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.

Raqib Shaw is one of the most extraordinary and sought-after artists working in the world today. Born in Calcutta in 1974 and raised in Kashmir, he came to London to study in 1998 and has lived there ever since. Inspired by a broad range of influences, including the old masters, Indian miniatures, Persian carpets and the Pre-Raphaelites, his paintings are infused with memories and longing for his homeland in Kashmir. His technique constitutes a completely unique kind of enamel painting. Spending months on preparatory drawings, tracings and photographic studies, he then transfers the composition onto prepared wooden panels, establishing an intricate design with acrylic liner, which leaves a slightly raised line. He adds the enamel paint using needle-fine syringes and a porcupine quill, with which he manoeuvres the paint. The finished works are intricate, magical and breathtaking in their color and complexity. This book accompanies an exhibition of eight paintings by Raqib Shaw at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, alongside two paintings which have long obsessed him and have influenced specific works: Sir Joseph Noel Paton’s The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania, 1849 (National Gallery of Scotland) and Lucas Cranach’s An Allegory of Melancholy, 1528 (private collection). The book includes the first full-length biographical study of the artist.

“The most important portraits to me are the ones of people who have enriched my own thinking or awareness. Areas of philosophy, religion, psychological perspectives, poetry, music, art history, women’s roles and the inner life are important issues for me – and all have been nurtured by these people whom I have met through portraiture.” – Victoria Crowe. Victoria Crowe is one of Britain’s most vital and original figurative painters. Here, Duncan Macmillan explores the exceptional skill of this remarkable artist’s portraits and Victoria Crowe, herself, contributes many insightful accounts of her own thoughts and perceptions as each work developed. This book also tells Crowe’s own story – both professional and personal – through her art. She has developed an approach to portraiture that seeks to do more than record the outward appearance of a person: she aims to represent something of the inner life. With 80 illustrations, the portraits include the artist’s family, composer Ronald Stevenson, pioneer medical scientist Dame Janet Vaughan, poet Kathleen Raine, actor Graham Crowden, psychiatrist Professor Sir Peter Higgs and many others.

Angry, outrageous, defiant, and courageous are some of the words that describe the American Abstract Expressionist artist Lee Krasner (1908-1984) – the subject of this very personal memoir inspired by Ruth Appelhof’s 1974 summer with her in East Hampton, Long Island. Best remembered by many as Jackson Pollock’s widow, she is regarded more by ‘art-world insiders’ as the producer of a major body of work that influenced the evolution of contemporary art – in particular, that made by women in the 20th and 21st centuries. As a scholar and a friend, Appelhof re-examines Krasner’s contributions in light of the intellectual and emotional experiences that she so candidly shared with her in weeks of interviews. In addition,  Appelhof explores Lee Krasner’s relationships with others – friends, art-world luminaries, artists, and other ‘summer sitters’ allowed into her private sanctuary – through interviews. Those recollections will offer a window into the artist’s intense and idiosyncratic personal life as well as into her contributions through the groundbreaking work she produced over the course of more than six decades.

Contents: Prefaces by Helen Harrison, Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, and Barbara Rose, Art Historian and Critic; Chapter 1: Driving Ms. Krasner; Chapter 2: The Tapes: Fact or Fiction; Chapter 3: Cards on the Table; Chapter 4: Swing of the Pendulum; Chapter 5: Summer Sitters; Chapter 6: In Spite of Herself.

Published to accompany the Lee Krasner Retrospective at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, fromThursday 30 May-Sunday 1 September 2019, and at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, from Thursday 10 October 2019-Sunday 12 January 2020, and at Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, from Friday 7 February-Sunday 10 May 2020, and at the Guggenheim Bilbao, from Friday 29 May-Sunday 6 September 2020.

In this study Rab Hatfield provides a thorough, no-nonsense analysis of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Gioconda. The book begins with a consideration of the generally known sources and documents and a careful look at the painting as we know it now. There follow discussions of rarely examined laboratory photographs and of a recently discovered annotation by Ser Agostino Vespucci in a book he owned of letters by Cicero, from which we learn that Leonardo left a portrait of “Lisa del Giocondo” unfinished no later than October 1503. The book concludes with a hitherto unknown letter written in 1515 by Filippo Strozzi to Lorenzo de’ Medici, Captain General of the Florentine Armies and soon to become Duke of Urbino, describing some supposed advances these two men made to Mon(n)a Lisa. The laboratory photographs and newly discovered sources make it clear that the Mona Lisa has probably been reworked twice, that it in fact depicts Mon(n)a Lisa del Giocondo, and that it would be better if we spoke of it as La Gioconda rather than the Mona Lisa.
Contents: Part One: Setting the Stage – I. Vasari and Some Other Well Known Sources and Documents. II. The Mona Lisa As We See It Now. Part Two: The Three Mona Lisas. III. The Changes: The x-ray photographs and the first Mona Lisa. IV. The Annotation of Ser Agostino Vespucci. V. Filippo Strozzi’s letter.

A painter of figures, landscapes, architectural subjects, and still lifes, David Ligare (born 1945), expands the realist tradition through the very unreality of his art. Since the late 1970s, he has used his considerable technical skills and historical knowledge to create perfectly ordered Classical paintings influenced and informed by the ancient Greeks. At a time when few artists shared these interests or concerns, Ligare sought to make the ideas of antiquity relevant in today’s world, hoping to spark a renewed desire for knowledge and offering paradigms of moral choice. Setting subjects within the specifics of California – and the Monterey Peninsula region in particular – he bathes them in the pure and wondrous light of the coast. This publication, David Ligare: California Classicist, released in conjunction with the exhibition organized by the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, evinces Ligare s admiration for the ancients and his love of California through revelatory essays, a chronology, and more than 200 reproductions and photographs. Contents: Foreword: Donald Kuspit Singular Perfection: David Ligare’s Figuration Acknowledgments: Scott A. Shields and Lial A. Jones Introduction: Scott A. Shields David Ligare and Recurrent Classicism Chapter 1: Scott A. Shields – California Classicist Chapter 2: David Stuart Rodes – The Literate Picture Chapter 3: Patricia Junker – Vie Coye/Life Stilled Chronology: Scott A. Shields Selected Bibliography Index

The first monograph on New York-based interior designer David Scott’s work, Outside the Box: An Interior Designer’s Innovative Approach to Creating Chic and Comfortable Rooms is a delightful behind-the-scenes look into 11 of his most stunning projects. Scott’s interiors seamlessly combine his adoration for the elegance of antiques with his admiration for the functionality of modernity, creating environments that are at once visually stimulating and inherently calming. Each space is custom designed to emphasize and reflect the personal style and character of his clients. Outside the Box takes a look at the elements of inspiration that have been the guiding force for Scott’s innovative and striking spaces, where comfort and chic harmoniously coexist.

As Lucien Pellat-Finet and his eponymous fashion label celebrate 25 years, he looks back on his life and career and how he became the King of Cashmere. A proponent of streetwear chic, he is reputed for his signature use of symbols such as the hemp leaf, peace sign, iconic cartoon characters, and skulls on the most exquisite and luxurious sweaters. Super F**king Lucky traces the moments and places that have left a lasting effect on his style and aesthetic. From his childhood on France’s legendary Cote D’Azur, to getting stoned on Ipanema Beach in 1968, to being discovered as a model by the iconic designer Pierre Cardin; to styling Thierry Mugler’s fashion shows in the 1970s to witnessing the skateboard and biker cultures of California – these experiences come through in his effortlessly elegant and collectible clothes made for men, women, and children. Super F**king Lucky is a bold and thrilling look, as well as an intimate portrait, of an original, irreverent, and out-of-the-mainstream designer.

Influential American celebrity photographer, director and creative director Matthew Rolston turns his eye for portraiture to a new cast of characters with the launch of Talking Heads, The Vent Haven Portraits. Using techniques he has honed over decades of celebrity portraiture, and marking his first foray into the world of fine arts, Rolston has captured the inherent humanity of a rarely-seen collection of unique entertainment figures: ventriloquist dummies. Unearthed from the intimate and obscure Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, Rolston used a rigorously formal photographic approach to bring out the power in the faces of these figures through a series of 100 portraits, or “headshots”. Rolston painstakingly selected the faces he was most drawn to and, in particular, those that conveyed a sense of character through pronounced aging, exaggerated features, and ornately painted faces, drawing the eye directly to the sometimes disturbingly human quality of each dummy. Breathing new life into these inanimate figures, Rolston’s photographs channel a sustained and energetic presence that is at once commanding, totemic, and touchingly familiar.

“Rosalind Russell has written an extraordinarily beautiful, comprehensive and compelling story of Burma in a remarkably human way – essential reading for anyone interested in understanding Burma today.” Benedict Rogers, author of Burma: A Nation At the Crossroads.

“Burma’s Spring is like nothing else written about Burma – compelling, charming and unique. No other book I know of has got under the skin of such a wide variety of Burmese, bringing them to life on the page.” Peter Popham, author of The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma’s Spring documents the struggles of ordinary people made extraordinary by circumstance. Rosalind Russell, a British journalist who came to live in Burma with her family, witnessed a time of unprecedented change in a secretive country that had been locked under military dictatorship for half a century. Through her remarkable encounters as an undercover reporter, she unearthed the real-life stories of a rich array of characters and followed their fortunes over a tumultuous era of uprising, disaster and political reform. From the world-famous democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to the broken-hearted domestic worker Mu Mu, a Buddhist monk to a punk, a palm reader to a girl band, these are stories of tragedy, resilience and hope-woven together in a vivid portrait of a land for so long hidden from view.

Delhi: Red Fort to Raisina traces the journey of Shahjahan’s new capital of the Mughal Empire, Shahjahanabad built on the banks of river Yamuna in 1638 to New Delhi the new capital of British-ruled India in 1911. From Red Fort to Jama Masjid and from Jahanara Bagh to Hayat Bakhsh Bagh, every palace, mosque, bazaar, and bagh in the Mughal city was planned to perfection. The new city too, designed in the early twentieth century, was a blend of Mughal architecture and modern aesthetics. This book celebrates the centenary with four essays on different aspects of Delhi’s history by JP Losty, Salman Khurshid, Ratish Nanda, and Malvika Singh. A lively portrait of the city and its culture and people, the book documents the transition of the old-world charm of Shahjahanabad to a modern city with a new seat of power built on the Raisina Hill. Contents: Introduction – JP Losty; Delineating Delhi: Images of the Mughal Capital – JP Losty; Life in Shahjahanabad – Salman Khurshid; Architecture of Shahjahanabad – Ratish Nanda; Map of Shahjahanabad, 1846-47; Making of New Delhi – Malvika Singh; Bibliography; Notes; Index. Pramod Kapoor is a collector of historical records and photographs, and a publisher by profession. The photographs for this book were lovingly collected by him over a long period of time from all over the world. Often, the best photographs were found in old trunks lying forgotten in dusty attics or damp basements of the palaces. A keen photographer, he has also compiled and researched photographs for pioneering books like India: Then and Now, Witness to Life and Freedom: Margaret-Bourke White in India, New Delhi: Making of a Capital, and the most recent Delhi: Red Fort to Raisina.

Life in the royal courts of India revolved around entertaining. The palace kitchens were allotted massive budgets to ensure the highest quality of cuisine. Each state had its unique style of entertaining and food traditions – carrying forward these culinary practices are the modern day Indian royals. While the scale of the banquets may have shrunk the passion for food and the age-old family recipes remain. Dining with the Maharajas: Thousand Years of Culinary Tradition brings the invaluable legacy of Indian royals as ten families open up their palaces and homes to allow you a glimpse into their charmed lives that straddle tradition and modernity.

Glorious Hotels of India is a luxury illustrated book featuring a hand-picked collection of the subcontinent’s most spectacular places to stay. It gives a grand yet intimate tour of 40 properties, with half of the properties being recent openings. The majority have never been featured before in a publication of this kind. Celebrating India’s splendid heritage while showcasing exciting contemporary design, each subject is captured like a jewel in a box with panoramic detail and portrait shots. Properties include historic palaces, destination spas, seductive beach resorts and romantic houseboats. With insightful and meticulously researched material, Glorious Hotels of India is a fresh, dynamic and informed book that captures the zeitgeist of various parts of India and avoids the clichéd.

Pondicherry is an extended photo essay, which has as its main focus, the photographer’s perception and visual interpretation of the city of Pondicherry. The photographer journeys into the metaphorical and anthropological folds of the city, searching for a sense of “place” – his interpretation of a specific environment and how it’s inhabited. The photographer goes beyond the walls and penetrates into the private sphere, into homes, spaces and routines, which exemplify a certain culture or cultures, always searching for visual messages that compose the tapestry of perception, both of the past and of the present. The perception of “place” is also offered in words. The photographer has sought out the participation of several noted French and Indian writers, who have offered very personal and insightful views of Pondicherry – words and images working in a complimentary way for an artistic perception of Pondicherry.

The arrival of photography in India in 1840 began a rivalry between its practitioners and the painters of traditional miniatures and portraits. The novelty of this astonishing new medium soon attracted many court painters and patrons who themselves turned photographers, including the Maharajas of Jaipur, Tripura and Chamba. These early photographs captured Indian rulers and their families in a variety of poses, which nevertheless reflected the formality and constraints of court life. This fascinating collection features a wide range of photographs – based on previously unpublished archives – that explores early Indian photography, and more specifically portraiture throughout the subcontinent. This remarkable and beautifully presented historical work sheds new light on the relationship between photographers, painters and their patrons in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With a foreword by H.R.H.Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur, Royal Indian Portraits: Posing for Posterity will be a valuable resource both for connoisseurs of early photography and for those interested in the history of India.

This volume represents an important tool for getting to know every aspect of Leonardo da Vinci’s work: his pictorial technique, his scientific and technological investigation, his study on anatomy, his Codices, and every suggestion produced by his genius. All works and paintings are accompanied by descriptive and technical sheets, and ample space has been given to images and details, to the updated report on his most controversial works, to those of recent critical acceptance, and to the masterpieces that have animated the international debate such as The Encarnate Angel, the Salvator Mundi, and La Bella Principessa (Portrait of Bianca Sforza). The narrative captions reveal the most curious aspects of the history of each painting. Thanks to the direct contribution of collectors and museums the photographic reproductions of paintings and works reflect the last restorations.

Text in English and French.

In this book, photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh introduces us to the marvellous worlds of matador Jean-Baptiste Jalabert (France) and prima ballerina Francesca Docli (Italy). The public’s favourite ‘Juan Bautista’, born in Arles, France and ballet dancer Francesca Dolci, a flamboyant member of the Les Ballets de Monte Carlo are the representatives par excellence of a world in which sports and art seamlessly melt together. Follow both top athletes/performers during their daily preparations, become a privileged witness to the particular rituals preceding each performance and be a spectator of a dazzling sham fight at the Mediterranean! Text in English, French and Dutch.

Trendsetter, globetrotter, entrepreneur, influencer, aesthete… Tomas De Bruyne is without a doubt one of today’s most talented floral designers. This is the book that colleagues, students and fans have eagerly been anticipating. Techniques for Floral Beauty gives us a kaleidoscopic view of the designer’s internal kitchen. It shows Tomas from his most personal side and offers us a sneak peek in what motivates, intrigues and inspires him, what his passions in life are and how he makes choices and keeps reinventing himself. Techniques for Floral Beauty is a stunning portrait and colorful coffee table book chockfull of sublime beauty, but is at the same time a handbook with step by step tutorials for 50 stylish pieces. Three concise steps and clear how-to pictures offer the reader or student the guidance they need to achieve floral beauty. No less than 150 different floral techniques are discussed. Golden tips from the master himself and insider tricks give the book the allure of a personal masterclass. This is an absolute must-have for every flower lover.

Edward van Vliet is an international design company specializing in conceptual interior and product design for the corporate sector. The company has a strong focus on hospitality, urban residential, and office sectors. With proven expertise in design and consumer behavior, Edward van Vliet throws down the gauntlet to the status quo, bringing a fresh mindset to the process of destination design. Specializing in designing premium tailored experiences and products for leading brands, Edward van Vliet delivers unique concepts worldwide which are consistent with the location, culture, and experience desired.

Foreword in English, Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese.

“An ever-rising star in the world of photography, Pieter Henket is noted for his accomplished portrait pieces and for his work with celebrities from Anjelica Huston to Sir Ben Kingsley. Having gained worldwide renown for shooting the artwork for Lady Gaga s debut album The Fame, he has continued to break ground with a varied oeuvre that includes landscapes, fashion photography and narrative work documenting Carnaval de Rio. . .In his first book, Stars to the Sun, we chart his diverse disciplines over 172 pages of visionary imagery. As the party comes to town in San Luis, Argentina, Henket takes us on a pictorial journey of the carnival, from the mountainous landscapes of the region to the characters that flood this traditional locale wrapped in feathers and glitter. Both documentary-in his unique cinematic style and artistic endeavour, it evidences Henkets ability to find inspiration in everything from the curve of the rock to the sways of a dancer.” MOJEH Magazine
Every year, there is a huge party in San Luis, Argentina. Thousands of Brazilians are invited to the city to organize a show for the ‘Carnaval de Rio’. To photograph it, Pieter Henket was contacted, one of the ‘hottest’ photographers of the moment. The beautiful photography from Pieter Henket allows the reader to join the party and shows the people behind the show. Combined with the impressive Argentinean landscapes, this book will be a unique document. Text in English, Spanish and Dutch.

Rembrandt van Rijn married Saskia van Uylenburgh, the love of his life, in Friesland (the Netherlands) in 1634. The famous painter came to know her when she visited her cousin in Amsterdam, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, Rembrandt’s art dealer. This book, the catalogue for a traveling exhibition, sketches a picture of marriage in the time of Rembrandt and Saskia. Their story is the tale of a high society marriage in seventeenth century Holland, from courtships to weddings to daily married life and funerals. The show follows Rembrandt and Saskia from their meeting to her untimely early death after 10 years of marriage. Paintings, drawings, and etchings by Rembrandt, as well as letters and poetry, are featured alongside wedding portraits, objects, and jewelry from the period, offering insight into what weddings and married life meant in the Golden Age of 17th century Holland.

Rembrandt seems to have been an artist who took little notice of other people. Yet he had a family, friends and acquaintances who helped him, bought his art, lent him money, challenged him artistically and inspired him. He would never have become such a great artist without his social network. This book explores that network: Rembrandt’s early friends, family members (‘blood friends’), artist friends, the connoisseurs who supported him and his friends in times of need. As a friend, Rembrandt went his own way. He made little effort to get on with the elite, and preferred to surround himself with people who understood art. He had strong ties with them, as he did with the members of his family. He portrayed them in remarkably informal paintings and prints, works that bring Rembrandt’s private world to life.