What does photography tell us about the lifestyles and mentality in China in the face of the rapid social change? Artists in search of their identity explore the medium of photography experimentally and provide insight into the individual complex worlds of emotions and experiences of their generation.

Starting with Helmar Lerski’s outstanding photo series "Metamorphosis through Light" from 1935/36, the magnificent volume "Faces – The Power of the Human Visage" presents portraits from the era of the Weimar Republic. The photographs taken by the photographers of the 1920s and 1930s achieved a radical renewal of portrait photography.

Diary-like series, landscape photos and situational mood pictures – Elina Brotherus (*1972 in Helsinki) is constantly searching for new possibilities in photography. This lavishly illustrated volume with related essays pursues the latest developments. Here the Finnish photo artist combines a keen intellect with humorous lightness and technical precision with joyous spontaneity.

The book synthesizes research in history, fashion, art and visual culture to reassess the hair story of peoples of African descent. Long a fraught topic for African Americans and others in the diaspora, Black hair is here addressed by artists, barbers and activists in both its historical perceptions and its ramifications for self and society today.

Charles Bukowski, the "dirty old man" of American literature whose poems and prose are closely interwoven with his life – how does one go about portraying a person like that? In 1985, the young photographer Abe Frajndlich took on this challenge. We can say this much: it was not a job that could be accomplished in one shot. The Shooting presents a photographer’s attempt to zero in on a legend.

The political collages of John Heartfield (1891–1968) have earned him a reputation as one of the most innovative graphic artists of the Weimar Republic. His photomontages and book covers based on collages which had their origins in Berlin’s Dada scene were directed against Fascism and made him internationally famous. Their explosive power has lost none of its impact.

László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946), painter, photographer, Bauhaus teacher and founder of the “New Bauhaus” and the “School of Design” in Chicago, is one of the most important artist personalities of the modern age. As one of the first artists to work in multiple media, who practised painting, sculpture, photography, film and design as equally valid art genres, he set standards which are still relevant today.

The publication provides an overview of the fascinating work of the contemporary Dutch artist Juul Kraijer. Her monumental drawings, photographs, sculptures and video works sound out and dissolve the boundaries of the human body and show hybrid creatures between animal and human. 

Hopetoun House, on the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh, is the seat of the Marquess of Linlithgow. The lavishly illustrated book presents the architecture (initially designed by Sir William Bruce in the 1690s and greatly extended by William Adam and his sons from the 1720s), sumptuously decorated rooms and art collection, as well as the landscape and gardens.

Frida Kahlo was just one of them: between 1930 and the 1960s many more women artists contributed to the Surrealist movement than has hitherto been assumed. The male Surrealists surrounding André Breton mostly saw them only as partners or models, but this volume shows how much more these women artists had to offer.