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Labels of Empire

Textile Trademarks: Windows into India in the Time of the Raj

At one time Great Britain clothed the world. In the 1880s, when the British textile industry was at its height, 85 percent of the world’s population wore clothing made from fabric produced in the mills of Lancashire. From 1910 to 1913 alone, seven billion yards of cloth were folded, stamped, labeled, and baled. Most of this output was for export, and 30 percent of it went to India.

British textile manufacturers selling into the competitive Indian market were dealing with a largely illiterate population. In order to differentiate their goods, they stamped their cloth with distinctive images—a crouching tiger or perhaps an elephant standing on top of a globe. When chromolithography came into widespread use in the late 1800s, illustrated paper labels (known in the trade as “shipper’s tickets”) made to appeal to the local people were added. Designed, printed, and registered in Manchester, these brightly colored images were pasted onto the pieces of cloth being sold, further helping to establish a company’s brand. Hindu gods, native animals, scenes from the great Indian epics—the Mahabharata and Ramayana—and views of everyday life were common subjects. In a sense a form of premium, they provided the consumer with an additional incentive to buy the goods of a particular firm.

Labels of Empire begins with the late 19th-century heyday of British textile manufacturing and closes with Indian independence in 1947. By combining visual narrative, popular culture, and magical realism in a way never done before, this book offers an unprecedented look at the British textile industry in the time of the Raj—and its remarkably successful use of paper labels as trademarks.

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Masters of Shape

The Lives and Art of American Women Sculptors

This inspiring and beautifully illustrated book chronicles the lives of seventeen pioneering women sculptors who dared to speak their truths about inequality and injustice and overcame obstacles of gender and race in the last hundred and fifty years. The works that these talented artists cast, carved, and molded mirror both their internal worlds and the society surrounding them. There is no better way to inspire young women to fulfill their destiny with courage than to give them these brilliantly brief and cogent portraits of great women who shaped the world of sculpting and through that, our culture, and our world. Ausherman puts the spotlight on women artists simply by celebrating them insightfully, and so well. With many helpful references for additional in-depth readings and beautiful photographs taken by Steven Taylor, this book is a gem for anyone who loves reading how immensely skillful and creative people pursue their passions through the art of sculpture.

Small Town Big Dreams

The Life of Nancy Zeckendorf

This is a story of a young girl from a small town with a big dream that took her to Juilliard, Broadway, summer stock, the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera, and introduced her to her husband William Zeckendorf Jr. Her memoir overflows with the glamour of a life lived among the famous figures of mid-century New York society and the grit necessary to succeed in the professional world of dance.

Fascinated by art and architecture, the vivacious ballerina Nancy Zeckendorf became a formidable development partner with her husband and a philanthropic leader in the performing arts–her fundraising ability is an art form unto itself.

“I love hardware stores and tools,” she said of her common-sense approach to construction projects. Indeed, Nancy was a guiding force in the expansion of the Santa Fe Opera, the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and the premier community of Los Miradores where she lives now in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Inflateable Planet

A balloon artist and photographer travel the world surprising people with improvised, inflatable crowns and offer a deep view into the nature of joy.

The simple act of twisting a balloon for a complete stranger can make people instant friends. This idea animated balloon artist Addi Somekh and photographer Charlie Eckert to improvise balloon crowns for unsuspecting people throughout thirty-five countries and document their reactions. Part photography book, part sociological study, part spontaneous party, 'Inflatable Planet' chronicles features of over two hundreds photos from this international experiment in joy.

Departures: A Journey with India

Nowhere is the human condition more apparent than in India, a window to life, a window to all. Departures presents a journey through place, life, and our preparations for departure from the material to the ethereal. To journey with India is to reflect, a portal to the experiences of a universal human condition, Departures weaves together a sometimes-haunting story of modernity and urbanization with an ancient, diverse, and complex land.

A work in the humanist and social realist genre of photography, Departures reflects on the 21st century urban stage contrasting the gritty realism of urban life, work and the struggles and joys of the everyday with the dramatic beauty of people, ritual, belief, and landscape. 

Created from an archive of 20 years photographing, living and working in India, Departures goes beyond the often incidental or serendipitous nature of street photography to open the door and explore the life within.

American Industry

'American Industry' is as much a celebration as it is documentation. Through his unique vision and privileged access, photographer Kim Steele has achieved a spectacular distillation of a variety of icons of power. Some of these places of power are literal: sources of hydro-electric energy, such as dams or atomic and accelerators. Other places of power are more metaphorical: the might of massive construction as only heavy industry can achieve, whether in architecture or ships; or the romance of aviation and the exploration of space.

The photographic images are as iconic as their subjects. Formally pure and powerful in their scale and clarity, they mirror the ambitious and inspirational quality of what are now understood to be quintessential and classic symbols of American ingenuity and drive. Together, the seven chapters, Hydro Power, Aviation, Heavy Industry, Energy, Space, Atomic Energy, and The Future, create a visual tapestry of American industrial power in the twentieth century. A testimony of a guilded age of American Industrial might.

Slow Wine Guide USA

'Slow Wine Guide USA' is a new and revolutionary guide to the wines of California, Oregon, New York, and Washington. Thanks to the help of a handful of expert contributors, we’ve selected the best wineries from each state and reviewed their most outstanding bottles.

The idea behind 'Slow Wine' is simple: it acknowledges the unique stories of people and vineyards, of grape varieties and landscapes, and of their wines. The awareness that wine is more than just liquid in a glass helps wine lovers make better, more conscious choices and enhances the very enjoyment of this beverage. Since its beginnings in Italy twelve years ago, Slow Wine has combined its tasting sessions with equally important moments of exchange and debate with producers. The direct contact with winegrowers and winemakers allows for a genuine, authentic, and always up-to-date report on what’s happening in America’s vineyards and cellars.

Each winery receives a review divided in three sections: the first one is dedicated to the people who live and work at the winery, the second to the vineyards and the way they’re farmed, and the third to the finest wines currently available on the market.

The very best wines are awarded the Top Wine accolade. Among these we have the Slow Wines—which beyond their outstanding sensory quality are of particular interest for their sense of place, environmental sustainability or historical value—and the Everyday Wines, representing excellent value at prices within $30.

The most interesting wineries on the other hand are awarded the Snail, for the way they interpret Slow Food values (sensory perceptions, territory, environment, identity) while offering good value for money; the Bottle, to wineries whose wines are of outstanding sensory quality throughout the range; the Coin to those estates offering excellent value for money.

In Search for Meaning

‘In Search for Meaning’ is the first published book by artist-photographer Felisa Tan. This striking collection covers most of her major work for the past fifteen years, many of which were never published before. Consisting of seventy-two photographs exquisitely made and sequenced by Felisa herself, unveiling spellbinding and strange mundane subjects from her extensive travels and light experimentations at home, she has created a record of the way she experiences the world after undergoing more than a decade of evolution as an artist and human being.

Felisa’s photographs reflect honest, clear observation, and an intricate and layered way of seeing, as she watches life unfold itself before her eyes. Her exceptionally loaded ways of looking at the world are reflected in her handling of space, composition, synchronized colours, shapes, and framing, and rather imperfect subjects and places. Common things—graffiti, carnivals, twilight, lonely scenes, and empty spaces—are all transformed by her subtle luminous vision into an extraordinary teacher, filled with ageless Presence and wisdom. The consistency of her proclivity towards certain kinds of places and moments of time, and deep insightful rendering of these moments, present us with an extension of her present tense, reading of meaning, and judgment of what might be of timeless importance to the readers in every phase of their lives. Furthermore, with her ability to grasp the little details that come her way as both an individual and a representative of a larger human and universal context, this rich compendium of images in both natural and human settings transport the viewer into the heart of childlike wonder and a lush infinite Universe.

Café Society

The Parisian café is an integral part of the city's daily life no matter the weather, the time of day or year, the mood or neighborhood. It is the spirit of the café, the dance of the waiters, the camaraderie of the patrons, the perpetual movement and joy, that brings Joanie Osburn to share a dollop of history, a shot of insight, and a boatload of images that celebrate the Paris café as a cultural heritage worth celebrating and preserving.

"Café Society: Time Suspended, The Cafés, & Bistros of Paris" is a beautifully presented view of the origins, progression, and current state of the centuries-long tradition of the Parisian café, bistro, and brasserie. The book is neither a history book nor a cookbook, but a nontraditional travel guide, coffee table, and lifestyle book about a treasured lifestyle. 

Introductory text and timelines provide a concise narrative of the history and evolution of coffee, coffeehouses, cafés, bistros, and brasseries in Paris and across the globe and form a backdrop for the text and photos in the body of the book that highlights contemporary café life. Osburn's unique perspective, honed over many decades as an American in Paris exploring and capturing images of café society, captivates and amuses with anecdotes and insider recommendations. "Café Society: Time Suspended, The Cafés, and Bistros of Paris" is a book that matters now as the world reopens and eager travelers return to Paris.

Photoscape and the Egg

‘Photoscapes and the Egg’ is an intimate book to be savored and kept nearby, perhaps on a coffee table because of its sheer beauty. Inside its robin egg blue cloth cover are improvised photos of objects, nature, and art, each matched with a photo of an egg inside a cosmic circle—eggs with personalities from the calm ethereal to the hot aggressive. In full, there are more than 100 stunning color photos, all taken with an iPhone.

The match of phenomena and eggs alludes to the dance of the material world with the invisible “birthing source” represented by the egg. Accompanying text and poems bring stories to the dance.

The juxtapositions evoke surprise, insight, emotions, hope, and refreshment. They make wry jokes and touch on realities beyond the obvious. This book contains unabashed gentleness and spiritual toughness without pretense.

Photoscapes and the Egg sprang from the mind of Patricia Z. Smith, a 79-year-old photographer and writer with extensive life experience and a pull since childhood to meld the physical with the esoteric.

The design by Louis Brody is modern and serene. The book is a gift to the reader and her or his friends. It is a resource for these times and our future.

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