Chien-Chi Chang: Jet Lag


Book Description

'Today is Monday, so this must be Zurich.' For those who travel a lot, the world becomes a steel-and-concrete construct of interchangeable flight crews, hotel rooms, and check-in counters. In this jet-setting life, the most important thing is that the power adapter fits. For Jet Lag, award-winning photographer Chien-Chi Chang (*1961 in Taiwan) has created succinct black-and-white images of globalized disconnect. In these photographs, reality is less a touchstone than a distraction: the crucial space is 'between'. Planes and beds and flickering screens provide the only continuity, and there is little human warmth except the body heat of the passenger in the next seat and the sounds coming through the wall from the adjacent room. Chien-Chi Chang has been a member of Magnum Photos since 2001. His several series about alienation - in mental states, in marriage, in nationality - have been exhibited throughout the world, creating a sensation in 2001 and 2009 at the Venice Biennale.




The World from My Front Porch


Book Description

An album featuring the best of 20 years of award-winning Magnum member Larry Towell's photographs of family life in rural Ontario. Towell's idyllic and beautiful photo-essay is accompanied by an extensive autobiographical text illustrated with over 160 photographs, objects and songs chosen by Towell. These are presented in an extended introduction and afterword to the book, exploring the history of his front porch (Larry's house was built by the man who first carved Ontario into farm units) and his journeys from the security of his home and family into the war zones of the world. Between them, the photo essay and the accompanying materials, The World From My Front Porch makes a poetic and moving statement about land and belonging, the central theme of Towell's work. The book is dramatically designed in the manner of an Edwardian album, and accompanies a retrospective touring exhibition.




Harry Gruyaert


Book Description

New from Magnum Photos member Harry Gruyaert, a collection of photographs of airports and people in transit. Alongside American photographers such as Saul Leiter, Joel Meyerowitz, Stephen Shore, and William Eggleston, Harry Gruyaert became one of the first European pioneers to explore the creative possibilities of color photography in the 1970s and 1980s. The previous decades had elevated black-and-white photography to the realms of art, relegating the use of color to advertising, press, and illustration. Gruyaert’s work suggested new territory for color photography: an emotive, nonnarrative, and boldly graphic way of perceiving the world. Harry Gruyaert: Last Call highlights the photographer’s signature ability to seamlessly weave texture, light, color, and architecture into a single frame with his photographs taken at airports. These photographs beautifully record these liminal, yet reliably inhabited spaces in a striking and sometimes surprising fashion.




Next Generation Earth System Prediction


Book Description

As the nation's economic activities, security concerns, and stewardship of natural resources become increasingly complex and globally interrelated, they become ever more sensitive to adverse impacts from weather, climate, and other natural phenomena. For several decades, forecasts with lead times of a few days for weather and other environmental phenomena have yielded valuable information to improve decision-making across all sectors of society. Developing the capability to forecast environmental conditions and disruptive events several weeks and months in advance could dramatically increase the value and benefit of environmental predictions, saving lives, protecting property, increasing economic vitality, protecting the environment, and informing policy choices. Over the past decade, the ability to forecast weather and climate conditions on subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) timescales, i.e., two to fifty-two weeks in advance, has improved substantially. Although significant progress has been made, much work remains to make S2S predictions skillful enough, as well as optimally tailored and communicated, to enable widespread use. Next Generation Earth System Predictions presents a ten-year U.S. research agenda that increases the nation's S2S research and modeling capability, advances S2S forecasting, and aids in decision making at medium and extended lead times.




The Chain


Book Description

In 1970, Ki Lun-Tai, an abbot in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, decided to become a Buddhist monk. He built a thatched hut in front of his house, adopted a schizophrenic as his disciple, and began to raise pigs and chickens with his new helper, whom he kept on a line of string, much like a leash. Within 20 years Li Kun-Tai, by now rechristed (by himself) Hieh Kai Feng, had 600 deranged helpers, most chained together, almost exclusively consigned to him by their families, distraught by the shame of having to look after lunatics, or socially unacceptable misfits. Ten years later, in 1999, Long Fa Tang - the Temple of the Dragon - was recognized as the largest chicken farm in Taiwan, with a milliin chickens laying eggs and defecating in almost equal proportions. They are tended by helpers from the 700 mental patients in the care of the Temple, wading through slurry, eggs and chicken corpses.




Jeddah Diary


Book Description

Documents the two years Arthur spent photographing Saudi Arabian women.




Haiti


Book Description

Winner of the 1996 European Publishers Award, this stunning work is by native New York photographer Bruce Gilden who has been based in Paris for five years. Widely represented in numerous collections including MOMA, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Gilden has been the recipient of three National Endowment of the Arts awards. His previous books are 'Facing New York' and 'Bleus'.




Elliott Erwitt's Handbook


Book Description

Through his serious and yet whimsical photography, Erwitt captures the delicious moments which, without hands, would not exist.




A New Direction for China's Defense Industry


Book Description

Since the early 1980s, a prominent and consistent conclusion drawn from research on China's defense-industrial complex has been that China's defense-production capabilities are rife with weaknesses and limitations. This study argues for an alternative approach: From the vantage point of 2005, it is time to shift the focus of current research to the gradual improvements in and the future potential of China's defense-industrial complex. The study found that China's defense sectors are designing and producing a wide range of increasingly advanced weapons that, in the short term, are relevant to a possible conflict over Taiwan but also to China's long-term military presence in Asia. Part of a larger RAND Project AIR FORCE study on Chinese military modernization, this study examines the current and future capabilities of China's defense industry. The goals of this study are to 1.




Tea in Health and Disease Prevention


Book Description

While there is a nearly universal agreement that drinking tea can benefit health, information on the benefits or adverse effects of drinking tea is scattered, leaving definitive answers difficult to ascertain. Tea in Health and Disease Prevention, Second Edition, once again addresses this problem, bringing together all the latest and most relevant information on tea and its health effects into one comprehensive resource. This book covers compounds in black, green, and white teas and explores their health implications, first more generally, then in terms of specific organ systems and diseases. With over 75% brand new content, this fully reorganized, updated edition covers a wider range of tea varieties and beneficial compounds found in tea, such as epigallocatechin gallate and antioxidants.Tea in Health and Disease Prevention, Second Edition, is an organized, efficient resource that will help readers find quick answers to questions and will help inspire further studies for those interested in tea research. This is a must-have reference for researchers in food science and nutrition, as well as nutritionists and dieticians. - Covers and compares features, benefits, and potential negative effects of the most important types of tea, including green, black, and white - Identifies therapeutic benefits of teas for new product development - Offers a "one stop shop" for research in this area, compiling both foundational and cutting-edge topics into one resource - Includes a dictionary of key terms, other health effects of tea or extracts, and a summary point section within each chapter for a quick reference