From giant murals emblazoned on towering building facades to delicate stencils subtly decorating power boxes or subway stations: Urban Art is transforming the urban fabric into an omnipresent open-air gallery. Despite, or perhaps precisely because of, their transience, these works of art characterize the city – and the city in turn characterizes its artists. They cut portraits out of stone, draw delicate ornaments, create three-dimensional installations, or spray photo-realistic paintings and imaginative figures – sometimes politically motivated and illegal, sometimes as homage to their own creativity and artistic freedom, or sometimes as a commissioned work.

Every Wall Is a Door: Urban Art: Artists - Works - Stories

Humor & Entertainment

Felix, Jean-Marc

Laux, Regula

Pop Culture

Benteli Verlags

From videos by Frank Ocean to the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie, tapes have become increasingly prominent in cinema, advertising, and, of course, the music industry. And as tape sales in the US grew by 74 percent last year, it is time to address past, present and future of the "Compact Cassette" as icon of popular culture. New generations of individuals, record labels and DIY communities are rediscovering its unique characteristics, adapting them to a contemporary context.In the age of soulless MP3s and similar digital formats there is a real appreciation for the physical qualities of an item that can be collected, exchanged and individually designed. This volume covers themes such as recording and design, "distro" as distribution source, interviews and provides a step-by-step manual to conducting own tape experiments.

Cassette Cultures: The Past and Present of a Musical Icon

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

In numerous civilizations throughout world history city walls were an indispensable part of every city. In China they can be traced back to the 21th century BC as fortified symbols of power and manifestation of the Middle Kingdom. In the course of the country's long history several thousand have been erected, varying enormously in form, length, construction technology, functionality and significance.These city walls represent a unique heritage and a central identification factor from which to gain access to the self-image of Chinese culture. After years of decay and ignorance, it was only a few decades ago that they were discovered as cultural monuments and the securing and restoration work began. The city walls recorded in the statistics today, of which a selection is presented in this book by new and historic photos, range from wall ruins in the ground via about 150 with a length of more than one kilometer to the famous fortification of Nanjing, which still has more than20 kilometers standing.

Ancient City Walls in China: A Heritage Rediscovered

HATTSTEIN, Markus

History & Criticism

The photos in this volume were taken under studio-like conditions that are, however, always at the mercy of chance: Silvio Maraini photographed horses in their familiar surroundings, often in a riding hall, sometimes in a box or in the shade of a barn. Through reduced lighting, a calm, monochrome background, and the absence of a bridle or halter, the noble creature is removed from its everyday context.Free from distraction, the gaze is led to the important details and concentrates onwhat is essential in the picture - the horse and its charisma. In the eyes one means to recognize shyness, curiosity, skepticism, indifference, pride, serenity or caution. What they really feel, what they think or know remains hidden to the viewer - but it simply doesn't seem relevant, no matter whether it's a successful sport horse, a popular show horse or a famous breeding horse.With an introduction by Olympic gold medal winner Ingrid Klimke.

Stars: Equine Portraits

Maraini, Silvio

Individual Artists

Bourgeois scholarship as disguise: "Fake books" are objects that simulate the most important carriers of knowledge and culture by subverting fundamental functions such as visualisation, information or entertainment. Most of these "book simulators" are beautiful containers, which serve for storing - or hiding - approximately everything. The viewer is always confronted by the discrepancy between appearance and being, between form and function.Armin Müller has collected bookdummies of very different sizes, styles and provenances from different eras: art-historically valuable, technically sophisticated and historically exciting pieces, but also kitsch of all kinds. The imaginative and creative richness of camouflage and illusion seems to be inexhaustible.

Fake Books: The Art of Bibliophilic Deceit

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Müller, Armin

Vogel, Fritz Franz

Antiques & Collectibles

"Flow describes the feeling of a blissful mental state of complete absorption in an activity that happens as if by itself."Join us on an adventurous road trip to the best surf spots in Europe along the Atlantic coast, which is also a trip in search of the soul of surfing in which you will meet and get to know unique and exceptional people from all over the world. With this illustrated book of authentic portrait photographs and very personal, sometimes touching, sometimes crazy stories, the artist couple shows a variety of motivations and lifestyles, far away from palm trees, beach bars and other clichés. As different as their protagonists and their stories are, they all have one thing in common: the desire and longing for the sea, the wind, and the waves - in search of adrenalin and freedom. The book is an inspiring and emotional journey for the search of one's own "flow".

The Flow: Journey to the Spirit of Surfing

Baur, Dominik

Roth, Biliana

Ellegiers, Sandra

Photography & Video

For centuries, the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) has been the archetype of the majestic bird of prey. The awe-inspiring birds have fascinated people of all cultures around the world with their proud appearance, the impressive wingspan of six to eight feet, amazing flying skills and much more. They are omnipresent in numerous fairy tales, myths, symbols, coats of arms, and state insignia. The book is a stunning homage in black and white to the sovereign of the skies. The reader is presented with and captivated by well-founded background knowledge, remarkable personal anecdotes and reflections, as well as fairy tales, poems, quotes and short stories. Thefact that Heinz M. Gut only takes pictures of wild animals in their naturalenvironment without any intervention lends a special quality to the book. Therange of images extends from almost anatomical studies of the golden eagle, viapictures in which light reflections on the plumage play a central role, topoetic-looking images depicting the bird of prey in its spectacular rough andrugged habitat. &nbsp;

Golden Eagles: Legendary Birds of Prey

Gut, Heinz M. Gut

Instead of the horizontal panning movement used to create a classic panoramic image, the author experiments with curves as well as vertical or parallel shifting. A fixed camera recording of turning objects leads to surprising results and a whole new dimension of imaging. The results simultaneously show multiple sides and angles of an object, offering a fascinatingly deconstructed perception.Artifacts and objects unravel into new sculptures, at the same time familiar and irritatingly different - stylized and estheticized by rotography. The perspective dissolves as photographic boundaries are exceeded to a new extreme. This illustrated book takes the reader through this creative experiment with the iPhone into a new dimension of panorama photography and invites to explore one's own creative ventures, and to immerse contemplatively in the world of rotography.

Rotography: A New Universe of the Visual

Stünzi, Jürg

Enchanted and Intriguing Universes, Truths and Realities The works published in this volume by Jonas C. Haefeli, who calls himself a "quarterly painter", appear surrealistic at first glance, However, on closer inspection they rather reflect the spirit of Fantastic Realism. The roots of this style lie in German and Dutch Mannerism, in Art Nouveau, in New Objectivity, and also in Surrealism. Haefeli's paintings are characterized by - only supposedly realistic - fantasy spaces whose access must first be deciphered. Each painting is juxtaposed with a page of text with poetic, (pseudo-)scientific, ironically pointed, or also decidedly funny-absurd picture lines, quotations, newspaper clippings and miniature stories. In this way, the enigmatic works of art are explained, supplemented or even exaggerated caricature-style by yet another dimension.

Poetry of the Incredible

Haefeli, Jonas C.

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