“It reveals a unique look into the profession of photography.”—Gerd Ludwig Photography



Charles Moriarty, Stills department manager for Star Wars and photographer for Amy Winehouse, presents Photographers on the Art of Photography: a series of intimate conversations with some of the most highly regarded names in photography. From celebrity portraitists such as Terry O’Neill, to famed fashion photographers like Jerry Schatzberg and wildlife specialists Tim Flach and Sue Flood, this book offers a unique insight into all angles of the profession. Twenty celebrated photographers discuss how they got started, as well as their favored techniques, motivations, inspirations and greatest accomplishments. Discover each artist’s vision in their own words and reflect on what makes their talents unique.

Interviews from: Ed Caraeff (music); Terry O Neill (celebrity portraiture); Norman Seeff (music); Johnathan Daniel Pryce (fashion); Douglas Kirkland (Hollywood); Gerd Ludwig (National Geographic); Slava Mogutin (queer fine art); Jerry Schatzberg (fashion, film, music, portraiture); Tim Flach (wildlife); Richard Phibbs (fashion, commercial, portraiture); Eva Sereny (Hollywood, celebrity portraiture); Sue Flood (wildlife); Tom Stoddard (photojournalism).

Restrooms are inescapably important amenities, but something of a grey zone when it comes to design. In a massive effort to make them inconspicuous, public restrooms have been standardized, buried in underground bunkers, hidden behind walls and unmarked doors. At times, it seems our embarrassment with their very existence has led to an inability to provide sound sanitation. This book presents a selection of over forty very diverse public restroom designs, in which toilets enjoy special status as a vehicle for various artistic and cultural expressions, corporate values and the needs of different social groups.

Four experts from different backgrounds and countries have been invited to write on sensitive issues in public restroom design. More than 500 full-color photographs, plans and detailed descriptions illustrate the designs in detail and provide fascinating information to architects, interior designers, students, and so on.

As the first ever organized collection of Delhi’s maps, containing a chronology of magnificent ancient and modern hand-drawings as well as digital maps of the city, this book is as visually stunning as it is informative. Dr Guerrieri describes each map as an individual entity. She gives the maps unique and detailed focus, elaborating on their idiosyncrasies, aesthetic details, and rich historical relevance. The evolution of planning and architecture, which elegantly unfolds through the maps, mirrors the political, social, and historical progression of the capital. Maps of Delhi is both beautiful and stimulating, while also offering deeply insightful commentary that will be appreciated by the most discerning of scholars. It is an indisputable milestone for those wanting to research the capital. The book reveals, as A.G. Krishna Menon notes in the foreword, the charm of printed maps and the many pleasures and insights they offer when they are physically handled. It is a remarkable tribute to a remarkable city.

The culmination of five years’ travel with Indian pilgrims, Nostalgia for Eternity takes the reader into the depths of millennia-old spiritual and mystic traditions. It is a stunning visual poem about the timeless human search for transcendence and ultimate truth. Translated literally from the Greek, ‘nostalgia’ means homesickness; spiritually, it is the universal longing for existential peace and completeness – for a final resolution of all life’s conflicts and contradictions. ‘The truth is one,’ taught India’s ancient gurus, ‘the sages call it by many names.’ With breadth and insight unmatched by any other publication, Nostalgia for Eternity illustrates the worlds of pilgrims seeking that transcendent truth and illuminates the different paths that they travel. Through evocative, complex images we enter the secretive realm of Tantric worshippers of the Mother Goddess; and we walk with Sufi pilgrims across the deserts of Rajasthan. Meditative, richly layered photographs reveal the inner world of Bengali Bauls – mystics who worship the human being; and of Sidis – descendants of African saints whose religion merges African ancestor worship with Sufism. Richly annotated text reveals to the reader the deeper symbolic and mythological significance of the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and syncretic practices explored in the book. Contents: Foreword by Wendy Doniger; Introduction; The Pathless Path; Tantra; The Hero’s Journey; Followers of the Real; Fakirs; Khalsa; Crossings; Sadhus; Men of Heart; Metamorphoses; The Eternal Return; Coincidentia Oppositorum; Children of Saints; Mysterium Tremendum; Acknowledgements; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
• A unique treasure-trove for travelers, scholars and students of Indian religions, visually exciting and ethnographically insightful as well as poetic and reflective

• The author has succeeded admirably in conveying the beauty, the brilliance, and the mystery of the sadhus and the monks, the fakirs, and the holy men and women of India in one aesthetic firework

The culmination of five years’ travel with Indian pilgrims, Nostalgia for Eternity takes the reader into the depths of millennia-old spiritual and mystic traditions. It is a stunning visual poem about the timeless human search for transcendence and ultimate truth.

Translated literally from the Greek, ‘nostalgia’ means homesickness; spiritually, it is the universal longing for existential peace and completeness – for a final resolution of all life’s conflicts and contradictions. ‘The truth is one,’ taught India’s ancient gurus, ‘the sages call it by many names.’ With breadth and insight unmatched by any other publication, Nostalgia for Eternity illustrates the worlds of pilgrims seeking that transcendent truth and illuminates the different paths that they travel. Through evocative, complex images we enter the secretive realm of Tantric worshippers of the Mother Goddess; and we walk with Sufi pilgrims across the deserts of Rajasthan. Meditative, richly layered photographs reveal the inner world of Bengali Bauls – mystics who worship the human being; and of Sidis – descendants of African saints whose religion merges African ancestor worship with Sufism. Richly annotated text reveals to the reader the deeper symbolic and mythological significance of the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and syncretic practices explored in the book.

Contents: Foreword by Wendy Doniger; Introduction; The Pathless Path; Tantra; The Hero’s Journey; Followers of the Real; Fakirs; Khalsa; Crossings; Sadhus; Men of Heart; Metamorphoses; The Eternal Return; Coincidentia Oppositorum; Children of Saints; Mysterium Tremendum; Acknowledgements; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

The monograph on Maxime Old (1910-1991) chronologically retraces the career and work of this great decorator, through an in-depth study of his production notebooks, his archives and his participation in Salons. Maxime Old completed his training in the studio of Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann. Born at a pivotal time when the society will experience unprecedented upheavals, raised in the respect of a craftsmanship tradition of quality and know-how, Maxime Old represents a link between the great era of decorators and modern times. He embodies the survival of an interwar style which merges in the era of design. The Mobilier national and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed numerous orders for the French embassies in The Hague, Helsinki and Ottawa. In addition to a private clientele who remained loyal to him throughout his career, he was in charge of such important projects as the fitting out of the headquarters of the Société des forges et ateliers du Creusot, the Marhaba hotel in Casablanca, the Marignane airport terminal, or the liner France.

Text in French. 

Ragachitra: Deccani Ragamala Paintings presents exquisite miniature art from Bijapur, rendered in the Deccan style (19th century). A set of 44 unpublished ragamala paintings in possession of the National Museum, Delhi since 1989 has been displayed, retaining its original brilliance. The paintings stand apart in their vibrant visual appeal, depth and range of content and in the perfect symphony created between art and music. A lucid narrative documents the history of Indian classical music, the range of traditions of the raga theory and their miniature visual forms created in medieval India. It is a delightful and overwhelming aesthetic and intellectual experience for the reader.
Ragachitra: Deccani Ragamala Paintings presents exquisite miniature art from Bijapur, rendered in the Deccan style (19th century). A set of 44 unpublished ragamala paintings in possession of the National Museum, Delhi since 1989 has been displayed, retaining its original brilliance. The paintings stand apart in their vibrant visual appeal, depth and range of content and in the perfect symphony created between art and music. A lucid narrative documents the history of Indian classical music, the range of traditions of the raga theory and their miniature visual forms created in medieval India. It is a delightful and overwhelming aesthetic and intellectual experience for the reader.

A large bulk of Indian miniature paintings comes from Rajasthan. These miniatures are endowed with warm colors, primitive vigour, directness of expression and all that corresponds to the unique land of Rajasthan. They encompass its fun and festivities, the charming women and heroic men who fought with valour, loved with great zeal and warmth, celebrated each moment of life and died like great heroes. The major schools of miniatures of Rajasthan are Mewar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Jaipur, Alwar, Bundi, Kotah, Kishangarh and Nathdwara. The Rajasthani painter saw hardly any contradiction in combining romance with religion, or the mundane with the transcendental. Rajasthani Miniatures: The Magic of Strokes and Colours presents, through a detailed narrative and exquisite photographs, a glimpse into this art that has spanned several millenia. It traces the stylistic sources of Rajasthani miniatures, discovering elements that go beyond geography and time to reveal Rajasthani art’s generic growth. The miniatures have varying styles, belong to different schools and have been painted under many succeeding patrons with different tastes and preferences. This book reflects the uniqueness of Rajasthani art, where shades and strokes come together in what almost appears as a divine interplay to create magic. Contents: Preface; Introduction; Stylistic Sources; Perception of Nature; Medium, Style and Colour; Significant Themes; Schools of Rajasthani ; Paintings; Acknowledgements; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.
• A comprehensive book on the miniature paintings of Rajasthan, it highlights the distinctiveness of the painting style

• This volume contains an exquisite collection of paintings, painstakingly sourced from museums and private collectors

• The study covers the various regions and rulers of Rajasthan, their influence on this style and the significant themes of the miniature paintings

A large bulk of Indian miniature paintings comes from Rajasthan. These miniatures are endowed with warm colors, primitive vigor, directness of expression and all that corresponds to the unique land of Rajasthan. They encompass its fun and festivities, the charming women and heroic men who fought with valour, loved with great zeal and warmth, celebrated each moment of life and died like great heroes. The major schools of miniatures of Rajasthan are Mewar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Jaipur, Alwar, Bundi, Kotah, Kishangarh and Nathdwara.

The Rajasthani painter saw hardly any contradiction in combining romance with religion, or the mundane with the transcendental. Rajasthani Miniatures: The Magic of Strokes and Colors presents, through a detailed narrative and exquisite photographs, a glimpse into this art that has spanned several millennia. It traces the stylistic sources of Rajasthani miniatures, discovering elements that go beyond geography and time to reveal Rajasthani art’s generic growth. The miniatures have varying styles, belong to different schools and have been painted under many succeeding patrons with different tastes and preferences.

This book reflects the uniqueness of Rajasthani art, where shades and strokes come together in what almost appears as a divine interplay to create magic.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Stylistic Sources; Perception of Nature; Medium, Style and Color; Significant Themes; Schools of Rajasthani ; Paintings; Acknowledgements; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

Bending Light: The Moods of Color showcases photographer Eric Meola’s use of light and color throughout his career of editorial, advertising, and personal work. In one hundred iconic photographs, including recent experiments with color abstracts, and in dozens of stories and anecdotes, he examines his five-decade journey using color in photography, its symbolism, and how it affects our moods.

Meola’s work is informed by writers, painters, musicians, and the desire to create visual metaphors with his imagery — whether intimate portraits, unique landscapes, or color-saturated abstracts, his use of geometry within the frame of the photograph creates a tension that is instantly recognizable.

In awarding him its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2023, the Professional Photographers of America noted that “Eric Meola champions photography as a visual language capable of great emotion. He’s a photographer with a love affair for color, light, and artistic freedom.”

As Meola says, “Light and color are my subject as much as the subject itself. It’s the confluence of color with light — the movement within the color — that’s important to me. Although the end image is a still photograph, the story of its creation, the how and why it came to be, is part of every photographer’s psyche. Telling the stories behind the photographs is my way to revisit the creative process, both as a means of introspection as well as expression. Photography has always been a way for me to create what I feel, and feel as I create.”

Bending Light: The Moods of Color takes us on a visual journey around the world as Meola tells the story behind the creation of each image, giving insight into the thought process behind creating photographs. A photographer from Rangefinder magazine referred to him as one of “a handful of color photographers who are true innovators.”

It began with a new camera, a retirement present from the author’s wife. The Kameng area in Arunachal Pradesh, familiar to the author’s family for over six decades, and the Monpa people provided the perfect subjects to indulge his interest in photography. Over time, the idea of a book firmed up, and the photographs coalesced into what was envisioned as a sensitive, not necessarily comprehensive, look at the Monpa way of life and their land, Monyul. The intent was not to be ethnographic or academic, but to portray the rapidly changing world of the Monpas. A meditative travelog in images that transforms into a thoughtful exploration, the book captures the lives of the people and the region. The author’s personal stories, interspersed throughout the book, tell of the Monpas’ hospitality and warmth, providing insight into the everyday lives of a spiritual community.

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne is, with the Battle of Anghiari, Leonardo’s most ambitious project of his later years. This masterpiece has been under restoration and it will be exhibited in its newly found splendor at the Louvre. There, for the first time, it will be flanked by cartoons with the same subject (but with St. John the Baptist) held at the National Gallery, London, and by preparatory sketches and drawings, thus allowing the public to gain new insights in Leonardo’s method of work. The exhibition and the catalogue present 131 works by Leonardo and other contemporary artists, such as Raphael and Luini, placing the St. Anne in its proper art historical context. This great work has had an enduring influence on the development of art in the High Renaissance (Michelangelo, Solario, Andrea del Sarto, etc.), but its effects are seen on paintings much more recent, such as those of Odilon Redon and Max Ernst. Contents: The construction of form The cartoon of 1501 First studies for the St. Anne of the Louvre The cartoon for the the St. Anne of the Louvre New studies; the second version of the composition Last studies The drawings on the reverse Emulation in Florence The St. Anne in Milan: copies and variations The St. Anne in France The fascination for the St. Anne

Manuelle Gautrand Architecture is a Parisian-based architecture firm founded by Manuelle Gautrand in 1991, sited in the Bastille neighborhood of this exquisite European city. The firm’s key aim is to ‘re-enchant the city’ of Paris by evoking emotion, reinventing spaces, and garnering renewal and innovation – to be bold and definitive. At the core of Gautrand’s creativity lies the approach to each new project through the spirit of a blank canvas, with no à priori. Yet, each of the project that this firm produces expresses a specific relationship to the site: a desire to revive it and enchant; a deep commitment to working on programs entrusted to the firm; ensure efficiency, flexibility and surprise. Each project is a unique and symbolic encounter. Fuelled by shared ideas and prominent for its breadth of practice, this book documents the comprehensive collection of Manuelle Gautrand Architecture’s design solutions. It celebrates the intuitive and stunning designs, and the firm’s commitment to beauty, revival, boldness and precision.

In 1951, Joan Eardley visited the coastal fishing village of Catterline in north-east Scotland for the first time. Her visit sparked a fascination that would last the rest of her life. She made the village her home and found inspiration in the dramatic light and rapidly changing weather. The gentle landscapes and wild rolling seascapes she painted of Catterline in wind, snow, rain and sun are among her best-loved works. 

Unpublished archival material and interviews with many of those who knew her shed new light on Eardley’s life in Catterline. A vivid portrait is painted both of Eardley and of the village, showing the vital part Catterline played in her development as an artist.  

The story of her experiences on the wild Scottish coast is evocatively told and beautifully illustrated with some of her most remarkable drawings and paintings. 

Between 1978 and 1987, renowned British photographer Derek Ridgers captured London youth culture in all its glory. With skinheads, punks and new romantics, in clubs and on the street, his images have come to define a seminal decade of British subculture.

This completely reimagined edition of 78/87 London Youth showcases a fresh selection of those images from the depths of Ridgers’ exceptional archive – including several previously unseen – beautifully printed and bound in an oversized volume.

Each picture is a tribute to the trials and triumphs of youth, and a precious document of style and culture in 1980s England, from the height of punk to the birth of acid house. Several have been exhibited internationally in cities as far-ranging as Moscow, Adelaide and Beverly Hills, in the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Somerset House. Ridgers has also collaborated with a number of major fashion houses, including Saint Laurent and Gucci, and his images continue to inspire photographers, artists and fashion designers around the world.

‘As time passes, this kind of observational photography attains a new importance’ – Sean O’Hagan, The Observer

‘Ridgers’ portraits of young boys and girls are weighted with a raw poetry and beauty’ – Cory Reynolds, artbook.com

Devoted to building sites, JA110 explores both the location and process by which architectural ideas assume physical forms. The issue examines the progression of trial and error, investigation, and decision making within on-site development. Although the inner workings of a building disappear once it is completed, images during construction can reveal the thought process of the architects. This issue includes site photos and comments from 17 recent buildings as well as projects completed during the post war building boom between 1950 and 1980. Classic structures such as the Yoyogi National Gymnasium by Kenzo Tange are featured alongside new works such as the Collection Pinault Paris by Tadao Ando. Each project is depicted in an incomplete state and illustrates how architects respond to the construction process. Text in English and Japanese.
Devoted to building sites, JA110 explores both the location and process by which architectural ideas assume physical forms. The issue examines the progression of trial and error, investigation, and decision making within on-site development.

Although the inner workings of a building disappear once it is completed, images during construction can reveal the thought process of the architects. This issue includes site photos and comments from 17 recent buildings as well as projects completed during the post war building boom between 1950 and 1980.

Classic structures such as the Yoyogi National Gymnasium by Kenzo Tange are featured alongside new works such as the Collection Pinault Paris by Tadao Ando. Each project is depicted in an incomplete state and illustrates how architects respond to the construction process.

Text in English and Japanese.

The French city of Limoges was world famous for the production of champlevé enamels during the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance a revival of Limoges enamels took place, but the technique employed was that of painted enamel. Triptychs with a sacred subject, conceived as a painting but shining like jewelry and built with durable materials, became popular. The three works held at the Bargello National Museum in Florence are attributable to Nardon Pénicaud (1470–1542), a primary artist with an active workshop. The three enamel paintings came from the famous collection of Louis Carrand, a Lyon antiquarian, who donated them to the Bargello in the 19th century. Their story is told in Ilaria Ciseri’s essay. Paola Venturelli analyzes the historical and artistic aspects of the works and places them in the context of contemporary enamel production. The final contributions from the Opificio delle Pietre Dure address the conservation of the three delicate enamels and analyzes materials and pigments.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88), English painter of portraits, landscapes and lyrical conversation pieces, is both one of the greatest and one of the most individual geniuses in British art. Born a merchant’s son in the prosperous market town of Sudbury, Suffolk, Gainsborough’s early signs of artistic brilliance were enabled by a family legacy.

Gainsborough’s birthplace and childhood home, a handsome Georgian townhouse, is indisputably a national asset. Saved from possible destruction in 1958 by a widely supported national campaign, it was opened to the public in 1961.

Inside: Gainsborough’s House explores and illuminates the stories of both artist and house, outlining Gainsborough’s meteoric rise from weaver’s son to high society artist and highlighting his enormous influence on his contemporaries and succeeding generations of artists. The story of the house is more erratic; a private residence until the 1920s, it was then used variously as a shop, a café and a hotel accommodating US airmen during World War II. Its subsequent reimagining as a museum, followed by an even more ambitious transformation completed in 2022, creating state-of-the-art exhibition spaces, combine to give an intriguing insight into evolving museum practice and the institutional challenges facing today’s museums. 

The Caravane Earth Foundation presents The Majlis book, a rich and colourful documentation of the creation of the “Majlis” exhibition, a multi-layered nomadic project at the 17th annual Biennale di Venezia. The book tracks the multifaceted nature of the exhibition itself, which comprised an architectural object, an exhibition, and a garden, all three hosted by the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy. Additionally, the book tells the broader story of Caravane Earth, chronicling research conducted by the foundation and the key ideas that form its philosophy and agenda. The Majlis highlights the main elements of the project in Venice while giving an introduction to key members of Caravane’s community of experts.  

With a narrative structure broken into four sections – Exhibition, Architecture, Craft, and Earth – The Majlis book features interviews with important figures and institutions from these fields, stunning visual documentation of the creation process and featured artefacts, and critical writings on permaculture, architecture, and craft. Featuring discussions with the Smithsonian Foundation, landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU), director and curators of the Sheikh Faisal Museum, and many more, the collection provides a deep look and education into the many causes championed by Caravane Earth.

This beautifully illustrated monograph chronicles the architecture of David C. Hovey, FAIA, and his influence on the discipline, as well as the story of his life and career. David Hovey founded Optima in 1978, with the goal of reinventing multifamily housing by combining development and design in a single company. Over the forty-plus years the company has existed, Hovey has built nearly 6,000 residential units. In the process, he has elevated the design of a building type that has, with a few exceptions, been left to developers to produce indifferent work. He challenges the market with something better, something worthy of enfolding families and individuals. Hovey is a modernist, steadfast in his belief in the future, in technology, in material honesty, in structural expression, and in architecture’s ability to improve the lives of people. His work has captured attention, winning critical acclaim as well as many national and regional awards for architecture. The dozen representative projects in this book range from single-family homes to towers and from the company’s early years to the present. Also showcased is Hovey’s work as an abstract sculptor, whose monumental work is installed at some of the multifamily projects examined here. A serious art collector of mostly twentieth-century art, Hovey’s acquisitions are detailed in an illustrated catalog at the end of the book.

A photographic narrative that crosses the world’s main cities to witness the shared intentions and feelings that bind the single Pride events in one big wave that envelops and crosses all countries, exalting the uniqueness and variegated compositions of identities and modes. A snapshot of global LGBTQIA+ pride, with a focus on Pride parades marking momentous anniversaries, including New York Pride in 2019, 50 years after the events of Stonewall, and London Pride in 2020, 50 years after the birth of the Gay Liberation Front.

The book also bears witness to the spread of the Wave in the countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia, which since the end of the 1990s, with particular regard to the last decade, has been gaining spaces for listening and rights.

The Pride project recounts, celebrates and enhances LGBTQIA+ pride around the world, through the faces and claims of the protagonists of a struggle that involves us all: that for a fair and inclusive world, in which no person should feel excluded or discriminated against for their way of being, living and loving.

Text in English and Italian.

Ganesh Pyne (1937–2013), one of the foremost artists of post-Independence India, is no stranger to connoisseurs of art in India. His haunting images of intimations of mortality, the crepuscular light in his canvases, and his brilliant use of his own version of tempera are widely admired. But he was a shy, reclusive man, who has left little trace of himself in public memory. Memorialising Ganesh Pyne fills this gap by bringing to life the sensitive artist through a remarkable series of photographs shot by artist Veena Bhargava across two decades.

The portfolio of portrait and group photographs that capture glimpses of the artist at work and leisure also provide poignant insights into a very private person. This visual record is anchored by two essays: the first, by Bhargava, recounts her experience of taking these perceptive images; the second, by Ella Datta, analyzes the aesthetic value of these rarely seen portraits as well as Bharagava’s artistic experiment on a suite of photo collages featuring Pyne with elements from his works. A detailed timeline of politics and culture during Pyne’s life adds archival value to the book. The volume will be invaluable for Pyne enthusiasts and research scholars alike.

Published in association with Akar Prakar Gallery, Kolkata.

Collage is one of the most popular and pervasive of all art-forms, yet this is the first historical survey book ever published on the subject. Featuring over 200 works, ranging from the 1500s to the present day, it offers an entirely new approach. Hitherto, collage has been presented as a twentieth-century phenomenon, linked in particular to Pablo Picasso and Cubism in the years just before the First World War. In Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage, we trace its origins back to books and prints of the 1500s, through to the boom in popularity of scrapbooks and do-it-yourself collage during the Victorian period, and then through Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. Collage became the technique of choice in the 1960s and 1970s for anti-establishment protest, and in the present day is used by millions of us through digital devices. The definition of collage employed here is a broad one, encompassing cut-and-pasted paper, photography, patchwork, film and digital technology and ranging from work by professionals to unknown makers, amateurs and children.

Contents:

Collage Over the Centuries, an introductory essay by Patrick Elliott; Collage Before Modernism by Freya Gowrley; On Edge: Exploring Collage Tactics and Terminology by Yuval Etgar; catalogue of exhibition works; a Chronology of Collage.

“Wide-ranging and extremely well illustrated, this authoritative yet accessible book is a must for anyone interested in the Antarctic.” – Sir Ranulph Fiennes. “Richly illustrated and expertly written, this book reveals our least known continent in all its power and glory.” – Michael Palin. The Antarctic is the last continent: the last to be discovered, the last great wilderness and the last to be mapped – making it arguably the least known place on Earth. The continent’s contemporary significance lies in its importance as a sensitive part of the global environmental system, influencing sea levels and ocean-current circulation in a warming world – but the history of the continent, be that geologic, or in relation to human ecology, is just as vast and fascinating. The Continent of Antarctica is a richly illustrated account of the Antarctic continent, covering the physical environment, biology and history, as well as examining the future and environmental implications for the rest of the planet. The book draws on the authors’ own experiences during many seasons of fieldwork on the continent and surrounding oceans. They use photographs and images from their own extensive and continent-wide collections and from the world-renowned archives of the Scott Polar Research Institute. Almost entirely wild and unspoiled this cold and remote land is clearly an inspiration to these authors and all who have visited it. The Antarctic continent is crucial for understanding and monitoring climate change and in this comprehensive tome one can see a considered and learned argument for preserving the world’s last true wilderness.