Rembrandt painted his own face more than 80 times in paintings, etchings and drawings the first of which was created about 1628 when he was roughly 22 years old. A string beam of light illuminates just the neck, part of the cheek, the earlobe and the tip of the nose. The other parts of the face are lost in deep shadow giving an impression of depth, mystery and drama. Few devotees of the form can approach Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's radical contributions to self-portraiture. Challenging the conventions enshrined by his predecessors, Rembrandt transformed the art into a fully realised medium capable of communicating emotional depth rather than favourably immortalising one's likeness in the finest trappings of luxury. With more than 80 works spanning paintings, etchings, and drawings, the Dutchman's lifelong practice of self-portraiture, one constant is particularly striking across media and styles - Rembrandt's dedication to presenting himself from multiple perspectives, celebrating the multiplicity of the individual and championing the unfiltered portrayal of emotional expression. The works themselves are rich with technical innovation and experimentation and each expressive brushstroke and obfuscated feature amounts to an unflinchingly honest characterisation of himself, in all his foibles, contrasting states of feeling, and stages of life. This monograph renders all of Rembrandt's self-portraits - from his first experimentations at age 22 to his final self-portrait painted a year before his death. 14 x 19.5cm, 192 pages. New from Taschen.

"...a monumental survey... The Computer is a richly illustrated history of society's ever-evolving relationship with the silicon chip."-- "Wallpaper". "Almost pop art history of the technology". The story of the evolution of machines in computer history is full of the disruptive innovations that have led to today's world. From the early beginnings of computing to the bulky mainframe to the personal computer era, we now live in an almost entirely digital age. This visual tome explores steps from the first ideas of a calculating machine in the 19th century and early experiments with autonomous driving in the 1920s to oversized office computers in the 1950s to laptops and wearables of today. Tracing the stories of tech visionaries, pioneers, and entrepreneurs, the book combines compelling visuals, historical documents, and in-depth explanations to reveal significant events in computer history. Encompassing the invention of machines, coding, and software development, as well as technology's influence on today's political landscape, this incredible survey presents creations from Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. Showcasing forgotten gadgets and prototypes connecting iconic products such as the Apple Macintosh and the Sony Play Station as well as remembering milestones in software development, videogaming, and the web. Infographics explain wireless communication and other fundamental technical concepts, while the history of corporations such as IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Atari, Amazon, and Google is retraced through rare photographs and advertising campaigns. A fascinating read, this book acknowledges the computer's stupendous power and social impact. For techies and everyone interested in culture, economics, politics, and science. 24.6 x 37.2 cm, a weighty 3.89 kg, 472 pages. Text in English, Italian and Spanish.

At the turn of the 20th century, the American photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) started on his 30 year project to produce a monumental study of North American Indians. Using an approach that was both artistically and scientifically ambitious, he recorded, in words and pictures, the traces of the traditional Indian way of life that was already beginning to die out. With tireless personal commitment Curtis visited 80 American Indian tribes from the Mexican border to the Bering Strait in America and Canada, gaining their confidence through his patience and sensitivity. Tribes include the Apache, Navajo, Mohave, Atsina, Cheyenne, Klickitat, Nez Percés, Haida, Hopi, Yuki, Zuni, Sarsi and Comanche. Totem poles, squaws, cacti, teepees and famous chiefs like Spotted Bull and Little Sioux, Curtis photographed Indian faces, homes, agriculture, dress, warriors, cooking, hunting, clay making, fishing - every aspect of their nature, habitat and lifestyle. His work was printed in 20 volumes between 1907 and 1930 as The North American Indian, but with only 272 copies, originals became extremely rare. This book gathers Curtis' entire American Indian portfolio into one publication, offering renewed access to and appreciation of his extraordinary achievement, which is as much a precious historical document as a triumph of the photographic form. All in quality, atmospheric sepia. New from Taschen. 14 x 4.5 x 20.5 cm, 768 pages, pagemarker.

A bird-monster devouring sinners, naked bodies in tantric contortions, a pair of ears brandishing a sharpened blade: with just 20 paintings and nine drawings to his name, Netherlandish visionary Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516) secured his place as a pillar of art history. To this day, the painter par excellence of hell and its demons continues to puzzle and enthral scholars, artists, designers, and musicians alike. Based on the best-selling XXL edition, which saw Taschen commission new and exclusive photography of details and recently restored works, this large-scale monograph presents Bosch's complete oeuvre. Texts from art historian and Bosch expert Stefan Fischer dissect the many compelling elements that populate each scene, from hybrid creatures of man and beast to Bosch's pictorial use of proverbs and idioms. By tying together the elusive threads of his oeuvre into one exhaustive overview, this book reveals just what it was about Bosch and his painting that proved so immensely influential. Features impeccable full-page reproductions celebrating the artist's staggering compositional scope, enlarged details unveiling the most intricate and bizarre scenes as much as the unsuspected technical minutiae, from subtle brush-strokes to the grain of the canvas and a fold-out spread drawn from the legendary Last Judgement. A special chapter focusses on Bosch's most famous work, the mesmerizing and terrifying triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights. Colour. Hardcover with fold-out, 25 x 34 cm, a weighty 3 kg, 300 pages.

Caravaggio, or more accurately Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), was always a name to be reckoned with. Notorious bad boy of Italian painting, the artist was at once celebrated and controversial: violent in temper, precise in technique, a creative master, and a man on the run. Caravaggio employed close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as tenebrism. He made the technique a dominant stylistic element, transfixing subjects in bright shafts of light and darkening shadows. Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture, and death. He worked rapidly with live models, preferring to forgo drawings and work directly onto the canvas. His first version of Saint Matthew and the Angel, featuring the saint as a bald peasant with dirty legs attended by a lightly clad over-familiar boy-angel, was rejected and a second version had to be painted as The Inspiration of Saint Matthew. Similarly, The Conversion of Saint Paul was rejected, and while another version of the same subject, the Conversion on the Way to Damascus, was accepted, it featured the saint's horse's haunches far more prominently than the saint himself. This excellent new Taschen edition offers a neat and comprehensive Caravaggio catalogue raisonné. Each of his paintings is reproduced from recent top-quality photography, allowing for a vivid encounter with the artist's ingenious repertoire of looks and gestures, as well as numerous detail shots of his boundary-breaking naturalism. Five accompanying chapters trace the complete arc of Caravaggio's career from his first public commissions in Rome through to his growing celebrity status and trace his tempestuous personal life, in which drama loomed as prominently as in his canvases. Colour. 15.6 x 21.7cm, 512 pages.

Back in 2002, Simon 'Woody' Wood was dreaming up schemes to get free sneakers (trainers in English!). Two weeks later, he was the proud owner of Sneaker Freaker and his life was never the same. From its early roots as a punk-style fanzine to today's super-slick print and online operations, the fiercely independent publication has documented every collaboration, custom, limited edition, retro reissue, Quickstrike, Hyperstrike, and Tier Zero sneaker released over the last 20 years. Woody's original premise that Sneaker Freaker would be "funny and serious, meaningful and pointless at the same time" has certainly been vindicated in this ultimate book. Traversing 100 years of history, each chapter paints a rollicking picture of the sneaker industry's evolution. Air Max, Air Force, Adi Dassler, Converse, Dapper Dan, Dee Brown, and Michael Jordan, along with obscure treasures like Troop, Airwalk, and Vision Street Wear, are all exhaustively documented. 500 pages jam-packed with insider knowledge and his own irreverent observations, the insane historical detail and otaku-level minutiae is beyond obsessive. Dripping with cool colour images. 15.6 x 21.7cm, 512 pages. New from Taschen.

First advertised as a "mind-stretching experience," Nicolas Roeg's 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth stunned the cinema world. A tour-de-force of science fiction as art form, the movie brought not only hallucinatory visuals and a haunting exploration of contemporary alienation, but also glam-rock legend David Bowie in his lead role debut as paranoid alien Newton. Based on Walter Tevis's 1963 sci-fi fable of the same title, it follows alien Newton from his arrival on earth in search of water; his transition to wealthy entrepreneur, leveraging the advanced technologies of his native planet; his sexual awakening with the young Mary-Lou; and then the discovery of his alien identity, his imprisonment, abandonment, and descent into alcoholism. Throughout, Roeg coaxed a beguiling performance from his cast, presenting not only Bowie in ethereal space-traveller glory, but also pitch-perfect supporting performances from Candy Clark, Rip Torn, and Buck Henry. The book presents many rare stills and behind-the-scenes images by unit photographer David James, including numerous shots of Bowie at his playful and ambiguous best. A fresh introductory essay explores the shooting of the film and its lasting impact, drawing upon an exclusive interview with David James, who brings first-hand insights into the making of this sci-fi masterwork. Heavy with colour images, 15.6 x 21.7cm, 480 pages. New from Taschen.

Paris is the City of Light in all its facets. In the 1920s La Ville des Lumières gleams especially bright and becomes a magnet for creative people from around the world. This is the decade of Coco Chanel and Josephine Baker, Art Deco and Surrealism, café culture and cabaret. The most famous artists of the epoch, later called Classic Modernism, are in close contact and have lively exchanges with one another - including Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, René Clair, Sonia Delaunay, Henri Matisse, Man Ray, Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí. The creative life and all its excesses flourish - bohème is the word for this way of living. Composers like Igor Stravinsky, writers like James Joyce or Ernest Hemingway and exiles from Eastern Europe like Constantin Brancu?i or Marc Chagall enrich the illustrious scene on Montparnasse. The pulsing bars and dance halls of Montmartre are captured by photographers André Kertesz and Brassaï. The French economy is booming and luxury department stores like La Samaritaine open their doors. Coco Chanel creates her own perfume and designs the little black dress. More than 30 outstanding works of architecture, painting, sculpture, film, photography, design and fashion are presented, including Giacometti's Surrealist Suspended Ball and the film Un chien andalou by Dalí and Buñuel. Colour images like Tamara de Lempicka's Self Portrait in the Green Bugatti and Paul Colin's Josephine Baker in a Banana Skirt and many mono photos too. 21 x 26cm, 96 pages. New from Taschen.