess of Wales, mother of George III. As the archives reveal, in the subsequent centuries, Christie’s has been party to the sale of jewellery by several further generations of British royals, from Lady Patricia Ramsay and the Countess of Southesk through to Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. And, in the wake of revolution and regicide further afield, the crown jewels of France, Russia, Bavaria, Serbia, Egypt, India and Spain were all sold at Christie’s. Aside from Elizabeth Taylor, the legendary movie star collections of Merle Oberon and Gloria Swanson are also revealed here, as well as the most famous pearls and diamonds in the world; each explored within the context of their owners’ remarkable lives.

Expertly curating the extensive archives, Vincent Meylan has drawn out the key details of each momentous sale. Original documents from the vaults are reproduced in the book, alongside hundreds of colour illustrations of the jewels and their owners.

Breathtaking photographs and details provide a tour through the rich sites of this legendary city. Tracing Munich’s history from the 12th century through the present, this sumptuous book illustrates the city’s treasures, from the collections of antiquities in the Alte Pinakothek, to incomparable baroque and rococo buildings, to the neon-lit festivities of the modern-day Oktoberfest.

This publication was designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Riace Bronzes. In it, Luigi Spina’s photographic research dialogues with the texts written by Carmelo Malacrino.

The photographer here develops a continued narrative, offering a direct comparison between the two sculptures, identified as A and B, exploring interpretations of the physicality of the two subjects as well as the three-dimensional quality of the bronze bodies, often concealed by the two-dimensional appearance of photographic images.

Carmelo Malacrino analyses these famous 5th century BC masterpieces from two points of view: as ancient works of art on the one hand, and considering their significance for contemporary culture on the other. He retraces the story of the Bronzes beginning with their discovery in August, 1972, exploring the circumstances of their unearthing, the restoration they underwent, the exhibitions in which they were shown, as well as the impact they have had on the public, both nationally and internationally. Equally relevant is the reinterpretation of these two statues, beginning with their contextualisation in the sphere of ancient Greek art, the related stylistic issues, and the reflection upon the practices and the knowledge possessed by Classical sculpture workshops.

This volume will be a pleasant surprise for those of you who love Classical sculpture, for archaeology enthusiasts, and for all those who aren’t satisfied with a quick glance when it comes to admiring a work of art.

The Hispanic Society of America in New York is the vision of Archer M. Huntington (1870–1955). From an early age, Huntington developed an abiding love both of Hispanic culture and of museums and libraries. He resolved to devote his considerable fortune to combining these two passions, and carried out his project so resourcefully that the collections he assembled remain exceptional for their depth and richness, displaying the culture of Spain and Latin America in the broadest sense.
Their scope ranges from the prehistoric era to the early 20th century, including antiquities, decorative arts, Islamic works, manuscripts and rare books as well as superb canvases by Old Masters such as El Greco, Velázquez and Goya. This handsome new publication features an introduction to Archer M. Huntington and the Hispanic Society by Patrick Lenaghan, the Society’s Head Curator of Prints, Photographs and Sculpture, and plates and catalogue entries on some of its greatest treasures by the Society’s curators.

Seattle’s first big boom was in 1897, when hundreds of thousands of ‘Stampeders’ with their hearts set on finding gold in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory stopped here to purchase supplies and gear up for prospecting trips up North. Since then, the city has fuelled the hopes, dreams, and imaginations of countless others. Some changed the city skyline, the world’s skies, the world of art and music, and even our coffee cups with their ideas and inventions. Others have left us with some unusual, offbeat, and truly odd spaces and places.
From a coin-operated attraction filled with some of the world’s largest shoes to the world’s greenest commercial building, urban old growth forests, a haunted staircase and museums dedicated to pinball machines, dialysis machines, and rubber chickens, 111 Places in Seattle That You Must Not Miss is filled with invitations and inspirations for locals and visitors alike to explore the Emerald City’s hidden treasures, overlooked gems, and charming curiosities. Some of the 111 places here you think you know but will discover from a new angle. Others will be surprises that will encourage you to keep exploring. 

For centuries, we have been fascinated with the iconic architecture, mystical religious beliefs, and once-thriving societies of the ancient Egyptians. Starting with a detailed chronology and ending with a comprehensive glossary of terms and bibliography, this meticulously researched resource explores the development of the ancient civilizations of the Egyptians. Organised chronologically, it traces Egyptian history in chapters starting with prehistoric times and including The Age of the Pyramids, The Classical Period, The Empire of the Pharaohs, The Late Period and The Age of Foreign Dominion. Hundreds of photographs of the major sites, three-dimensional reconstructions, and close-up shots of ancient artifacts, statues, and funerary goods take readers on a tour of the pyramids, temples, and other major monuments of ancient Egypt. The images reveal fascinating insights into the religious beliefs and rituals of the ancient Egyptians as well as demonstrate their unsurpassed artisanship and remarkable artistic output. The compelling text provides fascinating information on the everyday lives of the ancient Egyptians, interweaving these details with the thrilling tales of the major archaeological discoveries including those relating to Khufu, Tutankhamun, and Ramesses II.