A personal chronicle of post-9/11 America, at war and at home. Through reportage and memoir, in photographs and words, Look at the U.S.A. documents the major fault lines that have defined this era, beginning with the war in Iraq and ending with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Fueled by ideology, insecurity, ambition, and a deep fascination with war, Peter van Agtmael began documenting America’s war in Iraq in 2005. So began a photographic odyssey that would span more than two decades generating work that grew from a deep need to understand and peel back the layers of his troubled society.

Confronting the mythologizing of war and seductive nature of conflict on the American psyche, Look at the U.S.A. explores the disconnect between the intergenerational wars and the home front, juxtaposing American troops in combat with their grieving families at home and the recovery of the wounded. As the book’s narrative progresses, the gaze begins to widen, to the imprints of nationalism, the election of Donald Trump, militarism, and race and class on American society.

Layered with van Agtmael’s personal accounts, observations, and interviews with those he has encountered on his journey, Look at the U.S.A. is a damning, sometimes ironic critique that will make it one of the seminal photobooks on war.

How photographers from Nan Goldin to Leigh Ledare have portrayed intimacy and eros between themselves and their subjects

Published with International Center of Photography.

A New York Times Book Review 2023 holiday gift guide pick

Love Songs brings together series dating from 1952 to 2022 by established and emerging contemporary photographers that explore love, desire and intimacy in all their complex and contradictory ways. Among the major series reproduced here are Nan Goldin's seminal 1986 photobook The Ballad of Sexual Dependency; Nobuyoshi Araki's Sentimental Journey (1969) and Winter Journey (1989–90), which present the beginning and end of the relationship with his wife Yoko, from their honeymoon to her death; RongRong&inri's tender and poetical Polaroid series Personal Letters (2000); and Leigh Ledare's Double Bind (2010), a complex account of a love triangle between himself, his ex-wife and her new husband. These and the other series in Love Songs together make a portrait of love in all its risk, complexity, sensuality and tenderness.
Photographers include: Nobuyoshi Araki, Motoyuki Daifu, Nan Goldin, Emmet Gowin, René Groebli, Hervé Guibert, Sheree Hovsepian, Clifford Prince King, Leigh Ledare, Lin Zhipeng, Sally Mann, RongRong&inri, Collier Schorr, Hideka Tonomura and Karla Hiraldo Voleau.

Ambitious in scope and democratic in nature, Magnum Streetwise is the definitive collection of street photography from Magnum Photos, and an unparalleled opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the true greats of the genre. An essential addition to the street photography canon, this volume showcases hidden gems alongside many of street photography’s most famous images.

Magnum photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson pioneered modern concepts of street photography before the term was even coined. A rich seam of street photography runs through the heart of Magnum to this day, both in the work of recognized masters of the genre—including Elliott Erwitt, Martin Parr, Bruce Gilden, and Richard Kalvar—and in the work of those who may not think of themselves as street photographers, despite their powerful influence on the current generation of budding artists. Magnum Streetwise is a true visual feast, interleaving insightful text and anecdotes within an intuitive blend of photographer-and theme-focused sections.

Now available in paperback, Magnum Streetwise is an unmissable tour through the photographs and practices that have helped define what street photography is—and what it can be.

A visionary and multifaceted artist, Man Ray is a leading figure in 20th-century art history. Photographer, painter, draftsman, filmmaker, and object-maker defined by rare creative freedom, he turned every medium into a field of experimentation.

Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia in 1890, he soon immersed himself in New York’s avant-garde scene, where he met and formed a close bond with Marcel Duchamp, eventually joining him in Paris in 1921. There, he became a key player in the Dada, then Surrealist movements. He revolutionised photography, elevating it to a full-fledged art form, with iconic works like Le Violon d’Ingres and Noire et blanche. The formal audacity and poetic visual language he brought to fashion photography continue to inspire creatives to this day. A tireless experimenter, he invented “rayographs”, rediscovered solarisation and as an avant-garde filmmaker he transformed the image into pure sensation.

Man Ray embodies the free, transgressive, and elusive artist. His body of work, imbued with humour, strangeness, and eroticism, defies categorisation and celebrates the power of imagination.

Includes texts by: Robert Rocca, Pierre-Yves Butzbach, Raffaella Perna.

Text in English and Italian.

From alt-rock bassist Melissa Auf der Maur—of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins fame—comes a photographic love letter to the last analog decade

Published with Art Gallery of Ontario.

As the bass player for the iconic ’90s alternative rock bands Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur toured the world, documenting life backstage, onstage and in the crowd. She instinctively turned the camera on herself as the most intimately available subject, as informed by her studies at Concordia University where her professor, Raymonde April, introduced her to the subjective self-portraits of Francesca Woodman. By the time she joined Hole for their Live Through This world tour, she requested a roll of 35mm film backstage at every venue. Her daily practice, continually documenting herself and her surroundings, expanded through her creative uses of self-timers and cable releases to take snapshots in the middle of performances. This dedication resulted in an extensive archive of over 10,000 photographs that go behind the scenes of rock-and-roll stardom—hanging out with Pavement, Sonic Youth and Beck; riding in the back of a limousine with Drew Barrymore; and idling time on the set of the music video for Hole's song “Celebrity Skin.” She was even commissioned by magazines such as Spin to document Lollapalooza 1995 and the Tibetan Freedom Concert of 1996. Gritty and edgy, playful yet deeply personal, Auf der Maur's intimate photographs celebrate the independent spirit of the ’90s and offer an insider's view of the decade before smartphones and digital recording software. Through an extensive curatorial selection of more than 200 photographs, her memories create a moving self-portrait of a young artist living through the ’90s alternative music scene, and a time capsule for Generation X.
Melissa Auf der Maur’s (born 1972) indie band Tinker had just opened for Smashing Pumpkins when Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love as the new bassist for Hole’s grief-marked Live Through This world tour, beginning soon after the deaths of both Kurt Cobain and Kristen Pfaff. She played on the group's Grammy-nominated album Celebrity Skin. After leaving Hole, Auf der Maur joined Smashing Pumpkins as the bassist for their farewell tour from 1999 to 2000. Following the release of a few solo albums, she moved to Hudson, NY, became a mother and cofounded the multidisciplinary art center Basilica Hudson.