Tallinn, Estonia, is a delightful surprise for any traveler. It is a beautiful city in a small country with a great history influenced by the many cultures that have been crossing through its borders over the centuries. The city itself is diversified with modern businesses, restaurants, shops, and many historical areas amidst change and restoration. At its heart is the old city of Tallinn, restored in most of its major areas and attracting many world tourists. The Baltic Sea beckons us to visit Finland, and the scenery is beautiful from many vantage points.
“Enchanting . . . Diana Athill, 98, still has a few things to teach us about growing old with dignity and humor and grace . . . Astute and sparkling.”—Associated Press Several years ago, Diana Athill accepted that she could no longer live entirely independently, and moved to a retirement home in Highgate. Released from the daily anxieties of caring for her own property and free to settle into her remaining years, she reflects on what it feels like to be very old, and on the moments in her long life that have risen to the surface and which sustain her in these last years. What really matters in the end? Which memories stand out? As she approaches her 100th year, Athill recalls in sparkling, precise detail the exact layout of the garden of her childhood, a vast and beautiful park attached to a large house; relates with humor, clarity and honesty her experiences of the First and Second World Wars and her trips to Europe as a young woman; and in the remarkable title chapter, describes her pregnancy at the age of forty-three, losing the baby and almost losing her life—and her gratitude and joy on discovering that she had survived. Alive, Alive Oh! is “so beautifully written and exquisitely detailed . . . [Athill] mines her memories of a life well-lived and generously lays them out on the page for the rest of the world to enjoy” (Star Tribune). “Witty, candid . . . If you haven’t read Athill, and open her latest book expecting serene reflections from a nonagenarian sipping tea in her garden, you’re in for a surprise.”—San Francisco Chronicle
The subject is the human imagination—and the mysterious interplay between the imagination and the spaces it has made for itself to live in: gardens, rooms, buildings, streets, museums and maps, fictional topographies, and architectures. The book is a lesson in seeing and sensing the manifold forms created by the mind for its own pleasure. Like all of Robert Harbison's works, Eccentric Spaces is a hybrid, informed by the author's interests in art, architecture, fiction, poetry, landscape, geography, history, and philosophy. The subject is the human imagination—and the mysterious interplay between the imagination and the spaces it has made for itself to live in: gardens, rooms, buildings, streets, museums and maps, fictional topographies, and architectures. The book is a lesson in seeing and sensing the manifold forms created by the mind for its own pleasure. Palaces and haunted houses, Victorian parlors, Renaissance sculpture gardens, factories, hill-towns, ruins, cities, even novels and paintings constructed around such environments—these are the spaces over which the author broods. Brilliantly learned, deliberately remote in form from conventional scholarship, Eccentric Spaces is a magical book, an intellectual adventure, a celebration. Since its original publication in 1977, Eccentric Spaces has had a devoted readership. Now it is available to be discovered by a new generation of readers.
Diana Athill's childhood in the Norfolk countryside was blissful. In 1932, aged 15, she fell passionately in love with a young undergraduate. She went up to Oxford and was engaged to be married. Then everything fell apart in the cruellest possible way.
Aperture is pleased to present five of the most promising photographers featured on tinyvices.com, the popular online gallery founded by independent curator and photographer Tim Barber. Presented in five separate volumes, and limited to one thousand copies per edition, the series reflects the loose spirit of the website, and offers a range of styles and approaches to photographyKenneth Cappellos casual snapshots of the skate scene of his youth, Allan Macintyres rigorous investigations of geological activity, Jason Nocitos playful groupings of disparate images, Robin Schwartzs disquieting portraits of her daughter, Jaimie Warrens theatrical self-portraits. Each book will be introduced by a prominent artist, writer, or curator. Since its inception in 2005, tinyvices has become an influential platform for emerging and underexposed talent, featuring the work of hundreds of photographers and artists, including Ryan McGinley and Dash Snow. Its corresponding exhibition opened in New York in 2006, and has since toured worldwide, from Proyectos Monclova in Mexico City to Colette in Paris.
Now in paperback, the sequel to DIANA: HER TRUE STORY, which looks at the life of the Princess of Wales following her official separation from Prince Charles. Includes a new chapter.
Amelia is 14 years old. In many ways, she is your average American teenager: since she was three years old, she has been her mother's muse, and the subject of her photographs. However, not every mom is a world-class photographer with a predilection for photographing animals. And it's not every teenager who has portraits of herself with elephants, llamas, ponies, tigers, kangaroos, chimpanzees and endless dogs, cats, and other animals--portraits that hang in the collections of major art museums around the world. Amelia and the Animals is Robin Schwartz's second monograph featuring this collaborative series dedicated to documenting her and Amelia's adventures among the animals. As Schwartz puts it, "Photography is a means for Amelia to meet animals. Until recently, she took these opportunities for granted. She didn't realize how unusual her encounters were until everyone started to tell her how lucky she was to meet so many animals." Nonetheless, these images are more than documents of Amelia and her rapport with animals; they offer a meditation on the nature of interspecies communication and serve as evidence of a shared mother-daughter journey into invented worlds. Robin Schwartz (born 1957) earned an MFA in photography from Pratt Institute, and her photographs are held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, in New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Brooklyn Museum; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; and Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany. She is an assistant professor of photography at William Paterson University and lives in New Jersey with her husband, Robert Forman, daughter, Amelia, and five companion animals.
With the train of civilisation hurtling at ever-increasing speed towards self-destruction, the most pressing question facing humanity in the 21st century is that of the preservation of life. Can Life Prevail?, the latest book by Finnish environmentalist Pentti Linkola, provides a radical yet firmly grounded perspective on the ecological problems threatening both the biosphere and human culture. With essays covering topics as diverse as animal rights, extinction, deforestation, terrorism and overpopulation, Can Life Prevail? for the first time makes the lucid, challenging writing of Linkola available to an English-speaking public. "By decimating its woodlands, Finland has created the grounds for prosperity. We can now thank prosperity for bringing us - among other things - two million cars, millions of glaring, grey-black electronic entertainment boxes, and many unnecessary buildings to cover the green earth. Wealth and surplus money have led to financial gambling and rampant social injustice, whereby 'the common people' end up contributing to the construction of golf courses, classy hotels, and holiday resorts, while fattening Swiss bank accounts. Besides, the people of wealthy countries are the most frustrated, unemployed, unhappy, suicidal, sedentary, worthless and aimless people in history. What a miserable exchange." Kaarlo Pentti Linkola was born in Helsinki in 1932. Having spent most of his life working as a professional fisherman, he now continues to lead a materially simple existence in the countryside. A renowned figure in Finland, since the 1960s Linkola has published numerous books on environmentalism. Today, he is among the foremost exponents of the philosophy of deep ecology.
Fully up-to-date coverage of the capital cities of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Russian state of Kaliningrad. Includes city plans, sightseeing, walking tours, hotels, restaurants and entertainment, plus getting to and between the countries.
