Stories and photography intermingle on the pages of this gorgeous homage to ’70s and ’80s cinema and celebrity. Including rare and never-before-seen images, Through Her Lens is a wonderful collection of images and memoires that capture the spirit of the age. From unexpected late-night calls from Romy Schneider, to a stay at Paul Newman’s home in Connecticut; from working on set with Bernardo Bertolucci, Werner Herzog, Steven Spielberg and Sydney Pollack, to lounging poolside with Raquel Welch; Sereny reveals her favourite moments from working behind the lens. This is the first photographic retrospective of Sereny’s star-studded career, including nearly 100 never-before-seen images complemented by Eva’s own stories.

The photographs of these journeys form one of the most extensive records of any region taken in the 19th century. The range, depth and aesthetic quality of John Thomson’s photographic vision mark him out as one of the most important travel photographers.

Thomson arrived in Siam in 1865 and with the help of the British Consul in Bangkok, he was able to gain an audience with King Mongkut who granted him permission to take some formal portraits of the King, his royal family and chief ministers, as well as recording important ceremonies and travelling to Ayutthaya, Petchaburi and the surrounding countryside. Staying in Bangkok for several months he photographed many aspects of the city, river scenes, its surrounding countryside and people, before journeying to Cambodia and the amazing Angkor Wat ruins. After an arduous and dangerous journey, Thomson became the first photographer to document Angkor Wat before returning to London.

Between 1868-1872 Thomson turned his attention to China, making extensive trips to Guangdon, Fujian, Beijing and China’s north-east travelling down the Yangtze river and covering nearly 5,000 miles.

In China, Thomson’s photographic skills reached their zenith and his portraits of women are particularly remarkable.

His collection of over 600 glass negatives form a unique archive of images, which are today housed in the Wellcome Library, London.

“Glamour is what I sell,” Marlene Dietrich once said. “It’s my stock in trade.”

For decades this iconic actress and singer commanded global attention as a thrilling enigma whose allure would transcend time. Dietrich Through the Lens, a collaboration between ACC Art Books and Iconic Images, is a tribute to a mesmerising 20th-century talent whose influence is still felt today.

Featuring both world-famous and never-before-seen images, the book includes work by nine renowned photographers – Eve Arnold, Terry O’Neill, Norman Parkinson, Douglas Kirkland, Lawrence Fried, Eugene Robert Richee, Don English, William Walling and Lee Miller. Amongst the wide-ranging photographs, we find on-set moments, intimate shoots, one-off encounters and striking portraits of one of the most famous actresses of all time. Accompanied by the stories behind those prints, this book also includes an essay covering early images of Dietrich, curated by the former head of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, Terence Pepper OBE. The historical sweep and stylistic variety of these photographs creates a rich visual tableau, shedding light on Dietrich’s famously mysterious character, which combined the sultry cabaret singer, the fierce patriot, the lover, the mother, and the independent thinker. 

“I had access to what felt like a secret world. It was a subject that had been written about and dramatised but I don’t think any photographers had ever tackled before. There was a change going on. Someone described it as a ‘last hurrah’ of the upper classes.” – Dafydd Jones

Oxford University at the start of the eighties, rife with black ties and ballgowns. A change was on its way – best described by a newspaper as ‘the Return of the Bright Young Things’.

At this time, Oxford University was synonymous with the wealthy, the powerful and the privileged. Many of the young people in these pictures moved on to have careers in the establishment including Boris Johnson and David Cameron. In these photographs, however, their youth is undeniable: teenagers in full suits celebrate the rise of Thatcher in England and Reagan in America, in between punting on the river, chasing romance and partying through the night.

“It was Thatcher’s Britain, a period of celebration for those that had money” – Dafydd Jones

Oxford: The Last Hurrah shows a world that has been written about and dramatised, yet never photographed. Affectionate and critical, it pokes affectionate fun at its subjects while celebrating English eccentricity. From the architectural marvels of the colleges to misty mornings along the river at dawn, this is Oxford at its most beautiful – and the students of the 1980s at their most raw and honest.

There might be more books on Oxford than students who have attended the world’s greatest university, but there has never been one as dynamic and exciting as 111 Places in Oxford That You Shouldn’t Miss. Author Ed Glinert has sifted through all the college histories, records and lists of alumni; examined all the quads and cloisters of the great colleges; explored the glorious villages hewn from honey-dripping Cotswold stone; luxuriated in the glamorous coffee houses of High Street; imagined society’s earliest motor cars built at the Morris garages; been struck dumb by the never-ending peal of bells at Tom Tower; relaxed at Carfax, the very centre of the universe; and tippled at each of the legendary pubs between St Giles and Merton.

This is a volume which will send residents into paroxysms of laughter, remind students why they’re there, and warn prospective undergrads of the joys of living in one of the world’s most beautiful and cleverest cities.

In our modern day and age, when satellite imagery and GPS services like Google Maps, offer strikingly accurate images of the world, we can easily forget that for most of human history the world was an unknown tabula rasa on which cartographers, scientists, men of god, and kings imprinted their own dreams and ideals. This new extended edition, with the addition of about 15 maps, explores changing perceptions of the world map through the centuries and across multiple vastly different cultures. It juxtaposes 18th century Buddhist cartography in Japan with European mercantile maps of the same period. It travels with speculative cartographers and they argue in the scientific academies of Paris, London, and St. Petersburg over theories about what ‘must’ fill the great unknown. The book observes the emergence of the modern world view through the cartographic lens.

Learning Through Practice presents the explorations of the architects and urban designers at Rogers Partners. In its 20 years of practice designing in cities around the country, the firm has maintained an attitude of curiosity about the elements that make design. It is the story of how these designers acquire knowledge and expertise in what they haven’t done but are doing, by making buildings, spaces and things. Navigating from how small things can have massive effect and finding adaptability in authenticity, to opening space, revealing the unexpected, designing the invisible to delight, and engaging responsibly with inherited patterns, Rogers and Moutaud use the lens of twelve of the firm’s projects, analysed in twenty-two case studies that support those six themes. Essays and catalogued inspirations preface each chapter while a display of large images for each project discussed concludes the book. These projects include a park and pavilion on the National Mall and one in Minneapolis, a corporate campus in downtown Oklahoma City, the Ellipse behind the White House, an open space in the Tetons, the narrow streets in New York’s Financial District and the new ones along the Hudson River, a temporary art museum in Kowloon, a power plant in Syracuse, benches to aid New York’s resilience, and many more to come.

After the success of Ikebana Today (9789058562081) and Contemporary Ikebana (9789058562692), Ikebana Through all Seasons completes the trilogy dedicated to this ancient art form. Ikebana Through all Seasons goes back to the very heart of Ikebana and focusses on the diversity of the arrangements through the seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter give rise to a great variety of Ikebana expressions. The book illustrates the essence of Ikebana: its seasonal diversity, the growth process of the plants and the interaction between the arrangement and its natural surroundings. For the compilation of this book and the selection of works, an international team of Ikebana specialists, representing all major Ikebana schools, worked together to create an invaluable source of inspiration, not only for Ikebana aficionados, but got anyone with a passion for floral beauty.

Passing Through is a book concerned with nature, and our transient connection to it. Consequently, the human figure is seen only occasionally and rather vague, like something from the imagination or a memory. Nigel Grierson’s visual journey through the seasons, treads a fine line between reality and fiction, in his search for abstraction and spirituality:

“As adults, in search of sophistication, and jaded by the rigours of work, it’s easy to lose the natural sense of wonder, and to take for granted the things that fascinated us so much as children. For Rudolph Steiner, the most direct route to spirituality for the adult, involves finding the inner child via the occupation of playing. For me, spirituality lies in nature, in its myriad of forms and colours, and in the elements; earth’s chaotic beauty. On a personal level this book represents a journey; a return to childhood, exploring woodlands, playing in the dirt, finding little treasures and taking something home as a souvenir; the photograph.

I once heard it said that spirits are in fact traces or energies left behind when beings repeat the same actions over and over on the same pathways. Perhaps that is why we can sometimes hear voices in the woods, even after the people have long gone.”

Wineries across the globe now regularly engage leading architects to create extraordinary, original constructions that complement the winemaking and tasting experiences. In Europe, world-renowned studios have rejuvenated winery and cellar-door architecture for some of the biggest names in the wine industry. Among almost 1,000 cellar doors situated across the many wine regions in Australia, the 40 projects featured in this book each demonstrate a uniqueness in their approach to their design visions, and serve to inform and illustrate the exciting new direction in Australian winery architecture. This book delves into how each wine destination and wine-tasting experience has been enhanced, where winemakers, owners, architects and designers provide personal insights, perspectives and individual stories. Find out what inspired their designs and how they worked together to create and celebrate the collaboration of wine and design.

The thematic exhibition Walking Through Walls presents a contemporary panorama of the artistic responses made to the detrimental effects of human-made barriers, divisions and walls, showcasing works by Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira, alongside many others. Acknowledging the location of the Gropius Bau alongside the former Berlin Wall, the exhibition offers a global perspective on the physical and psychological repercussions of coexisting in divided societies. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the exhibition is a timely exploration of how barriers can articulate feelings of vulnerability and anxiety, and represent individual and collective identities. Artists: Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira and others.

With this series, Indra Laenens takes us on an “imaginary journey” through the First World War. Fascinated from a young age by war photography, he made many collages from self-portraits inspired by popular scenes by Bruegel and old black and white documentary photographs. The photos of the First World War led the artist to work in a realistic way, focusing on emotion and experience, but with a personal look at the time guided by his readings and the help of specialists. The principle of the duplication of “self” makes it possible to test the limits of the medium. The book is also intended as a strong call for peace, “no more war”… 

Text in English, French and Dutch.

From the mythical De Dion Bouton Type K1 to the Delahaye, from the Jeep Willys to the combi Volkswagen, from the Mercedes Benz to the Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500, from the Aston Martin DB7 to the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, and from the Austin Mini to the Range Rover.

A hundred years of innovation, inventiveness and triumphs are condensed in this book, which reads as easily as a novel, and is illustrated with a rich and rare iconography.

This wonderfully illustrated infographic book is filled with visual representations to captivate children and teach them the secrets of our history through the stories of ancient civilisations. Through intuitive infographic tables, children will learn all the curiosities and fun facts of each people with similarities and differences. From food and housing to daily life and great inventions: the pages of this book will lead children in discovery of the best story of all: the one of mankind! Ages: 8 plus

Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is known as one of the most beautiful cities in the world because of its perfect blend of nature, environment, architecture and people. With almost complete preservation of architecture from all historical periods, Prague is second to none among other World Heritage cities for its richness, integrity and diversity. The city is like a European open-air museum of architectural art, and one of the indispensable destinations for architects and architecture lovers to travel in Europe.

Based on years of field and literature research by the authors, this book showcases the achievements of Prague’s thousand-year urban architectural changes and the protection of complete heritage.

Through the interpretation of 43 historic buildings from different periods, this book explores Prague’s urban characteristics and changes. Though priceless, most of these built heritages are beyond the focus of Western architectural history research, and their status and significance need to be readdressed and reassessed.

Text in English and Chinese.

“I like Micky Hoogendijk’s work very much. It draws me in and talks to me.” – Terry O’Neill A recurring theme in the photographs of Micky Hoogendijk is that she sees herself through the eyes of others. This book tells her personal story in images, where her doll house, dreams, memories, reality and fiction, models and gender play an important role. It is, among other things, an ode to Hoogendijk’s mother, who gave her the camera she now uses just before she passed away. “I allow my model’s instinct and personality to melt together with my camera and drive my creative inspiration. I coax trust, contact and vulnerability from my subjects in order to produce an image from which the viewer can then create his own world.” – Micky Hoogendijk. instagram.com/mickyhoogendijk twitter.com/mickyhoogendijk facebook.com/mickyhoogendijk

The thematic exhibition Walking Through Walls presents a contemporary panorama of the artistic responses made to the detrimental effects of human-made barriers, divisions and walls, showcasing works by Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira, alongside many others. Acknowledging the location of the Gropius Bau alongside the former Berlin Wall, the exhibition offers a global perspective on the physical and psychological repercussions of coexisting in divided societies. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the exhibition is a timely exploration of how barriers can articulate feelings of vulnerability and anxiety, and represent individual and collective identities. Artists: Jose Dávila, Mona Hatoum, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Christian Odzuck, Anri Sala, Regina Silveira and others. Text in German.

These essays by Hahn and West will deal respectively with the formation of the collection and the figure of Bent Juel-Jensen, the seminal Aksumite coin collector in Oxford (as well as a medical doctor, academic, and traveller). They will also discuss recent problems that have emerged regarding the study of this coinage. In its entirety, this publication will make a fundamental contribution to this area of research and be an indispensable acquisition for many institutions and individuals.

Seven years after his first book, Bart Lens and his team Lens°Ass show how the direction they have chosen can lead to fascinating projects. The formulation of a clear and precise concept forms the basis of every single design. A concious choice of materials and elaborated detailing bring forth creations that express tranquility and serenity. The clear line-work emphasises the pure emotions that originate in the union of design and light. The great care that goes into the elaboration of the interior in all its facets is a constant preoccupation for Les°Ass. The book presents a wide variety of projects: new constructions, remodelling assignments, interior designs, even objects such as furniture and lamps. The introduction of a basic idea, a theme, forms the foundation of every project, no matter what its scale might be. This same vision is also the starting point for the recent large-scale architectural projects.

Text in English and Dutch.

The largest surviving portion of the first major collection of Classical antiquities in Britain – the sculptures and inscriptions collected in the early 17th century by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel for his London house and garden – is in the Antiquities Department of the Ashmolean Museum. This handbook tracks their eventful history before they came to rest in Oxford.

In December 2020, spirits were low. The first tentative visitors had only just made it back through the doors of the Ashmolean after months of isolation, only for another lockdown to come crashing into view. The galleries went dark for a second time in a year. There’s something uncanny about standing in the Museum when it’s empty of visitors. You can sense a million human stories all around you, clamouring to be told to… no-one. So, we had to change tack. If we couldn’t get people into the building, we could get the stories out. I started calling around curators, asking for their most uplifting tales in the collections. From bedrooms and garden sheds and kitchen tables, the Ashmolean team started recording themselves, sharing stories of joy and resilience to help keep us all going through the dark winter months of quarantine. The result was a podcast, Museum Secrets, which you can find on the Ashmolean’s website. This book contains the highlights. These are stories you won’t find on the labels. These are stories of the human experiences hidden in the Museum’s cases and frames. They are stories that cheered us up when we needed it most, and I hope will continue to do so. 

“…the panorama of a self-forgotten milieu.”  — Monopol
“Toffs behaving badly: 1980s high society in photos.” — The Times

“The pictorial equivalents of Evelyn Waugh’s sentences.” — The New Yorker

“Modest though he is, Dafydd’s photographs will endure for having perfectly captured a society on the brink of decline. Unmissable listening.” — Country & Townhouse podcast

“Wonderfully ironic, every point in the picture ignites and knows how to entertain very well.” — Lovely Books

“Dafydd catches those moments of genuine exhilaration, wealth and youth.” — The Hollywood Reporter

“I wondered if the party guests I’d photographed were just re-enacting a nostalgic fantasy, an imaginary version of England that already no longer existed.” – Dafydd Jones

Throughout the 1980s, award-winning photographer Dafydd Jones was granted access to some of England’s most exclusive upper-class events. Now, the author of Oxford: The Last Hurrah presents this irreverent and intimate portrait of birthday parties and charity balls, Eton picnics and private school celebrations.

With the crack of a hunting rifle and a spray of champagne, these photos give an almost cinematic account of high-society England at its most riotous and its most vulnerable. Against the backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, globalisation, the Falklands War, rising stocks and dwindling inherited fortunes, Jones reveals the inner lives of the established elite as they party long into the night-time of their fading world.

Praise for Oxford: The Last Hurrah

‘Sublime vintage photographs…’ – Hermione Eyre, The Telegraph

‘In The Last Hurrah…we see familiar faces from British high society poised on the brink of adulthood.’ – Eve Watling, Independent