Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous

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In this sexy, bold book, Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Brian Smith tells the stories behind the photos and lessons learned in 30 years of photographing celebrities and people from all walks of life. 

Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars

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The ever-provocative Paglia returns with a survey of Western art, captured in 24 essays that move from Egyptian tombs to Eleanor Antin's conceptual art project "100 Boots". In the end, she proclaims that the avant-garde is dead and that George Lucas is our greatest living artist. This will get the smart folks talking. Copyright 2012 Reed Business Information. Library Journal (05/01/2012):

Aperture Magazine Anthology: The Minor White Years, 1952-1976

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Published on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary, this is the first ever anthology of "Aperture" magazine. This long-awaited overview provides a selection of the best critical writing from the first 25 years of the magazine--the period spanning the tenure of cofounder and editor Minor White. "Aperture" was established in 1952 by a group of photographers, including Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan and historian-curators Beaumont and Nancy Newhall. Their intention was to provide a forum "in which photographers can talk straight to each other, discuss the problems that face photography as profession an art, share their experiences, comment on what goes on, descry the new potentials." With its far-ranging interests in diverse photographic styles, myriad themes and subjects (including a strong streak of spirituality in diverse forms) and an adventurous commitment to a broad international range, "Aperture" has had a profound impact on the course of fine-art photography. The texts and visuals in this anthology were selected by Peter C. Bunnell, White's protege and an early member of the "Aperture" staff, who went on to become a major force in photography as an influential writer, curator and professor. Several articles are reproduced in facsimile, and the publication is enlivened throughout by other features, including a portfolio of exceptional covers, as well as a selection of the colophons (short statements or quotes) that appeared at the front of each magazine.

The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop

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Shooting in the raw format gives digital photographers complete control over every aspect of image quality. "The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop" is devoted exclusively to the topic and shows you how to make the most of that control. Now that raw image processing technology has matured as an essential aspect of digital photography, you need a modern book that takes a seasoned approach to the technology and explains the advantages and challenges of using Lightroom or Camera Raw to produce magnificent images. 

Bryan Peterson's Understanding Composition Field Guide: How to See and Photograph Images with Impact

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What makes an image amazing? Believe it or not, it is not about the content. What makes a photo compelling is the "arrangement" of that content--in other words, its composition. The right composition gives your images impact and emotion; the wrong one leaves them flat. In this handy, take-anywhere guide, renowned photographer, instructor, and bestselling author Bryan Peterson frees amateur photographers from the prejudices of what is "beautiful" or "ugly" so that they can instead focus on color, line, light, and pattern. Get the tools you need to show your distinct voice and point of view in every image you shoot. With this guide in your camera bag, you'll be equipped not only to "see" beautiful images but to successfully shoot them each and every time. 

Leonardo and the Last Supper

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Booklist (07/01/2012):
*Starred Review* With pink tights, a notebook hanging from his belt, long hair, and beard, handsome, fit 42-year-old Leonardo cut quite a figure on the streets of Milan, where he had high hopes for major commissions from the duchy's cunning ruler, Lodovico Sforza. For all his brilliance, as King explains with commiseration, respectful amusement, and meticulous documentation, Leonardo had little to show for himself beyond his notoriety for infuriating patrons. Consequently, he was ecstatic when Sforza agreed to fund the making of a truly monumental bronze horse. But war waits for no man, not even a relentlessly inquisitive, left-handed, vegetarian genius. After the 75 tons of metal meant for his equine colossus were turned into cannons, Leonardo was asked to paint a mural 15 feet high and nearly 30 feet long in the Dominican refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie depicting the Last Supper. This is quintessential King territory, and his uniquely detailed, far-ranging, and engrossing chronicle of the creation of this revolutionary masterpiece, a quantum shift in art, perfectly complements his best-selling Michelangelo & the Pope's Ceiling (2003). Himself an exceptional portraitist and craftsman, King brings to precise life a fully dimensional, irresistibly audacious, and wizardly Leonardo and his powerfully affecting, miraculously surviving mural, a glorious culmination of the artist's astounding powers of observation and exhilarating vision of the world. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

Edward Weston: 125 Photographs

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"Edward Weston is one of the essential photographers of the 20th century. He helped define our prewar notions of the American West when it still beckoned as a frontier, as a refuge from civilization--if you could bear the unsparing light. His eye often sought out the lush, the sensual: nudes like landscapes, landscapes like nudes, and shells and peppers like both." --The New York Times

100 Ideas That Changed Photography

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This compelling book chronicles the most influential ideas that have shaped photography from the invention of the daguerreotype in the early 19th century up to the digital revolution and beyond. Entertaining and intelligent, it provides a fascinating resource to dip into. Arranged in a broadly chronological order to show the development of photography, the ideas that comprise the book include innovative concepts, cultural and social incidents, technologies, and movements. Each idea is presented through lively text and arresting visuals, and explores when the idea first evolved and its subsequent impact on photography.

Abstract City

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In July 2008, illustrator and designer Christoph Niemann began "Abstract City," a visual blog for the "New York Times." His posts were inspired by the desire to re-create simple and everyday observations and stories from his own life that everyone could relate to. In Niemann's hands, mundane experiences such as riding the subway or trying to get a good night's sleep were transformed into delightful flights of visual fancy. The struggle to keep up with housework became a battle against adorable but crafty goblins, and nostalgia about New York manifested in simple but strikingly spot-on LEGO creations. This brilliantly illustrated collection of reflections on modern life includes all 16 of the original blog posts as well as a new chapter created exclusively for the book. 

Digital Photography Through the Year

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For anyone who's ever wondered what it takes to capture the nuances of a snowy landscape, to do justice to fall leaves, to catch reflections in a dewdrop, or to convey the exuberant joy of a summer picnic, Tom Ang's "Digital Photography Through the Year" is the essential companion to photography throughout the changing seasons.
Divided into seasons, each chapter features beautiful, evocative images, and provides details of how to recreate the look. With advice on which settings to use, overcoming potential challenges, dealing with tricky lighting situations, capturing and freezing movement, composing with color, and more, Tom's informal style makes stunning photographic results achievable for both the casual cameraphone user and the SLR expert.

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis

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Library Journal (08/01/2012):
"Edward Curtis's photographs have been controversial since their rediscovery in the 1970s. Although his work documented Native American cultures, he was also guilty of framing his subjects in ways that emphasized his belief that they were a dying people. Egan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a National Book Award recipient for "The Worst Hard Time", examines Curtis's life (1868-1952) from 1896 until his death, the years he worked on his 20-volume "The North American Indian". Although his supporters included such luminaries as Theodore Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan, Curtis struggled throughout his life to maintain the project. His cause was hindered by his efforts to help the Native Americans he encountered as he alienated Indian agents and other government officials by demanding that they respect the basic human rights of the local populace. Most damaging to his reputation and his financing efforts was his claim, based on eyewitness accounts, that Gen. George Armstrong Custer's actions at the Battle of the Little Big Horn were not heroic, but in fact cowardly. Egan seeks to restore Curtis to a deserved high reputation. VERDICT This fascinating biography is recommended to readers interested in the American West from the late 19th through early 20th century.--John Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY Copyright 2012 Reed Business Information."

Photographing Trees

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In "Photographing Trees" renowned wildlife photographer Edward Parker shares his expertise so that both amateurs and experts can get the best shots possible. As the author writes, "The wonderful thing about photography is that anyone can take a great picture almost regardless of the equipment. . . . The trick is seeing how the camera 'sees' and learning to turn whatever conditions you are faced with to your advantage."

Sanctified Landscape: Writers, Artists, and the Hudson River Valley, 1820-1909

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In Sanctified Landscape, David Schuyler recounts the story of America's idealization of the Hudson Valley in art and literature during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Breakthrough!: Proven Strategies to Overcome Creative Block and Spark Your Imagination

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Breakthrough! is a lively compilation of strategies for combating creative block offered by a who's who of leading graphic designers, typographers, cartoonists, photographers, illustrators, musicians, writers, and other creative professionals. Because every block is different, they offer a wide variety of solutions-from cleaning the house and eating spicy food to making a plaster cast of your hands and feet-that are surprising, amusing, at times weird, but always inspiring. Breakthrough! is rocket fuel for any creative individual in need of a catalyst to get ideas flowing again.

Banksy.: You Are an Acceptable Level of Threat

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The single best collection of photographs of Banksy's street work. Period. It concentrates on this singular artist's iconic imagery, spanning the late '90s up until the end of 2011. The locations are from around the world, and many images have never been seen before.

Photography Changes Everything

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Photography Changes Everything" offers a provocative rethinking of photography's impact on our culture and our daily lives. Compiling hundreds of images and responses from leading authorities on photography, it offers a brilliant, reader-friendly exploration of the many ways in which photographs package information and values, demand and hold attention, and shape our knowledge of and experience in the world. The volume draws on the extraordinary visual assets of the Smithsonian Institution's museums, science centers and archives to launch an unprecedented interdisciplinary dialogue on photography's capacity to shape and change our experience of the world.

The Art Life: On Creativity and Career

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What compels a person to become an artist, actor or singer, and to make the financial and comfort sacrifices that so often precede success, or accompany failure? A new book offers myriad, unscientific answers. The Art Life: On Creativity and Career is "as much curated as written," says author Stuart Horodner, artistic director of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center . Inspirations, muses, personal motivators and observations are provided by such figures as film directors Woody Allen and Werner Herzog, writers Wayne Koestenbaum and Orhan Pamuk, singers Johnny Cash and Lady Gaga, and artists Vito Acconci, Francis Bacon, Dana Schutz and Leon Golub, who notes: "There are three things: your work, your livelihood, and your personal life. If any two are going well at the same time consider yourself lucky."--Stephanie Cash"Art In America" (01/18/2012)

The Art of Not Making: The New Artist/Artisan Relationship

Using examples from a wide range of media, Michael Petry presents art by more than 115 contemporary artists who have one thing in common: they do not make their own work. Instead, they either employ others to produce it on their behalf or appropriate objects made by someone else. Master craftsmen, artisans, and fabricators are just some of the technical specialists who help realize the creative vision of these artists. But when an artist does not make his or her own work, what does it mean for the nature of art and for the status of the artist? What is the relationship between creativity and production?
The book explores these and other questions about authorship, artistic originality, skill, craftsmanship, and the creative act. Beginning with a historical overview and continuing through the history of modern art, it highlights the vital role that skills from craft and industrial production play in creating some of today 's most innovative and highly sought-after works of art. Organized by the materials from which the works are made, five chapters examine the relationships between many of the world 's most important artists and the artisans and fabricators they work with.
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Robert Capa: The Paris Years 1933-1954

Publishers Weekly (03/12/2012):
Perhaps best known for his iconic photo of a Spanish soldier as he is being shot known as "Death of Loyalist Militiaman," which hangs in New York's Museum of Modern Art,  Robert Capa (born Endre Erno Friedmann) was one of the progenitors of modern-day war photojournalism, covering the Spanish Civil War, D-Day, the beginnings of the Vietnam conflict, and many other momentous occasions during his tenure behind the lens.
Though these milestones and others are addressed in war correspondent Lebrun (Normandie 44) and Le Monde journalist Lefebvre's biography of Capa, their primary focus here is the work he and his colleagues produced while based out of an apartment in Paris' fourteenth arrondissement.
 Led largely by Capa, the collective's commitment to immersing themselves in the moments they sought to document had serious consequences as Capa's longtime collaborator and girlfriend Gerda Taro was crushed and killed by a tank while covering the Spanish Civil War but their commitment to documenting life in a war zone, from both a military and civilian perspective, revolutionized reporting and brought the battles home. Historians and photographers alike will be rewarded by the authors' excellent blend of narration and academic analysis, coupled with a generous helping of groundbreaking photos, many of which have never been published before. Photos & illus. (Mar.) Copyright 2012 Reed Business Information.
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Lucian Freud: Painting People

This beautifully illustrated book features fifty of Lucian Freud's portraits and figure paintings, offering an excellent introduction to the work of one of the most innovative figurative artists of the 20th century. Arranged chronologically and ranging over seven decades, from the early 1940s to Freud's death in July of 2011, the book features Freud's portraits of subjects including Kitty Garman and Lady Caroline Blackwood, both of whom were married to the artist; his mother, Lucie Freud; friends and colleagues Martin Gayford and David Hockney; and more formal portraits of subjects including Andrew Parker Bowles and Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza.
In his essay, critic Martin Gayford discusses Freud's standing as an artist and his place in art history and offers personal insights into the artist's life and approach to portraiture. Artist and longtime friend David Hockney gives a revealing account of his own experience sitting for a portrait by Freud. An illustrated chronology and previously unpublished documentary photographs place Freud's works within the context of his remarkable biography.
An ideal introduction to Freud's work, "Lucian Freud: Painting People" offers an excellent survey of an artist considered one of the world's greatest realist painters.
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Draw It With Your Eyes Closed : the art of the art assignment

Draw It with Your Eyes Closed: the Art of the Art Assignment, is a unique and wide-ranging anthology featuring essays, drawings, and assignments from over 100 contributors including: John Baldessari, William Pope.L, Mira Schor, Rochelle Feinstein, Bob Nickas, Chris Kraus, Liam Gillick, Amy Sillman, James Benning, and Michelle Grabner. Practical and quixotic in equal parts, the art assignment can resemble a riddle as much as a recipe, and often sounds more like a haiku, or even a joke, than a clear directive. From introductory exercises in perspective drawing to graduate-level experiments in societal transformation, the assignment coalesces ideas about what art is, how it should be taught, and what larger purpose it might, or might not, serve. The book is a written record of an evolving oral tradition. Bringing together hundreds of assignments, anti-assignments, and artworks from both teachers and students from a broad range of institutions, Draw It with Your Eyes Closed serves as an archive and an instigation, a teaching tool and a question mark, a critique and a tribute.
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Digital SLR Photography for Dummies eLearning Kit

Understand and use digital SLR cameras with this complete photography course
If you're making the switch from simple point-and-shoot cameras to more complex dSLRs and hoping to enhance your photography skills along the way, make your next purchase this value-packed eLearning kit. This complete dSLR photography course includes a full-color printed book and a Dummies interactive eLearning course on CD. You'll find a wealth of information on such topics as how to set your camera's exposure controls, composition do's and don't's, and how to apply what you're learning so you take better pictures.
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The Digital Photography Book, Part 4: The Step-By-Step Secrets for How to Make Your Photos Look Like the Pros'!

"The Digital Photography Book, Vol. 4" follows in the footsteps of the wildly successful previous volumes, giving photographers nearly 200 more closely guarded photographic "tricks of the trade" to get them shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos with their digital cameras.
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Made in New York: Handcrafted Works by Master Artisans

There is a burgeoning movement afoot, a return to the art of making things by hand. A growing group of aware and committed people are seeking out high-quality handmade goods, and New York City is at the forefront of this renaissance.
This book takes the reader into the studios of master artisans in fields such as glassblowing, masonry, and wood carving as well as hatmaking, embroidery, and calligraphy. It provides the ultimate sourcebook for objects with real character--whether for renovating the home, re-creating a look from the past, searching for a one-of-a-kind gift, or restoring a beloved antique. The reader will discover hidden gems such as hand-turned ceramic bowls, tables made from a single piece of wood, baskets fashioned from rare black ash, and hand-blocked wallpaper. The tradespeople profiled here have reached a level of expertise attained only through years of practice. These professionals are obsessive about quality and are driven by a profound passion for their work. Most of them toil in obscurity and normally can be found only through word of mouth--until now. 
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Android Photography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity

Take great photos with your Android(TM) smart phone! Despite the popularity of Android(TM) and its huge app store, there hasn't been much information to be found on making the most of its in-phone camera. Now, this enlightening guide helps users get a great shot, anytime, anywhere. It details many of the great apps available for Android(TM); shows how to apply them to create, edit, and enhance images; and explains the easiest and best ways to share those pictures with friends and family.
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Nikon Creative Lighting System Digital Field Guide

With the latest version of the Nikon Creative Lighting System, you can take control of light like never before. This hands-on guide will help you master not only the basics, but also workarounds, customized lighting solutions, and creative lighting techniques that will take your photography to a new level. Get specific tips for common shooting situations, and take full advantage of the Nikon CLS.
Explore the different types of Speedlights and how each one works
Get familiar with standard and custom functions and settings
Set up a wireless studio that you can take anywhere
Learn to direct, shape, and modify light from the camera position
Master advanced techniques for action, night, portrait, product, and wedding photography
Inside - your free gray and color checker card to help you achieve accurate white balance and color
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The Complete Guide to Digital Photography

Best-selling author Michael Freeman covers every significant aspect of digital photography in detail, from essential image-making hardware and software to advanced shooting techniques and travel tips. He communicates a vast amount of knowledge in an inspirational and exciting way.
Oversized and beautifully illustrated, this guide is the perfect in-depth introduction for beginners and an invaluable reference for enthusiasts.
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Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies [With DVD]

Easy-to-follow instructions on getting better photos with a digital SLR camera!
Digital SLR cameras put full control over the look of a picture in the photographer's hands. You just need some basic know-how about how digital SLRs operate to get the photos you want out of your camera. This instructional video introduces you to the basics of digital SLR photography, from switching lenses to selecting exposure settings to when to use the camera's flash. It also shows you how to apply that knowledge to take great action shots, landscapes, portraits, and more.
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Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots

For photographers interested in wedding photography, this guide is sure to help conquer the fundamentals and capture authentic and memorable images. "Weddings: From Snapshots to Great Shots" is geared to help beginning-to-intermediate digital photographers break down the demands of the day and bring their own unique artistic expression to the event.
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National Geographic Complete Photography

A comprehensive illustrated reference about photography and the camera, this book combines how-to advice, knowledgeable commentary, and useful tips on how to take and look at photographs. Not just a how-to book, it is a how-does-it-work book, focusing on cameras, photographs, and photographers.
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500 Poses for Photographing Couples: A Visual Sourcebook for Digital Portrait Photographers

Designed to address the challenges of posing two subjects together, this visual sourcebook offers creative, evocative poses for a variety of two-subject groupings, including romantic couples, business partners, friends, and siblings.
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500 Poses for Photographing Men: A Visual Sourcebook for Digital Portrait Photographers

Offering a variety of options for refining poses and spicing up portrait sessions, this visual sourcebook addresses the problems that photographers often run into when taking portraits of men, whether the pictures are for male fashion shoots, weddings, family shots, or individual portraits.
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People Pictures: 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Photographs

Bestselling author/photographer Chris Orwig offers 30 photographic exercises to renew your passion for capturing the people in your world. This is not a traditional portrait photography book. The goal isn't flattery, but connection and depth. Whether you are a student, busy parent, or seasoned pro photographer, these exercises provide an accessible framework for exploration and growth.
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500 Cameras: 170 Years of Photographic Innovation

Library Journal (03/15/2012):
In these pages, Gustavson (curator, technology, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; "Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital") provides a visually stunning overview of the history of cameras and related equipment. After introductions by Gustavson and Anthony Bannon (director, George Eastman House), the book follows photography chronologically from the earliest daguerreotype cameras to contemporary cell phones. Drawing on the extensive archives of the George Eastman House collection, Gustavson devotes individual chapters to the following camera types: dry plate, field, detective, snapshot, reflex, twin-lens reflex, folding, 35mm, professional, panoramic, stereo, subminiature, toy, specialty, and in-camera processing. Each chapter is color-coded, and the book includes a detailed index, making it a handy reference--though this lovely tome is more than just that. Each of the cameras is beautifully illustrated with color photographs and described in lively prose, and the book benefits from handsome design.
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BetterPhoto Basics: The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Taking Photos Like a Pro

In "BetterPhoto Basics, " Jim Miotke, founder of the popular online photography school BetterPhoto.com, shares tips and tricks to improve your photos right away, no matter what camera you're using. Too busy to read a book? No problem--flip to any page for an instant tip to use right away! Learn to compose knockout shots, make the most of indoor and outdoor light, and photograph twenty popular subjects, from sunsets and flowers to a family portrait. Those who want to go further get tips on controlling exposure and the secrets behind ten advanced creative techniques. And everyone will appreciate Jim's breakdown of easy fixes to make in Photoshop. No matter what your level of experience, you'll be amazed how easy it is to start taking photos like the pros.
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A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney

Booklist (11/01/2011):
Gayford, the London-based chief art critic for Bloomberg News and author of The Yellow House (2006), has been engaged in conversation with the protean artist David Hockney for a decade. He now turns their movable feast of a discussion about the nature and significance of pictures into a fluent chronicle that blends biographical narrative with question-and-answer sections to cover everything from cave paintings to Photoshop. After living in Los Angeles for many years, Hockney returned to his native ground along the northeast coast of England, where he is reinvigorating the tradition of landscape painting. Not only is this inquisitive virtuoso of saturated color and dynamic compositions working on enormous luminous paintings; he is also making exquisite drawings on his iPhone and iPad. Looking long and hard, Gayford observes, are essential activities in Hockney's life and artand also two of his greatest pleasures. Hockney muses over humankind's deep, deep desire to depict and how art helps us see the world more intensely. Sumptuously illustrated, this radiant volume encapsulates what it truly means to be a visual artist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
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Photo and Video Editing for Seniors

Created specifically for use with the free Windows Live programs Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, this guide helps seniors learn to edit their own digital photos and videos. The techniques described go beyond simple editing and retouching to include creating slide shows and online photo albums in Photo Gallery and using Movie Maker to incorporate visual effects and upload videos to YouTube. Each step in the clear instructions is accompanied by a screenshot that depicts that process, and a supplemental reference section and extensive index help older adults pinpoint exactly what they are looking for and troubleshoot any problems they run into with ease. Based on practical experience and tested by seniors, this computer reference is suitable for users of Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
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Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling

Library Journal (03/01/2012):
Salisbury (illustration, Anglia Ruskin Univ., UK) and Styles (children's literature, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) discuss all aspects of both the theory and the practice of the hybrid art form of picture books--e.g., the history of picture books, visual literacy, and the children's publishing industry. Professional case studies highlight individual works and explain particular techniques in detail. Essential for a book about picture books, this guide contains a wealth of picture book covers, page spreads, and initial sketches covering a very wide range of styles. VERDICT This book will serve as a thorough introduction to picture books for art students, education students, graphic designers, and parents. Copyright 2012 Reed Business Information.
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How to Draw Steampunk

Steampunk, once a little-known subcultural phenomenon, has gained popularity. After a brief discussion of the origins and influences of steampunk, husband and wife Marsocci and DeBlasio--who design steampunk props for films--and artist Berry provide background on basic tools and techniques, then go on to present exercises in steampunk-themed drawing, painting, and illustration. These projects increase in complexity over the course of the book, including some digital tools along the way. This title will appeal especially to young adult readers. Library Journal.
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Zoltan Szabo's 70 Favorite Watercolor Techniques

Lessons of a lifetime from one of watercolor's greatest painters
Avoid problems, create better paintings and take leaps forward in your art. Learn how from Zoltan Szabo, one of the most revered watercolor teachers in America. Using the same ease of approach that made his workshops so popular, this book makes watercolor painting simple, straightforward and fun.
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Tulips in Watercolour

Applying her clear, reassuring guidance to five step-by-step watercolor flower still lifes, Fiona Peart guides new artists through the basic principles of this inspiring medium. Each project shares a distinctive style: applying clean, very wet washes of watercolor in free and intuitive ways. Painters will learn the delicate technique of brushing different washes side by side with a striking, natural fluidity. Getting started is easy, as each project is accompanied by reusable tracing papers--painters need only trace the outline of the tulip with a soft graphite pencil, then rub the outline onto watercolor paper to achieve the transfer--eliminating the need for strong drawing skills, and ensuring a balanced, professional-quality composition.
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Bento's Sketchbook

"A deceptively brief volume offers profound meditations on art, the creative process and so much more.
Berger has long been difficult to categorize—philosopher? art critic? essayist? novelist?—and his latest defies pigeon-holing even by the standards of this British-born writer who has long lived in France. Let's start with the title, which alludes to a long-rumored but never-found sketchbook by the philosopher Spinoza, to whom Berger refers affectionately as "Bento" (the nickname for Benedict) and whom he excerpts liberally. In fact, dozens of passages from Spinoza's Ethics, accompanied by drawings from Berger (perhaps channeling Spinoza) and others might give this the appearance of an illustrated abridgement of that work. Yet Spinoza is more of a springboard, as Berger delves deeply into the processes of making and responding to art, of thinking and being, of narrative and history, of the essence of humanity. Taking inspiration from the possibility of a Spinoza sketchbook, the author "began to make drawings prompted by something asking to be drawn." In the process, he began to focus on what he drew and why he drew, connecting the creation of art to everything from philosophy to politics to religion. Each of the prose pieces—some as short as a paragraph, few longer than a couple of pages—is self-contained, yet this volume isn't exactly a collection of essays, for none are titled and all are thematically interconnected as well. Whether he's extending an analogy that compares making a drawing to riding a motorbike or discusses storytelling in a manner that could apply just as well to drawing ("In following a story, we follow a storyteller, or, more precisely, we follow the trajectory of a storyteller's attention, what it notices and what it ignores..."), he makes such interaction and interconnection seem central to the human condition.
Berger's readers will see with fresh eyes." Kirkus.
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The Storyboard Artist: A Guide to Freelancing in Film, TV, and Advertising

Any student studying film production has heard, "You must storyboard!" but most curricula gloss over instruction. Film production freelancer Cristiano reveals the sense behind storyboards—cinematographic visualizations and breakdowns of shot composition that directors can use to conceptualize the story before the shoot. Savvy producers and crews can similarly use them to plan setup tools, stage a scene, and even approximate a budget. There is not a formally accepted structured curriculum or directed career path—often storyboarding is a professional sidestep taken by those trained to be artists or directors—so books on the topic tend to be a mashup of studies including drawing, cinematography, script analysis, visual writing, and directing. Cristiano effectively communicates a route in an organized and career-sensible manner: storyboarding definitions, equipment guide, how to draw (techniques), storyboarding in advertising, working with directors and producers, and the business side (contracts, bookkeeping, promotion, and freelance). Library Journal.
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Abstracts: 50 Inspirational Projects

Abstract artists aim to make unseen ideas visible, and this inspiring guidebook collects 50 abstract exercises for painters looking to expand their abilities and build their expressive repertoires. From purely conceptual compositions to emblematic interpretations of real objects, instructor Rolina van Vliet offers concrete insights into how each project moves from an assemblage of brushstrokes into an expressive idea. Accompanying each exercise are numerous detailed photographs that demonstrate the application of various media and methods, showing paintings that range from atmospheric, textured, and nuanced to raw, powerful, and vibrant. The accompanying buying guide provides artists with additional advice on choosing supplies and other materials.
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R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection

Crumb is probably the preeminent living cartoonist, but he has a secondary legacy that stems from his passion for American roots music, particularly early blues, jazz, and country. He captures his relationship with his record collection in a typically incisive opening comic strip, laying out how his collecting mania has become as much a sickness and a burden as a love of the music itself. The rest of the book, revised from a limited edition published in 1994, is given over to a gallery-style presentation of the hundreds of record covers he has drawn, from Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills in 1968 to the present, and other assorted bits of music-related art created during the past four decades. What sometimes gets lost under the weight of the neuroses and fixations that Crumb has never been hesitant to overshare in his comics is the fact that he's a tremendous natural artist, and that fact is nowhere more evident than in the portraits of musical greats scattered throughout these pages, from Lightnin' Hopkins and Jack Teagarden to Frank Zappa and even a banjo-pluckin' Crumb himself.(Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
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The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

This is an extraordinary biography, not merely of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the subject of one of Gustav Klimt's most famous paintings, but also of the work itself and the world of early 20th-century Vienna. The painting "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (1907) was famous before its record-breaking purchase in 2006 at $135 million by Ronald S. Lauder for his New York-based Neue Galerie. Through her painstaking research, O'Connor ("Washington Post") manages to capture the cultural, historical, and political climate that gave birth to this painting. She describes the anti-Semitism that permeated early 20th-century Vienna and the role that Jews played (often as outsiders) in that society. Stolen by the Nazis during World War II and renamed "The Lady in Gold" (to avoid any hint that its subject was Jewish), the painting was at the center of an eight-year battle by Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann to regain her family's legacy. (Library Journal)
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Andy Warhol: 365 Takes: The Andy Warhol Museum Collection

The Andy Warhol Museum has been open for 10 years, and its staff continues to marvel at the complexity of Warhol's oeuvre and its resistance to easy interpretation. To reflect this chimerical quality, and the quantity, breadth, and variety of Warhol's provocative multimedia exploration, they have created a chunky volume of 365 images that samples Warhol's drawings, paintings, silk screens, films, photographs, self-portraits, celebrity portraits, and collectibles. The result is a potent survey of Warhol's preoccupations, collaborations, artistic styles, and keen response to a materially abundant yet often emotionally and morally vacuous world. (Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)
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The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation

This compelling book retells and revises the story of the German Renaissance and Reformation through the lives of two controversial men of the sixteenth century: the Saxon court painter Lucas Cranach (the Serpent) and the Wittenberg monk-turned-reformer Martin Luther (the Lamb). Contemporaries and friends (each was godfather to the other's children), Cranach and Luther were very different Germans, yet their collaborative successes merged art and religion into a revolutionary force that became the Protestant Reformation. Steven Ozment, an internationally recognized historian of the Reformation era, reprises the lives and works of Cranach (1472-1553) and Luther (1483-1546) in this generously illustrated book. He contends that Cranach's new art and Luther's oratory released a barrage of criticism upon the Vatican, the force of which secured a new freedom of faith and pluralism of religion in the Western world. Between Luther's pulpit praise of the sex drive within the divine estate of marriage and Cranach's parade of strong, lithe women, a new romantic, familial consciousness was born. The "Cranach woman" and the "Lutheran household"--both products of the merged Renaissance and Reformation worlds--evoked a new organization of society and foretold a new direction for Germany.
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The Polaroid Book: Selections from the Polaroid Collections of Photography

In existence for over 50 years, the Polaroid Corporation's photography collection is the greatest collection of Polaroid images in the world. Begun by Polaroid founder Edwin Land and photographer Ansel Adams, the collection now includes images by hundreds of photographers throughout the world and contains important pieces by artists such as David Hockney, Helmut Newton, Jeanloup Sieff, and Robert Rauschenberg. The Polaroid Book, a survey of this remarkable collection, pays tribute to a medium that defies the digital age and remains a favorite among artists for its quirky look and instantly gratifying, one-of-kind images.

• over 400 works from the Polaroid Collections
• essay by Polaroid’s Barbara Hitchcock illuminating the beginnings and history of the collection
• technical reference section featuring the various types of Polaroid cameras

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