Search Results for: books

“We benefit from Saltz’s rare ability to articulate the mysterious alchemy of great art.” – New York Times

“An entertaining, informative, and, at times, profoundly affecting read.” – Canberra Times

“The most famous, most lionized, and arguably the most influential art critic we have.” – Artnet News

“The world’s most famous and celebrated contemporary art critic.” –GQ

“One of the most powerful art critics today.” –Time Out

“Senior art critic and columnist for New York magazine, Jerry Saltz is as influential as they come. He demystifies the art world in refreshing plain speak and his latest book, focusing on the two decades since 9/11, promises to be another must-listen.” – Irish Times

From the Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of How to Be an Artist, a deliciously readable survey of the art world in turbulent times.

Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists, and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary readers to fine art as few critics have.

Now, in Art Is Life, Jerry Saltz draws on two decades of work to offer a real-time survey of contemporary art as a barometer of our times. Chronicling a period punctuated by dramatic turning points – from the cultural reset of 9/11 to the rolling social crises of today – Saltz traces how visionary artists have both documented and challenged the culture.

Art Is Life offers Saltz’s eye-opening appraisals of trailblazers like Kara Walker, Hilma af Klint and Jasper Johns; provocateurs like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Marina Abramovic; and visionaries like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. With his signature blend of candour and conviction, Jerry Saltz argues in Art Is Life for the importance of the fearless artist. The result is an openhearted and irresistibly readable appraisal by one of our most important cultural observers.


Praise for How to Be an Artist:
“I wish I had read these rules forty years ago and carried them around like a bible. They are the generous, loving, enthusiastic, bullshit-free advice of a master communicator, just reading them makes me want to charge back into the studio” – Grayson Perry

“Being an artist is a lonely pursuit – twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the rest of your life. Most of the time it hurts. This book will help the pain” – Tracey Emin

“Joy is palpable in these pages. We need such thinking right now” – Apollo Magazine

‘LOVING this new coffee table book chronicling the entire Series Of Unfortunate Events production… You can even peel off the label on the cover, but don’t ‘cuz, you know, my face..!’
Neil Patrick Harris

The perfect companion to Netflix’s adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events,

The Incomplete History of Secret Organizations is a fourth-wall-breaking deep dive into the hilariously twisted saga and the creative team that brought it to life on the screen.

Discover a host of insider secrets about the show and the Baudelaire family with interviews from the cast and crew, as well as everything from exclusive looks at storyboards and sketches to the Baudelaire orphans’ pasta puttanesca recipe.

Foreword by Neil Patrick Harris
Profiles of characters and cast
Interviews with cast and crew
Never-Before-Seen storyboards and sketches
Annotated script excerpts
Behind-the-Scenes photographs
Violet Baudelaire’s most intriguing inventions
Guide to the show’s hidden clues and Easter eggs
Lyrics to the opening title songs
Glossary of terms defined in the show
The Baudelaires’ Recipe for pasta puttanesca

From the violent mob tale and surreal dark comedy to the restrained period piece and Hollywood blockbuster, the five-decade career of Martin Scorsese has been compellingly varied. Recognised as one of the most innovative and exciting filmmakers of our time, Scorsese might have been denied Oscar success until 2007, for The Departed – but his films have always made an impact.

An essential read for filmmakers, film students and movie fans alike, Martin Scorsese in Ten Scenes brings a fresh perspective to one of the greatest directors in the world. Selecting ten indelible scenes and exploring them from every angle, film critic Tim Grierson examines what it is about these sequences that makes them so unforgettable, to shed light on Scorsese’s approach as a whole. With insights from the cast and crew who have worked most closely with him, and featuring rare behind-the-scenes material including scripts, storyboards and set designs, this book will give you a new understanding of the man whose films have inspired generations of moviegoers and filmmakers.

Bursting with ideas for illustrators and those who have never sketched before, this inspirational book will teach you how to draw more than 100 adorable doodles and super-cute characters in just a few easy steps. Starting with a simple shape such as a circle or a square, Sarah Alberto – aka Doodles by Sarah – shows you how to transform these into a quirky plant, a cute donut, a characterful face, a dainty cloud, and much, much more.

Annotated with quick tips and tricks to explain the process, the visual steps will show you how to create a whole host of charming characters, using the ubiquitous ballpoint pen. Why a ballpoint pen? It’s universal, affordable, and versatile, and allows you to create small details and sharp lines. Sarah also demonstrates how you can also use coloured pencils or markers to add extra life to your completed doodles.

With the author’s engaging, sweet and simple style, you’ll be instantly inspired to pick up a pen and some paper and doodle like you’ve never done before!

This second edition of acclaimed bestseller Perfect Exposure looks at the way professionals address the fundamentals of photography, laying out the decision-making process with the absolute clarity Michael Freeman is famed for. While addressing a subject as old as photography, exposure, this book is fully updated to cover the influence of all the latest technology.

Chapter one introduces not just the key camera settings, but also the photographer’s ideal decision flow, a process you can easily use in your own work. Chapter two examines all the camera technology designed to assist you in capturing the perfect photo, giving honest thoughts on its advantages and disadvantages. Chapter three is a complete theory and practice of exposure broken down into every shooting scenario you’ll ever encounter, from evenly lit scenes to those with wild contrast. Chapter four deals with developing style through exposure, including ideas like high key photography, silhouette and more, as well as a look at the zone system, pioneered by photographers like Ansel Adams, in a digital context. Finally Chapter 5 looks at the powerful post-processing techniques.

Getting the best possible photo is not a game of chance – there are proven methods and innovative approaches that the professional photographer uses to succeed. From Freeman’s decades of reportage experience, he has developed proven methods for going beyond where tourists stop, and delivering the photographs that make the cover. Get the Photos Others Can’t uses five ‘nodes’ or guiding principles, in various combinations, to elucidate each particular method of access:
Right Place, Right Time – train yourself in the art of anticipation
Hearts & Minds – understand the importance of people skills
Immersion – involve yourself fully in your subject
Deep Learning – research and reflect
Left Field – take an unexpected direction to find a new angle.

With examples from Freeman’s own archive of images, as well as from iconic photographers including Weegee, Cindy Sherman, Guy Bourdin, W. Eugene Smith and Garry Winogrand, the secrets shared in this book will let you find your own modus operandi for overcoming the obstacles between you and the shot, so you can bring home your own world-class images.

With a completely refreshed look to celebrate its tenth anniversary, Michael Freeman’s iconic bestseller, The Photographer’s Eye, has never looked better.

Design is the single most important factor in creating a successful photograph. The ability to see the potential for a strong picture and then organize the graphic elements into an effective, compelling composition has always been one of the key skills in making photographs.

Of course, digital photography has brought a new, exciting aspect to design first because the instant feedback from a digital camera allows immediate appraisal and improvement; and second because image-editing tools make it possible to alter and enhance the design after the shutter has been pressed. This has had a profound effect on the way digital photographers take pictures.

The Photographers Eye shows how anyone can develop an eye for seeing great digital photos. The book explores all the traditional approaches to composition and design, but crucially, it also addresses the new digital technique of shooting in the knowledge that a picture will later be edited, manipulated, or montaged to result in a final image that may be very different from the one seen in the viewfinder.

Drawing on over 40 years of practical experience, best-selling author and photographer Michael Freeman examines the most fundamental building-blocks of photography – light and shadow – bringing this key element of the picture-making process into the 21st century.

In this book, Freeman takes a new and different view of photography’s prime commodity, arguing that for the photographer, the rich and evocative world of shadows is the full equal of the actual light that casts them and bathes scenes. He defines the varied qualities of both light and shadows (of which there are at least ten distinct types), and shows how they have particular meaning and purpose. He also argues for integrating exposure and processing with an appreciation of light and shadow quality so as to have full and subtle control. Armed with this understanding and these techniques, the creative photographer can work with light and shadow to add depth and quality to imagery.

– All new content from the master of photography guides
– Concise and easy-to-follow format clearly explains the fundamentals of light and shadow
– For the first time ever, both light and shadow are given equal weight in the discussion of photographic image-making
– Real-life examples, clearly illustrated, cut through the jargon and show the theory of light and shadow in practice

We’ve come a long way from the Peashooter Era: with the advent of modern household products and office supplies – foldback clips, clothespins, rubber bands, ballpoint pens, toothpicks, paper clips and plastic utensils – the everyday junk drawer can hold all the materials needed to create pocket-sized weaponry.

Whether you’re slowing dying of boredom in a stuffy office, plotting revenge on your older siblings or simply looking for a wonderful way to kill some time, this book is for you.

Toy designer John Austin provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for each project, including materials and ammo lists, clear pictures, and construction tips, for mayhem-loving MacGyvers.

The 35 devices include catapults, slingshots, darts, crossbows, and combustion shooters. Build a tiny trebuchet from paper clips and a D-cell battery. Wrap a penny in a string of paper caps to create a surprisingly impressive “bomb.” Several of the projects even include variations where combatants mount laser pointer sights to their shooters to increase their accuracy.

The instructions are simple so that anyone can make these wacky innovations in minutes whilst also learning about mechanics and physics in a fun, hands-on way.

Discover the story of colour through the significant scientific discoveries and key artist’s works over 400 years.

From Isaac Newton’s investigations through to Olafur Eliasson’s experiential creations, this stunning book documents the fascinating story of colour with an extraordinary collection of original colour material that includes charts, wheels, artists’ palettes, swatches and schemes.

“In 1704, the scientist Isaac Newton published Opticks, the result of many years of researching light and colour. By splitting white light, Newton identified the visible range of colours, or the rainbow spectrum. In Opticks, he built a colour system around his findings, and he visualised this system in a circular shape, making it one of the first printed colour wheels.

The influence of Newton and his followers, combined with the invention of many new pigments as well as watercolours in moist cake form, had made painting with colour an exciting occupation not just for serious artists but also for a much wider audience. The colour revolution had begun.”


Contents

Introduction
1. Unravelling the Rainbow: The Eighteenth-Century Colour Revolution
2. Romantic Ideas & New Technologies: The Early Nineteenth Century
3. Industrialism to Impressionism: The Later Nineteenth Century
4. Colour for Colour’s Sake: Colour into the Future:
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

‘Insights from the zeitgeist are preserved with conviction and clarity, offering an inclusive way to access contemporary art in all its forms. If Talk Art is the fun podcast, then this book is the educational supplement to be prescribed alongside it.’ – Aesthetica

‘Where the collection really takes off is the interviews with younger artists, which are sensitive,
unpatronising, genuinely questioning and fundamentally challenging….Indeed, this collection’s strength ultimately lies in the fact that it reveals nothing more than a battlefield in its quest to establish what contemporary art is all about.’ – ArtReview

The authors of the Sunday Times bestseller Talk Art: Everything you wanted to know about contemporary art but were afraid to ask, have brought together 24 of the most profound, moving, funny and informative interviews from the wildly popular Talk Art podcast.

These curated excerpts explore the inspirations, art experiences and favourite artists of a fascinating range of creative people from Grayson Perry to Elton John, from Tracey Emin to Paul Smith, and from Wolfgang Tillmans to Sonia Boyce, accompanied by images of the artworks that they have created or that have influenced them.

The interviews featured include:

– Jerry Saltz
– Laurie Anderson
– Stephen Fry
– Elton John
– Tracey Emin
– Paul Smith
– Sonia Boyce
– Chila Burman
– Rachel Whiteread
– Wolfgang Tillmans
– Pierce Brosnan
– Grayson Perry

* * *

‘Informative and entertaining, this publication is a feast for the eyes, while also thought provoking, and offers excellent inspiration for daydreaming about what makes the perfect, modern house.’ Wallpaper

‘A fascinating selection of innovative homes….this is a thoughtful journey through the evolution of domestic architecture.’ Sunday Express

Over the last century the way that we live at home has changed dramatically. Nothing short of a design revolution has transformed our houses and the spaces within them – moving from traditional patterns of living all the way through to an era of more fluid, open-plan and modern styles. Whether we live in a new home or a period house, our spaces will have been shaped one way or another by the pioneering Modernists and Mid-century architects and designers who argued for a fresh way of life.

Architectural and design writer Dominic Bradbury charts the course of this voyage all the way from the late 19th century through to the houses of today in this ground-breaking book. Over nineteen thematic chapters, he explains the way our houses have been reinvented, while taking in – along the way – the giants of Art Deco, influential Modernists including Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as post-war innovators such as Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson. Taking us from the 20th to the 21st century, Bradbury explores the progress of ‘modernity’ itself and reveals the secret history of our very own homes.

A COMPLETE PHOTOGRAPHER’S TECHNIQUES, POSING GUIDE & REFERENCE

Lighting People is an art every photographer – and every photography student – must master, and this single volume is both a complete course and the most useful reference book you can find.

SECTION 1: UNDERSTANDING LIGHT
Chapter 1: Lighting Equipment – Get to grips with light every artificial light-source: Continuous Light, Flash, Studio Strobes & Speedlights, as well as modifiers.
Chapter 2: Setting The Mood – Understand the effect you can have with your lighting; hard & soft, low & high key, bounce, feathering, fall-off and more.
Chapter 3: Standard Lighting Techniques – How to pull off techniques including: Loop, Rembrandt, Butterfly, Split, Clamshell and Accent.
Chapter 4: Camera Settings – Using your camera’s exposure settings to get the best from any lighting equipment.

SECTION 2: WORKING WITH LIGHT
Chapter 5: Preparation – How to evaluate your client and their brief and plan a shoot.
Chapter 6: Lighting Scenarios – Tips and tricks for doing the best whether you’re shooting portraits, fashion, beauty, events or more.
Chapter 7: Getting Started – Choosing your lights and setting up your shoot.
Chapter 8: Getting Creative – Use gels, projections, blur and other effects for more unusual images.

SECTION 3: RESOURCES
Lighting Setups: Hands-on examples of studio shoots
Lighting Reference Gallery: Hundreds featuring the same four models lit against a white and a dark background from a number of different angles; the most complete lighting reference available.

Many students have barely cooked before leaving for college, and suddenly find that the kitchen can be an intimidating place if you don’t know where to begin! This is where the expert step-by-step assistance of the Student’s Manga Cookbook will turn a hungry novice into a skilled chef.

Any young or beginner cook will find that this fresh approach to cooking makes classic dishes easy, and is a speedy way to learn key culinary techniques. With the friendly visual guidance of Sue Shi, Hungry Hiro, and Noodles the cat, you’ll swiftly master such perennial favorites as Sweet & Sour Pork, Spaghetti Bolognese, Minestrone Soup and Ramen.

There’s a photograph of every dish completed, so you know what you’re aiming for, and the step-by-step manga strips will take you through the preparation in easy steps.

The perfect gift for college students, young chefs, or anyone who wants to master the kitchen, The Manga Cookbook is a uniquely fresh take on a perennial topic.