Photographer Peter Bialobrzeski here merges the seven Asian cities of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta, Singapor, and Shenzhen into a virtual megatropolis. The result is a view of a world that no longer seems real but appears instead as a series of dream-images from an eccentric director or computer game designer. References to reality evoke a sense of conflict in the viewer, as appreciation for the beauty of the absurd competes with recognition of an irreversible process of change in urban living space. Two different growth models are exposed: unscrupulous, uncontrolled expansion, as in Bangkok, and controlled, yet equally unscrupulous growth in a city like Shanghai. The pictures burst with conflicting signs and symbols, mostly indecipherable to the western viewer, a semiotic overkill held in check only by the picture frame.
Following Tom Ang's Digital Photography Masterclass, The Complete Photographer encourages you to explore and experiment with different photography approaches, hone your skills, and find your own personal style. Tom Ang's tutorials are presented in a highly visual, logical way that makes concepts easy to grasp. Images are grouped together to reveal how different approaches to the same subject can produce dramatically different results. Individual images are analyzed to show why they are successful, and how specific effects are achieved. Side-by-side comparisons highlight common problems and show how to avoid them. Each tutorial includes an assignment that encourages the reader to experiment, think outside the box, and practice new skills. The Complete Photographer will provide inspiration and be a beautiful book to look at, as well as delivering engaging, hardworking content that unlocks the secrets of success for the reader and provides a fascinating insight into the techniques of the professionals.
Without neon, Las Vegas might still be a sleepy desert town in Nevada and Times Square merely another busy intersection in New York City. Transformed by the installation of these brightly colored signs, these destinations are now world-famous, representing the vibrant heart of popular culture. But for some, neon lighting represents the worst of commercialism. Energized by the conflicting love and hatred people have for neon, Flickering Light explores its technological and intellectual history, from the discovery of the noble gas in late nineteenth-century London to its fading popularity today. Christoph Ribbat follows writers, artists, and musicians—from cultural critic Theodor Adorno, British rock band the Verve, and artist Tracey Emin to Vladimir Nabokov, Langston Hughes, and American country singers—through the neon cities in Europe, America, and Asia, demonstrating how they turned these blinking lights and letters into metaphors of the modern era. He examines how gifted craftsmen carefully sculpted neon advertisements, introducing elegance to modern metropolises during neon’s heyday between the wars followed by its subsequent popularity in Las Vegas during the 1950s and '60s. Ribbat ends with a melancholy discussion of neon’s decline, describing how these glowing signs and installations came to be seen as dated and characteristic of run-down neighborhoods. From elaborate neon lighting displays to neglected diner signs with unlit letters, Flickering Light tells the engrossing story of how a glowing tube of gas took over the world—and faded almost as quickly as it arrived.
This book explores the bioclimatic approach to building design. Constant innovations in the field are evident, including the need to face climate changes and increase the local resilience at different scales (regional, urban, architectural). Differently from other contributions, this book provides a definition of the bioclimatic design approach following a technological and performance-driven vision. It includes one of the largest collection of research voices on the topic, becoming also a critical reference work for bioclimatic theory. It is intended for architects, engineers, researchers, and technicians who have professional and research interests in bioclimatic and in sustainable and technological design issues.
Understanding Photobooks is a user-friendly guide to engaging with the photographic book— or, as it is widely known, the photobook. Despite its importance as a central medium in which many photographers showcase their work today, there is surprisingly little information on the mechanics of the photobook: what exactly it does and how it does it. Written for makers and artists, this book will help you develop a better understanding of the images, concept, sequence, design, and production of the photobook. With an awareness of the connections between these elements, you’ll be able to evaluate photobooks more clearly and easily, ultimately allowing for a deeper and more rewarding experience of the work.
The sixth edition of the highly successful The City Reader juxtaposes the very best classic and contemporary writings on the city to provide the comprehensive mapping of the terrain of Urban Studies and Planning old and new. The City Reader is the anchor volume in the Routledge Urban Reader Series and is now integrated with all ten other titles in the series. This edition has been extensively updated and expanded to reflect the latest thinking in each of the disciplinary areas included and in topical areas such as compact cities, urban history, place making, sustainable urban development, globalization, cities and climate change, the world city network, the impact of technology on cities, resilient cities, cities in Africa and the Middle East, and urban theory. The new edition places greater emphasis on cities in the developing world, globalization and the global city system of the future. The plate sections have been revised and updated. Sixty generous selections are included: forty-four from the fifth edition, and sixteen new selections, including three newly written exclusively for The City Reader. The sixth edition keeps classic writings by authors such as Ebenezer Howard, Ernest W. Burgess, LeCorbusier, Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, and Louis Wirth, as well as the best contemporary writings of, among others, Peter Hall, Manuel Castells, David Harvey, Saskia Sassen, and Kenneth Jackson. In addition to newly commissioned selections by Yasser Elshestawy, Peter Taylor, and Lawrence Vale, new selections in the sixth edition include writings by Aristotle, Peter Calthorpe, Alberto Camarillo, Filip DeBoech, Edward Glaeser, David Owen, Henri Pirenne, The Project for Public Spaces, Jonas Rabinovich and Joseph Lietman, Doug Saunders, and Bish Sanyal. The anthology features general and section introductions as well as individual introductions to the selected articles introducing the authors, providing context, relating the selection to other selection, and providing a bibliography for further study. The sixth edition includes fifty plates in four plate sections, substantially revised from the fifth edition.
