Manfred Heiting

This book deals with the creator of Surrealist Photography. Man Ray (1890-1976) is indisputably one of the most original artists of the 20th century. His revolutionary nude studies, fashion work, and portraits opened a new chapter in the history of photography. Born under the name of Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, he began his artistic career in New York. In 1921 he moved to Paris, where he was enthusiastically welcomed into Dadaist and Surrealist circles. Man Ray experimented tirelessly with new photographic techniques, multiple exposure, rayography, and solarization being some of his most famous. Erotic, playful, and sometimes sinister, his compositions show unusual bodies and objects: strange, striking images that transform our perceptions of reality. This collection of famous, lesser known, and unknown works fully illustrates Man Ray's singular visionary power.

Svět Helmuta Newtona je nanejvýš složitý a mnohovrstevný. Jestliže bylo jeho dílo považováno v 60. letech za šokující a provokativní, dnes se ukazuje, že Helmut Newton předvídal obraz ženy, jak se nám jeví na počátku nového tisíciletí: ženy, která raději sama udává tón, než aby se podřizovala; ženy, která se těší z překypující vitality svého těla, o němž sama rozhoduje; ženy zodpovědné za sebe i svoje touhy. Módní fotografie, akty a portréty – to jsou tři kategorie, do nichž Newton rozdělil svoje dílo. Ale tak jednoduché to není: módní fotografie může být též portrétem nebo aktem a naopak. Tato kniha společně s výstavou v berlínské Neue Nationalgalerie představila Newtonovo dílo v celé šíři a oslavila 80. narozeniny tohoto výjimečného fotografa, který se narodil v roce 1920 v Berlíně, hlavním městě intelektuální a umělecké avantgardy, s níž je odjakživa spojován.

Light and Shadows Paul Outerbridge's provocative nudes and pioneering color Whether in his sumptuous images for advertising or his soft-hued nudes, Paul Outerbridge (1896-1958) was an alchemist of desire. Color was integral to his aesthetic allure, embracing the complex tri-color-carbro process to create a seductive surface of texture and tone. His quest was for "artificial paradises"-a perfection of form, with a surreal edge. This concise monograph introduces Outerbridge's unique aesthetic and its commercial and artistic trajectory, from his professional peak as New York's highest-paid commercial photographer through to his retreat to Hollywood in the 1940s after a scandal over his erotic photography. With key examples from his oeuvre, the book explores Outerbridge's innovative style through Cubist still life images, magazine photographs, and his controversial nudes, as well as his interaction with other avant-garde photographers, such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Man Ray. Along the way, we recognize Outerbridge's particular ability to transform everyday objects into a quasi-abstract composition and his pioneering role in championing the expressionistic, as much as commercial, potential of color photographs.

Uncompromising Passion The sensuality and straight photography of Edward Weston Few photographers have created such a legacy as Edward Weston (1886-1958). After a decade of successfully making photographs with painterly soft-focus techniques, he became the driving figure behind a group of West Coast artists dubbed Group f/64, which pioneered the sharp, precise school of "Straight Photography." With that stylistic leap, Weston's career moved into high gear, creating photographs of extraordinary sensual realism, perfectly poised between compositional stillness and searing intensity. With nudes, nature studies, and myriad perspectives on the dramatic Californian landscape, Weston's works aimed to locate the "very substance and quintessence of the thing itself." In this concise monograph, we gather some of the finest Weston works to explore how he pursued and achieved this aim whether with a landscape, shell, or naked body.

This enormous and authoritative survey of Czech and Slovak photo publications commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Czechoslovakia on October 28, 2018. It demonstrates the persistent tradition of superior artistic imagination and technical ingenuity that is uniquely and wonderfully Czech and Slovak. In the course of more than 1,000 years of existence, the Czech and Slovak people only experienced free nationhood between 1918 and 1938?and again after 1989. Finally living under their own rule, photographers and writers, typographers and book designers, graphic artists and printers were free to express a love of country and documented its landscapes, cities, national treasures, monuments and the life of its people with unflinching attention?thus forming their unique cultural identity, even during Nazi annexation and 40 years of communist occupation. In nine chapters this comprehensive book explores over 800 publications from 1918 to 1989, highlighting the work of more than 250 photographers and graphic artists, including Frantisek Drtikol, Libor Fára, Jaromír Funke, Karel Hájek, Vladimír Hipman, Bohdan Holomícek, Tibor Honty, Karol Kállay, Josef Koudelka, Jan Lukas, Martin Martincek, Alphonse Mucha, Karel Plicka, Josef Prosek, Jaroslav Rössler, Pavel Stecha, Jindrich Streit, Jindrich Styrsky, Josef Sudek, Ladislav Sutnar, Karel Teige and Zdenek Tmej.