A career-to-date monograph by Anja Niemi, one of today’s most fascinating contemporary photographers, who places herself in front of the lens to create elegant, meticulously staged, and utterly memorable imagery. Anja Niemi: In Character is the first career retrospective monograph by one of the most exciting talents working in contemporary photography. Niemi’s work has emerged as a distinctive force within the venerable tradition of conceptual self- portraiture. A photo artist who works alone—photographing, staging, and acting out the characters in all of her images—Niemi is a constant presence (in character) in her work, developing complex, nuanced narratives through evocative costume and styling. In her bewitching Darlene & Me series she reconfigures the concept of the Hitchcock blond within a pristine Lynchian landscape for her own visual pleasure—and ours—while in She Could Have Been a Cowboy she turns the lens to a life lived under the constraints of conformity. With over one hundred and seventy photographs organized into the six series that have defined Niemi’s career to date, supported by an essay and interview by Max Houghton, Anja Niemi: In Character is the perfect introduction for those encountering Niemi’s work for the first time, and a comprehensive retrospective for her longtime followers.

Packed with information that will entertain, inform, educate, and surprise you. This is an unmissable gallery of breathtaking photographs and is an essential reference for all lovers of photography. Is photography art, documentary, or both Should images simply reveal the world we live in, or provoke us to think, act, and react A visually arresting reference, 1001 Photographs You Must See Before You Die is an invaluable guide to the history and practice of photography. Sweeping through the arts, fashion, society, war, peace, science, and nature, the images in this enticing book are as eye-catching as the commentary is engaging. Some you have seen, others will be unfamiliar, but what all the photographs have in common is their ability to move you, shock you, and open up the notion of what it is to be human. Organised chronologically by the date that each image was made, and featuring a reproduction of each photograph, the selection provides some fascinating and unexpected juxtapositions. Insightful text uncovers the creative process behind each image, revealing its visual, aesthetic, and historic significance, Why was the photograph taken Was it set up What was the intention How did the world react? From Fox Talbot to Nick Knight, from Roger Fenton to William Eggleston, and from Cartier Bresson to Diane Arbus, all the photographers featured in this book transgressed the boundaries of the camera with a skill and spirit that helped to develop their field into a highly evocative art form. In a world where millions of snapshots are taken every day, these exquisite images stand out for their eye-catching content and technical prowess, provoking reactions that range from joy, exasperation, and horror to fascination, repulsion and ecstasy. Uncovering the compelling tales behind the lens, this comprehensive global encyclopaedia reveals how this powerful art form has shaped the modern world.

This "gorgeously written" National Book Award finalist is a dazzling, heart-rending story of an oil rig worker whose closest friend goes missing, plunging him into isolation and forcing him to confront his past (NPR, One of the Best Books of the Year). One night aboard an oil drilling platform in the Atlantic, Waclaw returns to his cabin to find that his bunkmate and companion, Mátyás, has gone missing. A search of the rig confirms his fear that Mátyás has fallen into the sea. Grief-stricken, he embarks on an epic emotional and physical journey that takes him to Morocco, to Budapest and Mátyás's hometown in Hungary, to Malta, Italy, and finally to the mining town of his childhood in Germany. Waclaw's encounters along the way with other lost and yearning souls—Mátyás's angry, grieving half-sister; lonely rig workers on shore leave; a truck driver who watches the world change from his driver's seat—bring us closer to his origins while also revealing the problems of a globalized economy dependent on waning natural resources. High as the Waters Rise is a stirring exploration of male intimacy, the nature of memory and grief, and the cost of freedom—the story of a man who stands at the margins of a society from which he has profited little, though its functioning depends on his labor.

'NDiaye is a hypnotic storyteller with an unflinching understanding of the rock-bottom reality of most people's life.' New York Times ' One of France's most exciting prose stylists.' The Guardian. Obsessed by her encounters with the mysterious green women, and haunted by the Garonne River, a nameless narrator seeks them out in La Roele, Paris, Marseille, and Ouagadougou. Each encounter reveals different aspects of the women; real or imagined, dead or alive, seductive or suicidal, driving the narrator deeper into her obsession, in this unsettling exploration of identity, memory and paranoia. Self Portrait in Green is the multi-prize winning, Marie NDiaye's brilliant subversion of the memoir. Written in diary entries, with lyrical prose and dreamlike imagery, we start with and return to the river, which mirrors the narrative by posing more questions than it answers.

A vivid showcase of work by more than thirty of the world's leading contemporary female documentary photographers. The photographic industry - its exhibitions, galleries, publications and auctions - employs thousands of women, but champions mostly men. To begin to redress the balance, here is a timely presentation of the work of over 30 female photographers working today. This book is predominantly a celebration of some of the most inquisitive, intelligent and daring photography being created now. The stories the photographers tell are the most pressing social, political and personal issues seen through the female lens. Firecracker, established in 2011 by Fiona Rogers, is a platform dedicated to supporting female photographers worldwide by showcasing their work. Building upon Firecracker's foundations, this book brings together photography that encompasses an eclectic variety of styles, techniques and locations, from Alma Haser's futuristic series of portraits that use origami to create 3D sculptures within the frame, to Laura El-Tantawy's filmic and intensely personal series on political protest in Cairo. There is a recurring theme throughout the book that serves to unite these extraordinary women and their work: the exploration of marginalized individuals and under-discussed subjects, seen by fresh eyes. Fiona Rogers and Max Houghton offer insightful and expert authorship and curation. In their respective, well-established roles in the industry they understand, influence and advocate for contemporary documentary photography today.

Class, race and labor in a Pittsburgh plant: a rarely seen series by Gordon Parks By 1944, Gordon Parks had established himself as a photographer who freely navigated the fields of press and commercial photography, with an unparalleled humanist perspective. That year, Roy Stryker--the former Farm Security Administration official who was now heading the public relations department for the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey)--commissioned Parks to travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to document the Penola, Inc. Grease Plant. Employing his signature style, Parks spent two years chronicling the plant's industry--critical to Pittsburgh's history and character--by photographing its workers. The resulting photographs, dramatically staged and lit and striking in their composition, showed the range of activities engaged in by Black and white workers, divided as they were by roles, race and class. The images were used as marketing materials and made available to local and national newspapers, as well as corporate magazines and newsletters. However, they served as much more than documentation of industry, enduring as an exploration of labor and its social and economic ramifications in World War II America by one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Featuring more than 100 photographs, many previously unpublished, this is the first book to focus exclusively on Parks' photographs for the Standard Oil Company, illuminating an important chapter in his career prior to his landmark career as a staff photographer for Life. Gordon Parks was born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912. He worked as a brothel pianist and railcar porter, among other jobs, before buying a camera at a pawnshop, training himself and becoming a photographer. In addition to his tenures photographing for the FSA (1941-45) and Life magazine (1948-72), Parks evolved into a modern-day Renaissance man, finding success as a film director, writer and composer. He died in 2006.

Unpicking the ever-changing myth of the West in photography, from the 19th century to now Published for an exhibition at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, Magnetic Westfeatures over 160 photographs by some of the most renowned photographers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Picturing the West as a metaphor for promise and peril, Magnetic Westexplores issues of identity, implications of living in a changing landscape and the centrality of Native and immigrant communities to the essential dynamism of the region. Including images made by artists from the US and abroad, Magnetic Westexpands the dialogue of how our view of the West has evolved from the 19th century to today. Assembled from many public and private collections, it includes important works by Robert Adams, Edward Burtynsky, Laura Gilpin, Zig Jackson, Elaine Mayes, Chandra McCormick, Cara Romero, Wendy Red Star, Victoria Sambunaris, Carleton Watkins, Wim Wenders and many others.