Phaidon Press

Robert Capa (1913-1954), one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century and a founding member of the Magnum photographic agency, had the mind of a passionate and committed journalist and the eye of an artist. His lifework, consisting of more than 70,000 negative frames, constitutes an unparalleled documentation of a crucial twenty-two-year period (1932-1954) encompassing some of the most catastrophic and dramatic events of the last century. This book represents the most definitive selection of Robert Capa's work ever published, a collection of 937 photographs selected by Capa's brother, Cornell Capa (himself a noted Life photographer), and his biographer, Richard Whelan, who meticulously re-examined all of Robert Capa's contact sheets to compile this master set of images. This book opens with a biographical introduction illustrated with rare photographs of Capa, and closes with a chronology of his life. The main body of the book presents this definitive collection of 937 of Robert Capa's most important pictures. The photographs, arranged in chronological order and accompanied by commentaries and identifying captions, constitute an in-depth survey of Robert Capa's finest work over the entire course of his career. The pictures reveal the dramatic shifts in location and subject matter that Capa experienced from day to day, representing the trajectory of his life — from war-torn Spain to Picasso on a sunny beach in France; from carousing with Ernest Hemingway in London to Capa's historic images of the Allied landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy in 1944. The book design groups together pictures that constitute a story — for example, the Popular Front rallies in Paris in 1936, or the U.S. Army's entry into Sicily in 1943 — in order to maintain the original coherence of the work. Embodying the spirit of his photographs, Robert Capa's life itself was adventurous, romantic, and tragic. Born in Hungary in 1913, he hoped to become a journalist but was forced to flee to Berlin at the age of seventeen because of his leftist political sympathies. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Capa fled to Paris, the city that would become his home on and off for most of his life. It was there that he met Andre Kertesz, who became a mentor to Capa and introduced him to the extraordinary potential of the 35mm Leica camera as a tool for reportage. Capa also met two other photographers during his early years in Paris: Henri Cartier-Bresson and David «Chim» Szymin, with whom he founded Magnum, the co-operative photo agency, in 1947 along with George Rodger and William Vandivert. For the rest of his life, Capa would devote much of his time to guiding the operations of the Magnum offices in Paris and New York. Throughout the 1930s and World War II, Capa was present at many of the twentieth century's defining events and moments. His first assignment came in 1932, when he was working as a darkroom assistant at Delphot, the important Berlin photo agency. The agency's director, recognizing Capa's talent, lent him a camera and sent him to Copenhagen to photograph exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky giving a speech to Danish students. From there, Robert Capa went on to photograph the Spanish Civil War, when he made his famous «Falling Soldier» picture showing a Republican soldier collapsing just after being shot. Capa reported on the increasing political tensions in Europe in the mid-1930s, including the Popular Front demonstrations in France, and on the presidential elections in Mexico in 1940 before being accredited by the U.S. Army as a war correspondent for Life. After documenting Londoners' stalwart survival of the Blitz, he went on to cover battles on many of the major fronts in North Africa, Sicily, mainland Italy, France, and Germany. In one of his most famous assignments, Capa landed with the first wave of American troops on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Wading into the frigid water behind amphibious tanks, and dodging machine gun and rifle bullets, Capa shot 36 exposures before his hands were shaking so badly that he could not insert another roll into the camera. In an ironic twist of fate, a Life darkroom attendant damaged all but eleven of Capa's negatives. After the war, he did various stories for travel magazines and worked on writing projects with friends such as John Steinbeck and the noted journalist Theodore H. White. He also went to Israel several times to document the conflict and co-operation in the founding of the new nation. Capa's last assignment would be a trip to Vietnam to cover the French Indochina War: he was killed when he accidentally stepped on a Vietminh antipersonnel mine in the countryside on May 25, 1954. Though perpetually broke, Capa lived a glamorous life — through a combination of charm, luck, and talent (and an uncontrollable penchant for gambling), he frequented a wealthy circle of celebrities and cultural figures. He fell in love with Ingrid Bergman; was friends with Ernest Hemingway, the director John Huston, and other writers and directors; spent many an afternoon at the racetracks, and enjoyed all-night poker games. Seen together, however, the pictures in this book transcend the specific situations they portray to stand as timeless images of the human condition at its most terrible and inspiring; they are monuments to the strength of the human spirit.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 — 1610) was one of the most innovative painters of his time, and one of the greatest artists of any age. Rescued from neglect, he has become a cultural icon in the late twentieth century, not only for his art but also because of his violent and tragic life. Catherine Puglisi's highly praised monograph, now available for the first time in paperback, supersedes all previous studies of the artist. Making full use of new research and dramatic recent discoveries, she has produced a precise, clear-headed and comprehensive work of scholarship that also provides a moving biography of the artist and a penetrating analysis of the genius with which he absorbed and transformed the artistic tradition of his time. All Caravaggio's works are discussed and illustrated in colour, and the book has an appendix of documents, full notes and bibliography, checklist of works and full indexes. This authoritative and beautifully produced monograph is the standard work on Caravaggio.

THE THEATRE OF THE FACE is an engaging and authoritative account of the history of portrait photography by one of the world's leading photography critics. It is an essential title for all photography students and enthusiasts, and for anyone interested in portraiture, one of the most popular and enduring of all photographic genres. The book covers many styles and movements, including works by pioneers such as Edward Sheriff Curtis; seminal figures such as Walker Evans, Cecil Beaton, and August Sander; and artists such as Martin Parr, Cindy Sherman, and Philip Lorca diCorcia. With over three hundred black & white and color photographs, THE THEATRE OF THE FACE offers a new perspective on the history of photography by examining the personalities both behind and in front of the camera.

Since it was first developed by Daguerre in the 1840s, photography has followed an interesting and varied course in its progress from a practical means of documentation to an art form with its own icons, heroes, galleries and collectors. This eye-catching and engrossing book contains every sort of photography, all of it arranged in an easily accessible and fun format. Pictures of famous events such as the Royal Wedding and the first landing on the moon are here, next to familiar shots by the masters of photography such as Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cecil Beaton and Robert Doisneau. There is fashion, sport, natural history, reportage and society portraiture, as well as social documentary and art. The 500 photographers features range from William Henry Fox Talbot and Julia Margaret Cameron to Larry Clarke and Herb Rittz, from Robert Capa and Josef Kondelka to Nan Goldin and Pierre et Gilles. Arranged alphabetically, each full-page photograph is accompanied by an illuminating text which gives useful insight into the work and its creator, as well as extensive cross-references to others working in the same field or the same style. Glossaries of technical terms and movements and a directory of museums and galleries are included in the back of the book to provide a fully comprehensive and self-contained volume.

An easily accessible A-Z guide to the world of Japanese anime and manga, Manga Impact details everything from world-famous movies to the very latest cutting-edge projects by emerging directors and animators. Thematic essays and directory-style entries on the most influential creators and characters in manga and anime are included in this book that covers acclaimed directors such as Miyazaki Hayao (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle) and Otomo Katsuhiro (Akira), as well as exhaustive background information on myriad TV series, studios and artists such as Pokemon, Studio Ghibli and Tezuka Osamu. Lavishly illustrated with a wealth of iconographic images and presented in a dynamic comic book design, Manga Impact is an essential reference book that will delight newcomers, fanboys and cineastes alike.

Bonnard is acknowledged as a master of modern art, following in the tradition of the Impressionists. He is best known as a painter of intimate, domestic interiors but he was also a highly accomplished draughtsman who produced a wealth of lithographs and drawings. This volume illustrates the full range of his output, from his early works inspired by Japanese prints, to the richly coloured works of his later years. This series acts as an introduction to key artists and movements in art history. Each title contains 48 full-page colour plates, accompanied by extensive notes, and numerous comparative illustrations in colour or black and white, a concise introduction, select bibliography and detailed source information for the images. Monographs on individual artists also feature a brief chronology.

Salvador Dali (1904-89) is one of the most controversial and paradoxical artists of the twentieth century. A painter of considerable virtuosity, he used a traditional illusionistic style to create disturbing images filled with references to violence, death, cannibalism and bizarre sexual practices, from the extraordinary fluid watches in The Persistence of Memory to the gruesome monster in Soft Construction with Boiled Beans and the fetishistic lobster in the famous Lobster Telephone. Born in Figueras, Spain, Dali started out as a Cubist, but subsequently became involved with the Surrealists in Paris, the most revolutionary artists of the time. They regarded his paintings as revealing the hidden world of the unconscious. Indeed, the Surrealists' leader, Andre Breton, remarked: It is perhaps with Dali that for the first time the windows of the mind are opened fully wide. However, Breton later expelled him from the group for his Fascist sympathies and derided his commercial success in the United States, calling him Avida Dollars, an anagram of his name. Dali's response was equally curt: The difference between me will the Surrealists is that I am a Surrealist. Far from restricting his interests to painting, Dali also wrote two autobiographies, including Diary of a Genius (1965), designed sets and costumes for a play by his friend Federico Garcia Lorca and collaborated with Luis Bunuel on the films Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'or (1931), a medium which proved particularly apt for his provocative imagery.

David Lynch (USA, b. 1946) is perhaps the best known of all cult directors, whose Mulholland Drive marks cinema's arrival to the 21st century. His career began more than 30 years ago, with the groundbreaking, mystifying Eraserhead (1977). With Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990) and Lost Highway (1997) Lynch breathed new life into the sensory experiences of film audiences and disrupted narrative logic to mysterious and mystifying effect. In the early 1990s, he invented a new TV series genre with Twin Peaks. Although he is a Hollywood director, Lynch works at the edges of the studio system, exploring the many facets of his artistic talent, whose creations, including photography, painting and music, are now making their way into museums and galleries.

Tim Burton (USA, b. 1958) is the youngest of Hollywood's most successful directors. He has the knack of making films with a very broad appeal, taking the silliness out of the representation of children, while remaining in touch with the child within himself and his audiences. Burton emerged as a director and storyteller after working as an animator for Disney. His meeting with Johnny Depp enabled him to give physical form to the heroes of his imaginary worlds, where fear is mixed with laughter, strange is normal and those who are not normal, such as Edward Scissorhands (1990), must be preserved. After Beetlejuice (1988) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), the resolutely boyish Burton, now in his fifties, presents his version of Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Fra Filippo Lippi (c. 1406 — 69) is one of the greatest artists of the early Renaissance in Italy. A pioneer of psychological realism, he developed unique and daring means of representation, discarding medieval traditions about the role of colour in painting. His intensely personal, richly expressive characters are a compelling revelation of Renaissance attitudes towards human experience. Jeffrey Ruda's work, first published in 1993, was the first full-scale study of Lippi to be published for many years, and provided an important reassessment of his life and work; it also attempted to define the nature of Lippi's greatness as a portrayer of the subtleties of human feeling, and to place his achievement in the wider context of early Renaissance art. Ruda's landmark survey — still an invaluable work of reference — is now being reissued in an abridged paperback format, so those who do not require the full art-historical analysis of the original catalogue section can enjoy its beautiful colour plates and fascinating narrative text at an amazingly competitive price.

Boris Mikhailov is one of the most influential photographers of the former Soviet Union. Through his superimposed images, Mikhailov has created and extraordinary double world of soviet drudgery juxtaposed with sex and beauty. Previously unpublished due to artistic restrictions imposed during the Communist era. Yesterday's sandwich embodies Mikhailov's role as artist, documentary photographer and social observer demonstrating his rich imagination and practical solutions for survival in an unstable society.

Emma Dexter's introductory text offers a critical account of the recent evolution and role of drawing in the art world, and introduces some of the trends, methods and artists included in the book. In the following and largest section of the book (over 300 pages and approximately 500 illustrations), the 100 or more artists are presented in an A to Z order. Some artists are presented on 2 pages, some on 4 pages. About 5 selections of work are reproduced for each artist, along a text written by an author who is a specialist on the artist's work. The 500-word texts are brief surveys of the artist's career to date, and aim at introducing the methods and subject matter at issue in their recent works. A selected list of exhibitions and bibliography also complements the reproductions and text on each artist.

Creamier is an up-to-the-minute global survey of recent developments in contemporary art, with an emphasis on emerging artists. Each of the ten selected curators is known for his or her integrity and expertise in staging presentations of new art on an international level. Each curator selects ten important new artists who have either emerged internationally over the last five years or who are still relatively unknown. There are no limitations on age, geography or medium. The result is a roster of the most significant and promising new artists working today — the true cream of the crop. Each curator also selects a key creative work for the sources section, such as an art work, text, film or album that has been significantly influential to art being produced at this moment, contextualizing the contemporary work featured in the rest of the book.

There are few things that unify people across the world better than the game of football. More than just kicking a ball about, football stirs passions beyond rational thought, affecting the mood of a nation or even the fortunes of a government. Since the 1930s various members of Magnum have photographed the world of football, documenting the teams, the supporters and the game, from barefeet on African mud or a Brazilian beach to kicking cans in the backstreets of Newcastle. This collection shows how deep the roots of football run and how wide they are spread, how football culture crosses every boundary of nationality, race and religion, how it throws up important social issues such as the empowerment of women through football in Iran and the bitter religious rivalry between Glasgow's two teams Rangers and Celtic. This portfolio of images combines the beauty of the game itself with the aesthetic quality associated with the photographers of Magnum and provides a celebration of the 'world game' as well as a fascinating social portrait of the world over a period of more than half a century.

Roger Ballen (b.1950) challenges the ways in which we perceive the 'reality' of photography. This body of work is a product of the decades Ballen has spent working with and photographing the common folk of rural and suburban South Africa.

Presents an illustrated survey of 100 gardens, spanning from the early 1920s. This book includes a range of gardens by designers, makers, architects and land artists — from Garrett Eckbo's Alcoa Forecast Garden (1925) and Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929) to Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta (1966).

The Architecture in Detail series comprises books that focus on individual buildings noted for their exceptional character, innovative design or technical virtuosity. Each volume contains a text by a respected author, a sequence of colour and black-and-white photographs and a set of technical drawings and working details. The Dessau Bauhaus encapsulates the ethos of that design school's revolutionary new thinking. With its interlocking cubic forms, reinforced concrete frame and glass curtain walls, it was the first large building to crystallize the Modern Movement's conception of form and space.

History of the Poster, co-written by Josef and Shizuko Muller-Brockmann, is a landmark account of one of the most prolific visual traditions of our culture. Originally published in 1971, this seminal study is clearly written and richly illustrated. Now reprinted by Phaidon Press, History of the Poster is an essential read for anyone intrigued by this most modern medium. The book presents an exhaustive collection of posters, ranging from the end of the nineteenth century until the early seventies, when the book was published for the first time. Conceived, written and designed by one of the best and most influential poster designers of the twentieth century, the book defines the nature of a poster and indicates the laws of designing it. Muller-Brockmann defines and describes four fundamental conceptions of the poster, approaching the function-type of each and presenting an array of methods used to capture the attention of the viewer. The author employs sure aesthetic judgement in his selection of images as he guides us through the formation and evolution of style, emphasis and connotation in poster design. This reprint has not tampered with the original edition's design or layout and stays true to Muller-Brockmann's original concept.

This book presents, in a portable, affordable format, a critical overview of the most influential figures in international design of the 20th century, from artists such as Alexander Rodchenko to graphic designers such as Paul Rand. The author, Sergio Polano, is a respected historian and critic of architecture and design, and his texts are both historical in nature and aimed for a popular rather than a specialist audience. Some of the essays in this book are well known, having been published previously; others were originally delivered as lectures; and still others are previously unpublished. The book opens with a summary of the main problems faced by a designer working in the field of graphics. This is followed by a series of concise, extensively illustrated sections examining the work of the principal graphic designers of the 20th century, from Peter Behrens to Tibor Kalman, from El Lissitzky to Max Huber, and from Alexander Rodchenko to Ed Fella. The images and extended captions selected and compiled by Pierpaolo Vetta supplement and illustrate the subjects covered by the texts.

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) was one of the greatest French painters of the Romantic period. Passionately opposed to the sterile conventions of David and the other academic artists, he took up again the broken threads of the great Baroque style and created a long run of masterpieces. But even if he had never put brush to canvas, he would still live as a famous diarist. «Delacroix's Journal» is one of the great documents in art history, a work of literature as well as a vital documentary source for scholars and students. In it the artist discusses his own paintings, his life, his sorrows and hopes; the paintings and sculptures of Rubens, Michelangelo, Constable, Bonington and others; old and new literature and the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini and his close friend Chopin; the events of his tune; the beauties of nature; life in foreign countries. Throughout he never loses his grip on the reader, though it seems that he wrote for himself only and never thought of being read. The resulting unselfconscious spontaneity and freshness give the work its unique quality, both as literature and as a source of insight into the mind of a great artist. The complete text of the journal is immensely long, and the selection of this volume, edited by Hubert Wellington and translated by Lucy Norton, comprises about half of the original. The 80 illustrations complement the text by reproducing relevant portraits, works in progress at certain dates, and pictures by Rubens and others which are commented on in the journal or form important sources of influence.

American photographer Larry Fink (b.1941) is the Jack Kerouac of photography. This accessible monograph reviews his 40-year career as a photographer, during which he celebrated the expressiveness of the human body and its colourful and energetic sensuality. A strong supporter of social values and grassroots activism, Fink has never shied away from political and cultural critiques in his imagery. The genius of Fink lies in the way he melds social commentary with exquisite pictorial composition of his subjects.

»Boarding House» shows an imaginary space of transient residence, of coming and goings, of people without homes, sheltering in an abode that they are using for their immediate survival. The structure is basic and fundamental and it is furnished with objects that are necessarily for an elementary existence. Remnants function here as physical symbols of events that have occurred in this space; broken pieces of a functional reality exist as the leftovers of scenarios that were played out here.The altered sense of place of this temporary abode for by-passers who play out their sense of alienation on the stage gives the work depth of significance as both a psychological and aesthetic statement. Having evolved from and developed out of Roger Ballen's previous work, «Boarding House» differs significantly in that the work has become even more formally sophisticated and more focused on the drawing and sculptural elements of the photographs, and the sense of collaboration between the artist and his subjects increasingly evident. In his introductory essay, veteran photography curator David Travis addresses this new body of work in an accessible way, looking at these new images in the wider context of Ballen's career.

Egon Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist painter and is widely recognised as a major figure in the history of modem art. In this revised edition Simon Wilson explores the influences which helped shape his art. The Austrian painter Egon Schiele is now recognised as a major figure in the history of modern art and in the development of the Expressionist movement. He was only 28 when he died in 1918, yet in his short life he produced a remarkable series of intense and powerful images, and although dogged by unfounded accusations of pornography he pursued his vocation as an artist with uncompromising intensity, giving expression to his most powerful feelings with an anguished honesty. In this recently revised book, Simon Wilson explores Schiele's obsession with sex, life and death, which gave rise to his famous female nudes and nude self-portraits, and examines his vision of the artist in society, and his work as a landscape and portrait painter.

Ever since his brief but stunning performance as a thief in Thelma and Louise, Brad Pitt was destined to become one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1990s. Following the huge success of his roles in Legends Of The Fall and Interview With The Vampire, this status has been confirmed by the controversial films Seven, Sleepers and The Devil's Own. It is not only as an actor that Brad Pitt is hugely in demand: his good looks have been compared to those of Robert Redford, and People Magazine voted him 'The Sexiest Man Alive'. This intimate biography looks behind Pitt's glamorous image and discovers the truth behind his strict upbringing, his relationships and how Pitt himself has come to terms with his sudden rise to fame. It has been updated to examine the scandal and revelations surrounding his breakup with Gwyneth Paltrow just months after they had been dubbed Hollywood's 'golden couple'. Brad Pitt also details the acting career of a man who has starred in roles as diverse as the scene-stealing stoner in Tarantino's True Romance, the undead Louis in Interview With The Vampire, the romantic lead in Legends Of The Fall, an idealistic rookie cop in the blockbuster Seven, and the disturbed son of a scientist in the Oscar-nominated Twelve Monkeys. Brian Robb, a film journalist and writer from Edinburgh, is author of the highly acclaimed River Phoenix: A Short Life, Johnny Depp: A Modern Rebel, and The Leonardo DiCaprio Album, all published by Plexus.