William A. Ewing - Böcker

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) is unquestionably one of the most prolific, influential, and indeed controversial names in the history of photography. He was admired by many for his achievements as a fine-art photographer, while impressing countless others with the force of his commercial accomplishments. The influence of his legendary exhibition, The Family of Man, is still felt. This volume traces Steichen’s career trajectory from his Pictoralist beginnings to his time with Condé Nast through his directorship of photography at the Museum of Modern Art. Hundreds of his photographs are reproduced in stunning four-color to reveal the complexities and nuances of these black-and-white images. Essays from a range of scholars explore his most important subjects and weigh his legacy. Contributors include A. D. Coleman, Joanna T. Steichen, and Ronald Gedrim. With a full bibliography and chronology, this is the most complete and wide-ranging volume on Steichen ever published.

Edward Steichen was already a famous painter and photographer in America and abroad when, in early 1923, he was offered the most prestigious position in photography's commercial domain: that of chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair.Over the next fifteen years, Steichen would produce a body of work of unequaled brilliance, dramatizing and glamorizing contemporary culture and its achievers in politics, literature, film, sport, dance, theater, opera, and the world of high fashion. Here are iconic images of Gloria Swanson, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, and Charlie Chaplin as well as numerous other celebrities drawn from an archive of more than two thousand original prints. Until now, no more than a handful have been exhibited or published in book form. The photographs of the 1920s and 1930s represent the high point in Steichen's career and are among the most striking creations of twentieth-century photography.

We hurtle together into the future at ever-increasing speed – or so it seems to the collective psyche. Every day and every hour, human civilization expands, evolves and mutates. While we frequently lapse into celebrating the individual at the expense of the group, in science and art, at work and at play, at home and in transit, we increasingly live the collective life. Civilization shows how contemporary photography, notably art photography, is fascinated by, and attempts to decode and communicate, the way we live today. This landmark publication is accompanied by an internationally touring exhibition produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography – a global cultural event for a global subject. Civilization is presented through eight thematic chapters, each led by breathtaking imagery and accompanied by essays, quotes, commentaries and captions to provide a deeper understanding of its theme. Visually epic and ambitiously popular in approach, it will reach out beyond the boundaries of the photography world to connect with audiences worldwide.

In this thought-provoking anthology, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum has partnered with the Prix Pictet, the world’s leading prize for photography and sustainability, to show a different side to humanitarian photography. Co-editors William A. Ewing and Elisa Rusca decided to select thirty photographers from the 3,000 or so artists who have been nominated since the award was founded in 2008. Adopting a broad definition of humanitarian photography, they looked for work with a visible humanitarian impulse and attributes such as care, dignity and empathy. The result is a diverse, stimulating and, at times, surprising visual display that is very different from the ‘breaking news’ images we often associate with humanitarian action. What sets these photographs apart? An unerring sense of compassion. This compelling collection underlines the power of contemporary photography to move us and inspire positive change in the world.

'An outstanding new book that looks at how birds have been a major inspiration for contemporary artists over the years' Professional Photo A thought-provoking overview of contemporary bird photography, featuring the work of more than 50 internationally recognized photographers in an enthralling odyssey that both captures the splendour of birds and highlights the complex relationship between humans and animals Photographs of birds feature rarely in the early decades of photography: birds were too fast to be captured in flight, and could not be depicted in colour, issues that took many years to rectify. Today, however, with superb technical means at their disposal, photographers have taken to the subject with great enthusiasm, inspired by our ever-increasing understanding and appreciation of avian complexity. Aviary features the work of more than fifty internationally recognized photographers who explore our relationship with birds, questioning how we observe them and respond to their presence – and vice versa. Taking an eclectic curatorial approach, Danaé Panchaud and William A. Ewing weave together photography from the diverse fields of art, documentary, fashion, portraiture, ornithology and wildlife photography, proposing intriguing new dialogues and visual theatre between these different modes of photographic expression. Rather than being organized by field of study or species, Aviary surveys the symbiotic relationship between animals and humans through six thematic chapters imagined as ‘acts’ in a theatrical pageant. Both a visual celebration of the wonders of nature and a stark reminder of its fragility, Aviary presents a compelling portrait of our relationship with birds through the work of contemporary photographers such as Leila Jeffreys, Sarah Moon, Roger Ballen, Charles Fréger, Vik Muniz, Tim Flach, Viviane Sassen, Robert Clark and Nadav Kander, among many others.

Flora Photographica is a striking and extravagantly designed album that celebrates the beauty and pathos of flowers in all their forms. In these pages flowers speak to us with a greater intensity and more subtle modulation than in nature itself. For each bloom shown here has been observed with that acuity of vision which only the most sensitive photographers can bring to bear. What we see is both reality and revelation. The artist's eye decodes the flower's message and sharpens its beauty. Here are Mapplethorpe’s tulips, half-metal, half-living creatures; Steichen’s delphiniums, preserved in an everlasting summery perfection of blues and pinks; Atget’s open-air profusion of poppies; Cunningham’s magnolia, richly fertile and lush; Man Ray’s surreal yet pure calla lily; Chris Enos’s dying poinsettia, its colours curdling in decay. Roses and irises, zinnias and eglantines, orchids and camellias - all submit to the photographer's gaze, in opulent still-lifes, in spare renderings of a single sprig, in elegant anatomies and as emblems of personality in portraiture and nude studies. These are masterpieces of photographic art in an astonishing range of media, from photography’s beginnings up to the present day. Full details of the techniques and processes used are elucidated in the introduction and commentaries by the acclaimed photo-historian William A. Ewing. But, above all, here are flowers as we have never seen them before, an unparalleled display to marvel at, contemplate and enjoy.

William Wegman is a world-renowned American artist whose paintings, photographs, videos and drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. Today he is perhaps best known for his collaborations with his longstanding muses, an ever-expanding cast of Weimaraners, for whom performing elaborate scenarios or merely posing demurely for their portraits comes as second nature. Curated in close collaboration with distinguished photography author William A. Ewing, William Wegman: Being Human is the most extensive collection of Wegman’s photographic work yet to be published. The book is organized thematically, presenting a wealth of exceptional work in such a way as to highlight the versatility of Wegman’s everinventive mind as he explores what it means to be human. From portraits of characters we so easily recognize – a suburban housewife, a famous actor, a nightclub singer, a golfer dressed in plaid – to imagery that toys with a wide range of visual languages, Wegman quotes freely from fashion photography, Cubism, colour theory, the tradition of the nude and the history of art itself. Essays and an interview explore Wegman’s approach to his subjects and their life in the studio. With over 300 images made over the last four decades, many published here for the first time, William Wegman: Being Human will delight and engage both those who are new to Wegman’s work and those who have admired his art for many years.

Our fast-changing world seen through the lenses of 140 leading contemporary photographers around the globe. With close to 500 images, many previously unpublished, this landmark publication takes stock of the material and spiritual cultures that make up ‘civilization’. Ranging from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from our great collective achievements to our ruinous collective failings, Civilization: The Way We Live Now explores the complexity of contemporary civilization through the rich, nuanced language of photography. Featuring images by some 140 photographers – from Reiner Riedler’s families at leisure parks, Raimond Wouda’s high schools, Wang Qingsong’s Work, Work, Work and Cindy Sherman’s Society Portraits, to Lauren Greenfield’s displays of ostentatious wealth, Edward Burtynsky’s oil fields, Pablo Lopez Luz’s views on a sprawling contemporary megalopolis, Thomas Struth’s images of high technology, Xing Danwen’s electronic wastelands and Taryn Simon’s Contraband, Civilization draws together the threads of humankind’s ever-changing, frenetic, collective life across the globe. Visually epic, Civilization is presented through eight thematic chapters, each featuring powerful imagery and accompanied by provocative essays, quotes and concise statements by the artists themselves.

Vivid, bold, spectacular and unexpected: a definitive overview of one of contemporary photography’s most innovative fields, showcasing flower imagery by more than 120 of the world’s leading practitioners. There has never been a period in photography’s long history – no school, no movement – when flowers have not been a central focus, whether in the form of the classic still life, the botanical study, incorporated into portraiture and studies of the human body, documented in street photography, or used subversively in surrealist collage and montage. Today, flower photography remains in full bloom, with photographers the world over depicting flowers and floral motifs in novel ways. Featuring works by more than 120 photographers, Flora Photographica links the very best of flower photography from the past thirty years with its predecessors – canonical floral studies from the realms of photography, botanical illustration, drawing and painting that have marked the collective imagination for centuries, if not millennia. Works by contemporary photographers such as Cindy Sherman, Thomas Ruff, Vik Muniz, Valérie Belin, Viviane Sassen, and Martin Schoeller appear across nine thematic chapters, complemented by two in-depth essays by curators William A. Ewing and Danaé Panchaud exploring the relationship between contemporary works and the rich traditions of floral art and photography.

A compact survey of photographs by Edward Steichen, whose career spanned well over half a century. Edward Steichen had the rare ability to turn his talents to almost all genres of photography with resounding success. Art and industry, fashion and beauty, celebrity portraits, landscapes and cityscapes, nudes and dancers – his legacy remains omnipresent. It was Steichen’s curious and inventive mind that made this diversity possible, as he ignored established dogma to carve out his own unique path. This book presents the best of his work from a career that spanned well over half a century. Featuring a revised introduction and updated to include a selection of Steichen’s flora-related images, it offers an opportunity to present the photographer’s work from a thoroughly contemporary perspective.

Landmark is a defining survey of contemporary landscape photography. It features more than 230 images by over 100 leading photographers of today, all of whom present an individual viewpoint about a shared concern for our changing landscape and environment. The book is organized around ten themes and includes work by such distinguished practitioners as Edward Burtynsky, Stéphane Couturier, Mitch Epstein and Sally Mann. From restful, bucolic images capturing the last vestiges of ‘nature’, through shocking depictions of a sullied Earth, scarred and abused, to surreal and artificial landscapes where the ‘natural’ landscape is a highly controlled one, the book provides a thought-provoking meditation on the meaning of landscape in today’s world. The well-known writer and curator William A. Ewing contributes introductory texts to each of the sections, as well as the preface and introduction. Landmark also features statements by the artists themselves.