In The Picture Not Taken, the photographer and writer Benjamin Swett considers the intersections between photography, memory, the natural world, and the course of life in essays on subjects that include family snapshots, images of racial violence, the shape of abiding love, and the experience of unforseen and irremediable loss. In these beautifully written, deeply affecting pages, Swett moves with a wonderful improvisatory freedom among his chosen themes. The Picture Not Taken is a book of transfixing pieces that possesses the intensity and integrity and heft of the wholly new.

A book-length essay about photography's unique ability to ease the ache of human mortality

Drawing on the writings of Wallace Stevens, Marilynne Robinson and other poets, artists, musicians and thinkers, Brooklyn-based photographer Tim Carpenter (born 1968) argues passionately--in one main essay and a series of lively digressions--that photography is unique among the arts in its capacity for easing the fundamental ache of our mortality; for managing the breach that separates the self from all that is not the self; for enriching one's sense of freedom and personhood; and for cultivating meaning in an otherwise meaningless reality.
Printed in three colors that reflect the various voices of the book, the text design follows several channels of thought, inviting various approaches to reading. A unique and instructive contribution to the literature on photography, Carpenter's research offers both a timely polemic and a timeless resource for those who use a camera.

Bernie Taupin, Oscar winner, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and long-time song-writing collaborator with Elton John, has contributed an exceptional foreword.
There's an honesty and integrity in these images that parlays all the elements of what it means to exist outside the boundaries of conformity and confinement. The rebel spirit, the rugged individualism, and the absolute unapologetic rhythm of history. This is stunning work--a true testament to the men and women who are the anvil on which America's backbone was forged. --Bernie Taupin

Gretel Ehrlich, best-selling and award-winning writer, poet, and essayist, has penned a fitting essay.
So much has been made of the vanishing West, of the last cowboy, of the museum-like vision of men and women who ride the range. They are often enshrined in movies and television series as if ranches had ceased to exist and cowboys and cowgirls had gone home to work in town. The opposite is true. In the long stretch of the Americas, from the tip of Argentina to the extreme north of Canada, and all through the United States, working cattle and sheep ranches continue on. --Gretel Ehrlich

Michael R. Grauer, known as 'Cowboy Mike', is the McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture and Curator of Cowboy Collections and Western Art at The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and one of the most knowledgeable cowboy historians in the world.
Today, thousands of rodeos of all kinds occur across the Americas. Yet the foundation of rodeo remains grounded in the work of cowboys, vaqueros, gauchos, drovers, and cowhands from the sixteenth century onward, and of the human on horseback symbolizing freedom and liberty. Cowboys of the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, still do their jobs every day, without fail and without thinking twice. --Michael Grauer

Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America's National Parks pays tribute to the millions of acres of protected wilderness and historical heritage in all our country's 63 national parks, including the four designated since the award-winning first edition was published in 2016 and became an instant classic.

Luong, who was honored with the National Parks Conservation Association's Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks and featured in Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan's documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea, is the most prolific photographer working in the national parks and the only one to have made large-format photographs in each of them. In an odyssey that spanned more than a quarter century and 300 visits, Luong focused his lenses on iconic landscapes and rarely seen remote views, presenting his journey in this sumptuous array of more than 600 breathtaking images.

Accompanying the collection of scenic masterpieces is a guide that includes maps of each park, as well as extended captions that detail where and how the photographs were made. Designed to inspire visitors to connect with the parks and invite photographers to re-create these landscapes, the guide also provides anecdotal observations that give context to the pictures and convey the sheer scope of Luong's extraordinary odyssey.

Including a foreword by author and documentary filmmaker Dayton Duncan, Treasured Lands is a rich visual tour of the U.S. National Parks and an invaluable guide from a photographer who hiked-or paddled, dived, skied, snowshoed, and climbed-each park, shooting in all kinds of terrain, in all seasons, and at all times of day. QT Luong's timeless gallery of the nation's most revered landscapes beckons to nature lovers, armchair travelers, and photography enthusiasts alike, keeping America's natural wonders within reach.--QT Luong

Aperture Foundation works with the world's top photographers to distill their creative approaches to, teachings on, and insights into photography--offering the workshop experience in a book. Our goal is to inspire photographers at all levels who wish to improve their work, as well as readers interested in deepening their understanding of the art of photography. Through images and words, he shares his own creative process and discusses a wide range of issues, from lighting and location to establishing relationships with subjects, and practical strategies for starting a larger portraiture project.

Aperture Foundation works with the world's top photographers to distill their creative approaches to, teachings on, and insights into photography--offering the workshop experience in a book. Our goal is to inspire photographers at all levels who wish to improve their work, as well as readers interested in deepening their understanding of the art of photography. Through images and words, in this volume Misrach shares his own creative process and discusses a wide range of issues, from the language of color photography and the play of light and atmosphere, to transcending place and time through metaphor, myth, and abstraction.

These days we are all less bound by gender and traditional roles, but is there more confusion about what being a man means? From veteran to vicar, from porn addict to prostate cancer survivor, men from all walks of life share honest reflections about their bodies, sexuality, relationships, fatherhood, work and health in this pioneering and unique book.

Just as Bare Reality: 100 women, their breasts, their stories presented the un-airbrushed truth about breasts for women, Manhood: The Bare Reality shows us the spectrum of 'normal', revealing men's penises and bodies in all their diversity and glory, dispelling body image anxiety and myths.

Sensitive and compassionate, Manhood will surprise you and reassure you. It may even make you reconsider what you think you know about men, their bodies and masculinity.

Pittman was not just an observer but was an active participant in the places and events that shaped pop culture as we know it--the goings- on at Andy Warhol's Factory, the women's liberation movements of the 1970s, the VIP room at Studio 54, and the nascent punk scene at CBGB and The Mudd Club. Through Pittman's lens, readers are provided an intimate glimpse into the intersecting worlds of fashion and celebrity, music, art, and politics--from the glam rock underground and the golden age of disco to the ateliers of the world's most famous fashion designers such as Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, and Calvin Klein. Pittman was witness to such rising stars as Blondie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The New York Dolls, and Roxy Music, as well as seminal cultural figures including Raquel Welch, Truman Capote, Diana Ross, Tina Chow, Brooke Shields, Jerry Hall, Divine, and Liza Minnelli--all caught in spontaneous, unguarded New York moments.

A vast majority are previously unpublished images of some of the most iconic and revered figures of the late 20th century, accompanied by firsthand observations and remembrances by Pittman. The book features an introductory essay offering an objective view of Pittman's work and importance as a chronicle of the music, art, and fashion scenes.

Vagina, vulva, lady garden, pussy, beaver, cunt, fanny... whatever you call it most women have no idea what's 'down there'. Culturally and personally, no body part inspires love and hate, fear and lust, worship and desecration in the same way.

From smooth Barbie dolls to internet porn, girls and women grow up with a very narrow view of what they should look like, even though in reality there is an enormous range. Womanhood departs from the 'ideal vagina' and presents the gentle un-airbrushed truth, allowing us to understand and celebrate our diversity.

For the first time, 100 brave and beautiful women reveal their bodies and stories on their own terms, talking about how they feel about pleasure, sex, pain, trauma, birth, motherhood, menstruation, menopause, gender, sexuality and simply being a woman.

Aperture works with the world's top photographers to distill their creative approaches, teachings, and insights on photography--offering the workshop experience in a book. Our goal is to inspire photographers of all levels who wish to improve their work, as well as readers interested in deepening their understanding of the art of photography. Through images and words, Iturbide shares her creative process and artistic inspirations, and discusses a wide range of issues, from the importance of surprise and recognizing what speaks to you, to capturing symbolism and meaning in the everyday.

- A visual journey around the world of one hundred iconic photographs taken by celebrated and multi-award-winning photographer, Eric Meola
- An intimate and personal account of Eric Meola's creative process and self-expression, including the telling of the stories behind the creation of each photograph
- A showcase of the expert use of visual language, informed by writers, painters, musicians, and a desire to create visual metaphor with imagery
- The Professional Photographers of America noted that Eric Meola champions photography as a visual language capable of great emotion. He's a photographer with a love affair for color, light, and artistic freedom.

Eric Meola is considered a true innovator in color photography. Embark on visual journey around the world through Meola's iconic photographs that showcase his captivating use of light and colour.

Multi-award-winning photographer Eric Meola is a master of using color and light in photography, creating vivid, evocative, and graphic images. From his famous Coca Kid and Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album cover to his Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023, Meola has had an extraordinary five-decade career.

Bending Light: The Moods of Color is a retrospective bursting with color. It features one hundred iconic photographs from Meola's editorial, advertising and personal work, as well as his recent experiments with color abstracts. Meola also takes readers behind the lens to reveal the stories and anecdotes behind the creation of each image. Through this intimate and personal account of his creative process and self-expression, the photographer examines his use of color, its symbolism, and how it affects our moods.

For professional and aspiring photographers, and people who appreciate photography, art, and a colorful perspective of the world, this extraordinary collection of images, captured over more than fifty years, showcases why Meola is considered a true innovator in color photography.

In this fully revised and greatly expanded second edition of The Essence of Photography, world-renowned photographer and teacher Bruce Barnbaum draws upon 50 years of experience and observation to teach the art of photographic seeing and creativity.

There is a lot more to photography than simply picking up a camera, pointing it toward something, and tripping the shutter. Achieving a great photograph requires thought and preparation, an understanding of the photographic process, and a firm grasp of how light and composition affect a photo. There must be personal involvement and personal expression. There must be experimentation, with the recognition that only a small percentage of experiments end successfully.

In this revised and expanded second edition of The Essence of Photography, best-selling author and world-renowned photographer and teacher Bruce Barnbaum explores these seldom-discussed issues by drawing upon his personal experiences and observations from 50 years of photographing and teaching. In addition to photographs, Bruce also uses painting, music, and writing, as well as the sciences and even business, to provide pertinent examples of creative thinking. These examples serve as stepping stones that will lead you to your own heightened ability to see and be creative.

Creativity is a topic that is almost wholly ignored in formal education because most instructors think that it cannot be taught or learned. To the contrary, Bruce has proven that photographic seeing and creativity can be taught, learned, and improved. This book expands on the ideas that are central to Bruce's method of teaching photography, which he has used in workshops for the past 50 years.

Included in the book are in-depth discussions on the following topics:

- Defining your own unique rhythm and approach as a photographer

- How to translate the scene in front of you to the final photograph

- The differences and similarities between how an amateur and a professional approach photography

- The differences between realism and abstraction, and the possibilities and limitations of each

- Learning to expand your own seeing and creativity through classes, workshops, and associating with other photographers

- Why the rules of composition should be ignored

- How to follow your passion

- When to listen to the critics and when to ignore them

The book is richly illustrated with well over 100 photographs taken by Bruce as well as other photographers.

Seeing and creativity are difficult to teach, but not impossible. This very different, perhaps groundbreaking book is sure to inspire photographers of all skill levels--from beginners to seasoned professionals--to think deeply about the issues involved in creating successful photographs.

Wolfgang Tillmans is not only a great artist, he's a joyous intellectual whose generosity, wit and good-natured skepticism is political, authentic and playfully profound. -John Waters

This volume offers a panoramic collection of interviews and writings from an artist for whom language has always been a significant means of creative expression. Arranged chronologically, the assembled texts reflect Tillmans' thinking on photography, music, politics, nightlife, astronomy, spirituality and activism. The sources are as varied as their content, with statements and conversations that originally appeared in exhibition catalogues rubbing up against social-media posts and song lyrics.

Whether discussing his own work as a photographer or drawing out the thoughts of others, Tillmans is a generous interlocutor with a refreshing clarity of thought. This visually rich and timely publication tracks Tillmans' contributions to art and cultural criticism in tandem with the social and cultural shifts of the past 30 years.

Wolfgang Tillmans (born 1968) is among the most influential contemporary artists, and the impact of his work registers across the arts, intersecting with fashion, music, architecture, the performing arts, and activism. Known for his genre-defying practice and ongoing investigation into the photographic medium, Tillmans is the recipient of the Turner Prize (2000) and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (2015). His foundation, Between Bridges, supports the advancement of democracy, international understanding, the arts and LGBTQ rights.

Wolfgang Tillmans is not only a great artist, he's a joyous intellectual whose generosity, wit and good-natured skepticism is political, authentic and playfully profound. Read this volume and marvel at his highbrow yet unpretentious theories on abstraction combined with a low-level appreciation of the down and dirty. Thrill to Wolfgang's magically elitist yet of-the-people reinvention of 'real' photography and weep at the beauty of his love for the 'unforeseen.' Can printed museum art-talk be so smart that it becomes sexually arousing for the reader? Sure it can. And this is just the book to prove that. -John Waters

For over 30 years, Wolfgang Tillmans has been surveying culture and politics, as attentive to the production of news as he is to the radical intimacies of the nightclub or protest. Through his lens the world recovers its complexity. In an era of dangerous simplifications, we need his work more than ever. -Olivia Laing

Ever wanted to just book a one way ticket and escape?

In The Lonely Wanderer, Anna Engel invites readers on an intimate journey through her inspired collection of photographs, poetry, and personal journal entries where she has done just that, maybe more than once.

From the glittering wasteland of Las Vegas to the home of the gods at Mount Olympus in Greece, Anna's lens captures not only breathtaking landscapes but also the raw essence of self-discovery and learning to relish in the unknown, inviting you to join her as she contemplates her place in the world, politics, love, and more...

For the dreamers, wanderers, hermits and lovers, The Lonely Wanderer is an invitation to see life through the eyes of a like minded adventurer - one step, one snapshot, and one poem at a time.

Maybe I no longer need to escape. Maybe I am exactly where I need to be. Maybe I am exactly who I'm meant to be, -The Lonely Wanderer.

Acclaimed photographer Randal Ford celebrates our fascination with and love of animals through his engaging portraits of the animal kingdom. A young male lion cub seems to sport a rebellious mohawk; a chimpanzee adopts a pensive pose; a curious duckling cocks his head at the camera lens and flaps his wings. The featured animals cover a wide range, from birds such as the African crane, cockatoos, flamingos, and roosters, to big cats such as tigers, cheetahs, and leopards, to Arabian horses, bulls, and Longhorn sheep, among many others. Bird and animal lovers will be drawn to the powerful and emotionally engaging images that seem to reveal the individual character of the other animals that share the Earth with us. Elegantly designed and packaged, this book will be the perfect gift and addition to the home of any lover of animals or fine photography.