Simon Baker – författare

BIOS Instant Notes in Microbiology, Fourth Edition, is the perfect text for undergraduates looking for a concise introduction to the subject, or a study guide to use before examinations. Each topic begins with a summary of essential facts-an ideal revision checklist-followed by a description of the subject that focuses on core information, with clear, simple diagrams that are easy for students to understand and recall in essays and exams. BIOS Instant Notes in Microbiology, Fourth Edition, is fully up-to-date and covers:The Microbial WorldSystematicsMicrobiologyMicrobial GrowthMicrobial MetabolismProkaryotic DNA and RNA MetabolismIndustrial MicrobiologyEukaryotic Microbes: An OverviewThe Fungi and Related PhylaArchaeplastida, Excavata, Chromalveolata and AmoebozoaThe Viruses

The definitive monograph on the iconoclastic painter George Condo. With his arresting, unsettling style, George Condo emerged out of the dynamism of the New York art scene in the early 1980s, and he has been restlessly painting, drawing and sculpting - bringing forms into the world in one way or another - ever since. With his 'fake' Old Masters, reconfigured Manets, impossibly intricate paintings that seem abstract only from a distance, fractured and multifaceted 'psychologically Cubist' portraits, and the orgiastic misdemeanours of a host of butlers, bankers and priests, Condo has invented, mastered and expanded not just one painterly language but an entire lexicon. Working closely with Condo, Simon Baker has combined biographical, chronological and thematic approaches to survey the artist's work and career to date. An introductory essay on Condo's contradictory nature and a chapter exploring his phenomenal early career are followed by three thematic chapters that look at the years from 1984 to the present, tracing Condo's systematic reconstruction of the techniques of painting, exploring his relationship to the concept of abstraction, and probing the darker side of his psychological iconography in drawing, painting, sculpture and writing. George Condo is the definitive monograph about a unique artist that will appeal to artists, art students and those with a general interest in art.

An illuminating introduction to little-known photographer Issei Suda, who captured the soul of Japan old and new. The work of Issei Suda (1940–2019) is distinct in contemporary avant-garde Japanese photography for its celebration of the beauty of the everyday. His black and white pictures reflect on apparent banality of urban life, capturing ‘the little surprises usually ignored in our world’: the shadow of a figure, the shapes of the street, the expressions on stranger's faces. Suda’s practice revealed the tensions between old and new Japan, juxtaposing the ingrained visual traditions of Japanese culture with the prevailing western vocabulary of fashion, advertising and leisure, as seen through his observant and tender lens.

This book centralizes powerful leisure stories that may otherwise be understood as myths—sometimes recognized, often less so—that circulate in the field of leisure studies and beyond. In everyday use, a myth perpetuates a popularly held belief that is false or untrue. However, in social and cultural theories, myths are more complex as partial truths that privilege particular versions of a shared social reality. We see myth as having an “absent presence” in leisure studies, and want to know what myths are, what they do, and how they circulate and shape people’s leisure lives. Myths can do more than obfuscate; they often animate people’s lives, motivate collective action, and inspire change.As the chapters in this edited volume explore in further detail, leisure myths and mythmaking involve complex relations in the gaps between reality and imagination—from the shared myths of musical legends to myths of placemaking and communities, as well as from origin myths of sport practices to fantasy and festivals, to the importance of storytelling as mythmaking in tourism. In different ways, each of these chapters alerts the readers to the “absent presence” of myths and mythmaking in leisure research.The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Leisure Sciences.

This book centralizes powerful leisure stories that may otherwise be understood as myths—sometimes recognized, often less so—that circulate in the field of leisure studies and beyond. In everyday use, a myth perpetuates a popularly held belief that is false or untrue. However, in social and cultural theories, myths are more complex as partial truths that privilege particular versions of a shared social reality. We see myth as having an “absent presence” in leisure studies, and want to know what myths are, what they do, and how they circulate and shape people’s leisure lives. Myths can do more than obfuscate; they often animate people’s lives, motivate collective action, and inspire change.As the chapters in this edited volume explore in further detail, leisure myths and mythmaking involve complex relations in the gaps between reality and imagination—from the shared myths of musical legends to myths of placemaking and communities, as well as from origin myths of sport practices to fantasy and festivals, to the importance of storytelling as mythmaking in tourism. In different ways, each of these chapters alerts the readers to the “absent presence” of myths and mythmaking in leisure research.The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Leisure Sciences.

This is the story of the greatest empire the world has ever known. Simon Baker charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower, focusing on six momentous turning points that shaped Roman history. Welcome to Rome as you've never seen it before - awesome and splendid, gritty and squalid. From the conquest of the Mediterranean beginning in the third century BC to the destruction of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian invaders some seven centuries later, we discover the most critical episodes in Roman history: the spectacular collapse of the 'free' republic, the birth of the age of the 'Caesars', the violent suppression of the strongest rebellion against Roman power, and the bloody civil war that launched Christianity as a world religion. At the heart of this account are the dynamic, complex but flawed characters of some of the most powerful rulers in history: men such as Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero and Constantine. Putting flesh on the bones of these distant, legendary figures, Simon Baker looks beyond the dusty, toga-clad caricatures and explores their real motivations and ambitions, intrigues and rivalries. The superb narrative, full of energy and imagination, is a brilliant distillation of the latest scholarship and a wonderfully evocative account of Ancient Rome.

This book is a new account of the surrealist movement in France between the two world wars. It examines the uses that surrealist artists and writers made of ideas and images associated with the French Revolution, describing a complex relationship between surrealism’s avant-garde revolt and its powerful sense of history and heritage. Focusing on both texts and images by key figures such as Louis Aragon, Georges Bataille, Jacques-André Boiffard, André Breton, Robert Desnos, Max Ernst, Max Morise, and Man Ray, this book situates surrealist material in the wider context of the literary and visual arts of the period through the theme of revolution. It raises important questions about the politics of representing French history, literary and political memorial spaces, monumental representations of the past and critical responses to them, imaginary portraiture and revolutionary spectatorship. The study shows that a full understanding of surrealism requires a detailed account of its attitude to revolution, and that understanding this surrealist concept of revolution means accounting for the complex historical imagination at its heart.

This definitive monograph celebrates the stunning work of an esteemed Japanese photographer known for her intimate and atmospheric black-and-white portraits.Sakiko Nomura’s images explore themes of sensuality, identity, and solitude with striking emotional depth. A protégé of Nobuyoshi Araki, she captures the human form in raw, vulnerable states, focusing on the interplay of light and shadow to evoke stillness, introspection, and desire. Her subjects, often youthful and alluring, reveal the power and tension of erotic desire with remarkable tenderness. As a woman photographing both male and female nudes, Nomura’s work challenges traditional Japanese stereotypes, offering a fresh perspective on intimacy and the human experience.This book features a rich selection of Nomura’s most evocative work, showcasing her fluid, rhythmic brushstrokes of light and shadow. Her compositions blur the line between subtle eroticism and contemplative beauty, capturing personal moments that resonate universally.Elegant and alluring, this monograph is an essential addition for admirers of Japanese photography, women photographers, and contemporary erotic art, and offers a compelling invitation to explore the forces of desire, vulnerability, and human connection through the lens of one of Japan’s most captivating contemporary photographers.