Barren red deserts dotted with post-colonial ghost towns, dilapidated inner city factories, discarded country homesteads and a succession of dormant, soot-filled power stations are just a handful of the desolate, yet visually rich narratives that form part of the abandoned Australia landscape.
Digging beneath the sun-baked soil, Shane Thoms uncovers the modern ruins scattered over this arid continent and reveals a series of beautifully broken abodes hiding in the crevices of the Great Southern Land.
Whispering of both long-gone happy family moments and human darkness, of working lives and the everyday pursuits of living, these atmospheric scenes allow us to reconstruct the stories of the past. Prompting conversations about a growing, diverse country with a complicated history, these abandoned places both connect as well as contrast the past and the present and chronicle the hidden remnants of the evolving Australian story.
¿Cuántas veces has dicho «esto da para una serie»? ¿Y si la mejor serie fuera la vida misma? ¡Ahora tienes el libro que lo demuestra! Más de 900 títulos, cientos de emociones compartidas y una certeza: esto da para una serie.
Desde aventuras adolescentes sobre bicis llenas de barro hasta culebrones sentimentales dignos de telenovela, pasando por momentos laborales tan surrealistas como los de The Office o reuniones de vecinos más tensas que un capítulo de Aquí no hay quien viva. La vida —la tuya y la de todos— está hecha de escenas que parecen sacadas de una ficción. Porque a veces lo cotidiano se convierte en comedia, en drama, en thriller o en romance... y todo cabe en el mismo capítulo.
A flâneur and photographer at once, Eugène Atget (1857–1927) was obsessed with walking the streets. After trying his hand at painting and acting, the native of Libourne turned to photography and moved to Paris. He supplied studies for painters, architects, and stage designers, but became enraptured by what he called “documents” of the city and its environs. His scenes rarely included people, but rather the architecture, landscape, and artifacts that made up the societal and cultural stage.
Sharp angles, strange forms, lurid colors, and distorted perspectives are classic hallmarks of Expressionism, the twentieth century movement that prioritized emotion over objective reality. Though particularly present in Germany and Austria, the movement’s approach flourished internationally and is today hailed as one of the most influential shifts in art history.
With leading groups Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), and key players such as Wassily Kandinsky, Egon Schiele, and Emil Nolde, the Expressionists disowned Impressionism, which they regarded as “man lowered to the position of a gramophone record of the outer world”, to depict instead a raw and visceral experience of life as it was felt, rather than seen on the surface. Their paintings brim with emotive force, conveyed in particular through intense and non-naturalistic color palettes, loose brushwork, and thick textures.
At the intersection of the visual, graphic, and cinematic arts, film posters are a unique and thrilling record of a particular cultural Zeitgeist. This book brings together 250 posters from the Soviet Union of the 1920s and early 1930s to explore the energy and invention of this period, before Soviet Realism became the official art doctrine.
Drawn from the private collection of collector Susan Pack, the selection includes the work of 27 different artists. From bold figuration to architectural elements, each artist displays a distinct style and aesthetic, as much as they collectively eschew the glamour of Hollywood for more stark, striking, even challenging images, often marked by unusual angles, dynamic compositions, and startling close-ups.