Today's (9/3/2010) New Book Releases on Arts & Photography

From early photographs of disfigured slaves to contemporary representations of bullet-riddled rappers, images of wounded black men have long permeated American culture. While scholars have fittingly focused on the ever-present figure of the hypermasculine black male, little consideration has been paid to the wounded black man as a persistent cultural figure. This book considers images of wounded black men on various stages, including early photography, contemporary art, hip hop, and new media. Focusing primarily on photographic images, Jackson explores the wound as a specular moment that mediates power relations between seers and the seen. Historically, the representation of wounded black men has privileged the viewer in service of white supremacist thought. At the same time, contemporary artists have deployed the figure to expose and disrupt this very power paradigm. Jackson suggests that the relationship between the viewer and the viewed is not so much static as fluid, and that wounds serve as intricate negotiations of power structures that cannot always be simplified into the condensed narratives of victims and victimizers. Overall, Jackson attempts to address both the ways in which the wound has been exploited to patrol and contain black masculinity, as well as the ways in which twentieth century artists have represented the wound to disrupt its oppressive implications

Interiors: An Introduction is the starting point for a lifetime of design education, appreciation, and enjoyment. Whether the goal is a career in interior design, or simply a better understanding of how to enhance one's own living space, the information and ideas in this text will help readers achieve it.

Interiors offers an introduction to the elements, practice, and aesthetics of residential and nonresidential interior design, as well as their applications. In addition, the authors describe the numerous choices of materials, furnishings, and components used in interior design.

Scientific techniques developed in materials science offer invaluable information to archaeology, art history, and conservation. A rapidly growing number of innovative methods, as well as many established techniques, are constantly being improved and optimised for the analysis of cultural heritage materials. The result is that on the one hand more complex problems and questions can be confronted, but on the other hand the required level of technical competence is widening the existing cultural gap between scientists and end users, such as archaeologists, museum curators, art historians, and many managers of cultural heritage who have a purely humanistic background.

The book is intended as an entry-level introduction to the methods and rationales of scientific investigation of cultural heritage materials, with emphasis placed on the analytical strategies, modes of operation, and resulting information rather than on technicalities. The extensive and updated reference list should be a useful starting point for further reading. Students and researchers from the humanities approaching scientific investigations should find it useful, as well as scientists applying familiar techniques and methods to unfamiliar problems related to cultural heritage.

Modernism ushered in some of the most exciting innovations in art and literature, from Fauvism, Cubism, and Dada, to the novels of James Joyce and Franz Kafka, to such provocative works as Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain." But Modernism also left many people puzzled in its wake. How can a routine bathroom fixture be considered a work of art? Shouldn't a novel have a beginning, a middle, and an end--or at least a story? In this Very Short Introduction, Christopher Butler provides a coherent account of Modernism across various aesthetic and cultural fields. Butler examines how and why Modernism began, explaining what it is and showing how virtually all aspects of 20th and 21st century life have been influenced by its aesthetic legacy. Butler considers several aspects of modernism, including some classic modernist works, movements and notions of the avant garde, and the idea of "progress" in art. Finally, Butler sheds light on modernist ideas of the self, subjectivity, irrationalism, people and machines, and the political dimensions of modernism as a whole.

A brilliant woman who happened to disrobe for a living, Gypsy Rose Lee was commonly known as the "intellectual stripper." Born Rose Louis Hovick in 1911, she had meager beginnings, no formal education, and a mentally ill stage mother who never failed to criticize and demean her daughter. This book details how, despite these hurdles, Gypsy climbed to the peak of every career she tackled. It chronicles her triumphs as an actress, novelist, playwright, artist, political activist, and, ultimately, a star. Three appendices include details on Gypsy's will and estate, the original production and Broadway revivals of her play Gypsy, and complete filmographies and discographies. The book also includes many rare and never-before-published photographs.

The rich history of African-American theatre has often been overlooked, both in theoretical discourse and in practice. This volume seeks a critical engagement with black theatre artists and theorists of the twentieth century. It reveals a comprehensive view of the Art or Propaganda debate that dominated twentieth century African-American dramatic theory. Among others, this text addresses the works of Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, Alain Locke, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Adrienne Kennedy, Sydney Poitier, and August Wilson. Of particular note is the manner in which black theory collides or intersects with canonical theorists, including Aristotle, Keats, Ibsen, Nietsche, Shaw, and O'Neill.

When a photograph captivates you and stirs your soul, you know it instinctively. You not only see the image, you feel it. But how do you capture shots like that with your own camera? How do you make your photographs worth the proverbial thousand words? From portraits to landscapes, still-lifes to documentary shots, Expressive Photography will not only show you why certain images sing, but will also teach you how to create your own compelling photographic images-one click at a time.

Visually stunning, and unique in its collaborative approach, this book brings the spirit of the immensely popular Shutter Sisters' blog to the printed page through the voice and photography of its founding members.

* Written by the immensely popular Shutter Sisters, Blogger's Choice Award nominees for best blog
* Themed chapters containing the voices of several photographers give artistic insights into any shooting opportunity
* Evocative imagery that captures the emotion of the moment
*Compositional tips and recommendations throughout

The quest for the land speed record in the 1960s and the epic rivalry between two dynamic American drivers, Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove.

"Interesting and complex. . . .The best job I've seen done on the subject so far."
-- Craig Breedlove

Until the 1950s, the land speed record (LSR) was held by a series of European gentlemen racers such as British driver John Cobb, who hit 394 miles per hour in 1947. That record held for more than a decade, until the car culture swept the U.S.

Hot-rodders and drag racers built and souped up racers using car engines, piston aircraft engines and, eventually, jet engines. For this determined and dedicated group, the LSR was no longer an honor to be held by rich aristocrats with industrial backing -- it was brought stateside.

In the summer of 1960, the contest moved into overdrive, with eight men contending for the record on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Some men died in horrific crashes, others prudently retired, and by mid-decade only two men were left driving: Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove. By 1965, Arfons and Breedlove had walked away from some of the most spectacular wipeouts in motor sport history and pushed the record up to 400, then 500, then 600 miles per hour. Speed Duel is the fast-paced history of their rivalry.

Despite the abundant heart-stopping action, Speed Duel is foremost a human drama. Says author Samuel Hawley, "It is a quintessential American tale in the tradition of The Right Stuff, except that it is not about extraordinary men doing great things in a huge government program. It's about ordinary men doing extraordinary things in their back yards."