Tag Archives: Photography Books

Adventure, Books, Photography, Travel, Views

Travel & Photography: “Wanderlust Alps” (2021)

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Stretching from France all the way down to Slovenia, Europe’s most majestic mountain range encompasses eight countries. Wanderlust Alps charts the region’s most treasured routes and guides the reader every step of the way. Aimed at those with an appetite for adventure, this book offers a rich mix of treks for hikers who wish to brave the elements.

Through enlightening maps, first-hand tips, and breathtaking photography, Wanderlust Alps illustrates why the range’s craggy peaks and verdant plains make it an outdoor playground in any season. Expect dazzling content to inspire hikers of any experience and skill level, stunning landscape photography, and helpful hints and information on how best to enjoy more than 50 epic trails.

Alex Roddie is an active backpacker, mountaineer, and climber with over 15 years of outdoor experience. Based in England, he works as an editor, writer, and photographer for outdoor-related print publications and online media. Wanderlust Europe was released by gestalten in 2020.

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Architecture, Books, Photography, Reviews, Views

Books: ‘Contemporary Japanese Architecture’

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The contemporary architecture of Japan has long been among the most inventive in the world, recognized for sustainability and infinite creativity. No fewer than seven Japanese architects have won the Pritzker Prize.

TASCHEN

Since Osaka World Expo ’70 brought contemporary forms center stage, Japan has been a key player in global architecture. With his intentionally limited vocabulary of geometric forms, Tadao Ando has since then put Japanese building on the world’s cultural map, establishing a bridge between East and West. In the wake of Ando’s mostly concrete buildings, figures like Kengo Kuma (Japan National Stadium intended for the Olympic Games, originally planned for 2020), Shigeru Ban (Mount Fuji World Heritage Center), and Kazuyo Sejima (Kanazawa Museum of 21st Century Art of Contemporary Art) pioneered a more sustainable approach. Younger generations have successfully developed new directions in Japanese architecture that are in harmony with nature and connected to traditional building. Rather than planning on the drawing board, the architects presented in this collection stand out for their endless search for forms, truly reacting on their environment.

Presenting the latest in Japanese building, this book reveals how this unique creativity is a fruit of Japan’s very particular situation that includes high population density, a modern, efficient economy, a long history, and the continual presence of disasters in the form of earthquakes. Accepting ambiguity, as seen in the evanescent reflections of Sejima’s Kanazawa Museum, or constant change and the threat of catastrophe is a key to understanding what makes Japanese architecture different from that of Europe or America.

This XL-sized book highlights 39 architects and 55 exceptional projects by Japanese masters—from Tadao Ando’s Shanghai Poly Theater, Shigeru Ban’s concert hall La Seine Musical, SANAA’S Grace Farms, Fumihiko Maki’s 4 World Trade Center, to Takashi Suo’s much smaller sustainable dental clinic. Each project is introduced with photos, original floor plans and technical drawings, as well as insightful descriptions and brief biographies. An elaborate essay traces the country’s building scene from the Metabolists to today and shows how the interaction of past, present, and future has earned contemporary Japanese architecture worldwide recognition.

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Adventure, Books, Cycling, Photography, Previews, Travel

Previews: “Bikepacking – Exploring The Roads Less Cycled” (September 2021)

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Bikepacking is the publication to discover the adventurous spirit of life on two wheels. Exploring journeys in different regions around the world, introducing the people and culture around it, and giving you the lowdown of all the tips and tricks, this book presents the insights and inspiration to plan your expeditions. Whether beginner or experienced, this is a journey for everyone to enjoy.

They say that what matters is the journey and not the destination, and that couldn’t be more accurate when it comes to bicycle touring. Pack your bag! Taking the roads less traveled, Bikepacking explores surroundings every pedal of the way whilst embracing the freedom nature offers. Long-distance cycling is more than a method of transportation, it’s a vibrant traveling philosophy.

Stefan Amato is a British-based biker and the founder of a bicycle tour operator Pannier.cc. Since its founding in 2012, it has become a staple of the biking community both in the UK and abroad.

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Books, Culture, Photography, Previews, Travel

Travel & Culture Books: ‘Dubai Wonder’ (Assouline)

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Dubai Wonder tours readers through this storied city and its cultural diversity and distinct neighborhoods, including Deira, home to the Khor Dubai, a creek that Dubai’s economy relied on for several decades for pearl diving and fishing; Al Quoz, the cultural heart of the city; the Dubai International Financial Centre and Jumeirah, a largely residential district featuring the emirate’s notable resorts along its coast.

An international port city and desert oasis, Dubai is one of the most important metropolises in the Middle East. With modest beginnings in the industries of pearl diving, fishing and trade, Dubai has since eclipsed its historic origins. The most populated of the seven emirates united by founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1971, Dubai is a treasure trove of the best, the biggest and the brightest, drawing such stars of architecture as Zaha Hadid, Foster + Partners, and Santiago Calatrava. Dubai’s skyline features the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa; the giant Dubai Mall; the Burj Al Arab seven-star hotel and the Dubai International Airport—the ultimate extravagance.

Other stops on the tour include Dubai’s burgeoning art scene, the Art Dubai fair and Alserkal Avenue, a cluster of warehouses containing art galleries. Dubai Wonder also takes readers inside the highly anticipated Expo 2020 Dubai, opening in October 2021 and already heralded as the grandest world fair in history. A hub of innovation and firsts, Dubai represents a vision for the future, where anything is possible, as each page of this awe-inspiring addition to Assouline’s Travel Series demonstrates.

Myrna Ayad is an arts consultant, cultural strategist and editor, with a focus on visual art and culture from the Arab world, Iran and Turkey. She established her namesake consultancy in 2018 following her directorship of Art Dubai, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia’s foremost international art fair. Ayad has written for The New York Times, CNN Online, The Art Newspaper, Artforum, Artsy, Artnet, Wallpaper* and The National, among others, and contributed to artist monographs and exhibition catalogues. From 2007 to 2015, she served as editor of Canvas, the premier magazine for visual art from the Middle East, where she oversaw the production of the title’s affiliate newspapers, catalogues and luxury art books. Over the years, Ayad has served both as a panelist and moderator and sits on the committees of cultural entities in the region. For almost four decades, she has been based in Dubai, where she lives with her husband and two children.

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Boats, Books, History, Photography, Style

New Photography Books: ‘Yachts – The Impossible Collection’ (Assouline)

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Yachts: The Impossible Collection is an eclectic and carefully curated anthology of ships, from the 1851 ship for which the America’s Cup was named, to J Class racing yachts of the early 1900s, to the current high-tech megayachts, from classics with timeless silhouettes, to head-turners that broke the mold with daring design and redefined their era. 

Since time immemorial, monarchs, nobility and the aristocracy have yearned to spend their leisure time on the water. From Cleopatra’s fabled luxury barge to Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia, from elegant Jazz Age vessels such as Nahlin, once chartered by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, to the swinging ’60s Hollywood royalty invited aboard Aristotle Onassis’ Christina O, the yachting scene has always attracted celebrities, high society and the top 0.1%. But with over three thousand sizable yachts currently in the global fleet, not to mention those legendary vessels that are sadly no longer in existence, how do we distinguish the crème de la crème of this exclusive breed?

And with so much focus today on the environment and the health of the oceans, the yachting world is changing quickly, increasingly pursuing sustainability. Whether impossible in sheer size, speed, luxurious features or advanced green technology, all of the vessels in this fantasy marina have transformed the yachting seascape.

As long as there are people with means and blue oceans to explore, there will always be a demand for these beautiful and impossible creatures that break the boundaries of technology, luxury and decadence—and new yachts are still yet to be built, worthy of The Impossible Collection.

Miriam Cain is a U.K.-based luxury journalist and editor, specializing in the superyacht industry for two decades, in a variety of editorial and PR roles, including editor of Elite Traveler Superyachts and SEA+I Magazine. Cain is currently the editor for the yachting and lifestyle publication Navigator, and she also contributes to a variety of international yachting publications as a freelance journalist.

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Arts & Literature, Books, Photography, Views

Books: “Inside The Morgan – The Librarian’s Office”

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Architecture, Books, Photography, Previews, Views

Architecture Books: ‘The Eiffel Tower’ (Aug 2021)

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“The Tower is also present to the entire world… a universal symbol of Paris… from the Midwest to Australia, there is no journey to France which isn’t made, somehow, in the Tower’s name.” — Roland Barthes

When Gustave Eiffel completed his wrought iron tower on Paris’s Champ de Mars for the World’s Fair in 1889, he laid claim to the tallest structure in the world. Though the Chrysler Building would, 41 years later, scrape an even higher sky, the Eiffel Tower lost none of its lofty wonder: originally granted just a 20-year permit, the Tower became a permanent and mesmerizing fixture on the Parisian skyline. Commanding by day, twinkling by night, it has mesmerized Francophiles and lovers, writers, artists, and dreamers from all over the world, welcoming around seven million visitors every single year.

Based on an original, limited edition folio by Gustave Eiffel himself, this fresh TASCHEN edition explores the concept and construction of this remarkable building. Step by step, one latticework layer after another, Eiffel’s iconic design evolves over double-page plates, meticulous drawings, and on-site photographs, including new images and even more historical context. The result is at once a gem of vintage architecture and a unique insight into the idea behind an icon.

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Books, Culture, Photography, Views

Culture & Photography: ‘Japan – 1900’ (Taschen)

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1868 saw Japan open its doors to the outside world, putting an end to more than 200 years of national seclusion and heralding a new era that brought the country firmly into the modern age. 

Curating some of the first photographic images of the country, Sabine Arqué and Sebastian Dobson unveil an epic panorama of 1900s Japan, guiding us from Beppu’s hot springs to bustling Osaka, from the historic capitals of Nara and Kyoto to their modern successor, Tokyo.

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Books, Culture, Photography, Previews, Travel

Books On Italy: ‘Tuscany Marvel’ (May 2021)

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The Italian region of Tuscany is a feast for all senses. A creative incubator that has cultivated art and architecture for eras including Etruscan, Roman, Renaissance and modern times. Timeworn churches, once stops on nineteenth-century Grand Tours, stand tall in the towns’ piazzas. Rolling hills of wheat and colorful olive groves, that inspire authentic Tuscan cuisine, are dotted with villas built by the prestigious Medici family. 

 The Tyrrhenian Sea extends off its coast, lapping the shore of Elba, the island where the emperor Napoleon was exiled. Quaint villages, historic towns and bustling cities are scattered across its landscape, which is almost as varied as the communities themselves. From annual horse races at Piazza del Campo, and the centuries-old winemaking traditions of the Chianti region to the city of Pisa, an ancient Maritime Republic known for the youthful spirit of its Scuola Normale Superiore and Leaning Tower alike, Tuscany is the place of dreams, where thousands come to relive its history and take in the beauty of a region.

In the fashion world, Ferragamo, Gucci and Pucci all have ties to Florence and its endless inspiration. However, what truly defines Tuscany is its timelessness. Masterpieces from centuries past still lure immense crowds. Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence never fails to strike onlookers with awe.

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