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Top 5 Best Selling Arts & Photography Books

1.      Kevin McCloud’s 43 Principles of Home: Enjoying Life in the Twenty-First Century

Kevin McCloud’s 43 Principles of Home represents a landmark piece of interiors publishing. In this lavish and inspirational yet also practical book Kevin explores all areas of domestic living, from materialism to sustainability, craftsmanship to comfort.

In his witty, wide-ranging commentary on the way we live now, the things we have gained and lost, Kevin’s beautifully written text brings insight and understanding. Crucially, however, he also offers up his 43 principles of home life — each one addressing very real and solvable domestic issues.

• What is the perfect kitchen layout?

• How to create a feeling of space in traditionally sized rooms?

• How to create an extension that works?

• How best to choose colour for function?

• How do you create dynamic and enjoyable kids spaces?

• What to do with your empty fireplace?

• And how best to manage home waste and recycling?

An inspiring but always usable book from the foremost voice in modern architectural design

Praise for Kevin McCloud

“a serious man of taste and integrity’ The Observer  ‘like most television naturals, Kevin McCloud has an unmediated quality which comes across as effortless… (the) David Attenborough of the building site’ The Guardian ‘passionate; knowledgeable; eloquent and basically everything that most TV presenters are not’ The Independent ‘Kevin McCloud can enthuse over a simple joist like no one else. This is a man who actually enjoys watching concrete dry… his enthusiasm is so infectious’ The Observer

Author Biography

Kevin McCloud is best known as presenter of Channel 4′s BAFTA-nominated ‘Grand Designs’, now in its tenth series. He writes books and articles about decoration, design, lighting and colour, and is editor-at-large of Grand Designs magazine. In addition, Kevin is a product and lighting designer and has produced ranges of furniture, lighting and tableware for high street names.

2.      Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton

Still Life is a unique and hauntingly beautiful photographic study of the Antarctic huts that served as expedition bases for explorations led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton.

At the turn of the twentieth century Antarctica was the focus of one of the last great races of exploration and discovery. Known as the ‘heroic age’, from 1895 to 1917 Antarctic explorers set off from their huts in search of adventure, science and glory but some, such as Scott, were never to return. The World Wars intervened and the huts were left as time capsules of Edwardian life; a portrait of King Edward VII hangs amid seal blubber, sides of mutton, a jar of gherkins, penguin eggs, cufflinks and darned trousers.

One of New Zealand’s best known photographers, Jane Ussher, was invited by the Antarctic Heritage Trust to record ‘the unusual, the hidden and minutiae of these sites’. The Executive Director of the Trust, Nigel Watson, provides a fascinating introduction to the history and atmosphere of each hut and detailed photographic captions. Key points: features Discovery Hut (used by both Scott and Shackleton), Shackleton’s Hut and Scott’s Hut on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound; unique and intimate glimpse into the lives of Antarctic explorers, a subject that holds great fascination for readers worldwide; large format and seven gatefolds display Jane Ussher’s intriguing and evocative photography with stunning impact.

Author Biography

Jane Ussher is one of New Zealand’s foremost portrait photographers, best known for the impressive body of work she developed during twenty-nine years as chief photographer at the New Zealand Listener, New Zealand’s leading arts and current affairs weekly magazine. Jane’s work has also been published in several books, Gone North (2004) with Dame Fiona Kidman, Jane Ussher Portraits (2004) and Martin Bosley Cooks (2006), and her work features regularly in magazines such as NZ Geographic, Sunday Magazine, Life & Leisure and House & Garden, Metro and North & South. Created with her favourite camera, a medium format Hasselblad, Jane’s images are beautiful, revealing, often sombre, and always true to the integrity of the person or object she is photographing. She lives in Auckland with her husband Grant Gallagher and their son Nicholas.

3.      Home Work

When architects accept a client’s commission they are working to fulfill the client’s aspirations. When they build their own houses they have only themselves to please.

In this fascinating and handsomely produced book, Patrick Reynolds and John Walsh go inside 20 homes built and still lived in by their architects. These range from homes built in the 1960s through to brand new houses only recently completed, throughout New Zealand. Patrick Reynolds’ skillful camera captures their details and John Walsh’s sparkling text explains the signficance of each house while also examining its architect’s career. Given that they are all practitioners with a significant body of work (including Ian Athfield, Peter Beaven and Gordon Moller), together the essays create a survey of high architectural endeavour over the last 50 years.

Author Biography

Patrick Reynolds is New Zealand’s leading architectural photographer. His work is published in leading architecture magazines both here and overseas. His recent books include New New Zealand Houses (with John Walsh), Architecture Uncooked (with Pip Cheshire) and Villa (with Jeremy Salmond and Jeremy Hansen). John Walsh is the managing editor of AGM Publishers, directly responsible for Architecture New Zealand, Houses and Urbis magazines. He wrote New New Zealand Houses with Patrick Reynolds. Both Reynolds and Walsh live in Auckland.

4.      LEGO Star Wars : The Visual Dictionary (with mini-figure)

Complete with an exclusive Star Wars mini-figure.

Find out all about Star Wars LEGO weapons, battle stations and even the Death Star through amazing photos and incredible details. Come face-to-face with LEGO versions of Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Yoda, Luke Skywalker and more and discover hundreds of little known facts about the Star Wars characters.

Packed with information on the history, manufacture and construction of Star Wars LEGO.

5.      White Cloud Worlds: An Anthology of Sci-fi and Fantasy Artwork from Aotearoa New Zealand

The Land of the Long White Cloud is now the land of White Cloud Worlds. There, leading edge fantasy meets the utter brilliance and technical skill of a unique group of New Zealand based artists, whose works are influencing our popular culture – through movies like Lord of the Rings, Avatar and District Nine, gaming and graphic novels, as they unleash the power of their imagination through the technologies and media available to artists at this end of the 21st century.

With a foreword by Richard Taylor, twelve fantasy artists have been selected, each with a distinctive voice and style. Along with stunning artworks, many created for this project, which will be the centrepiece of a major long-term exhibition debuting at the Dowse Gallery, Tobin has each artist speak about their motivations, dreams, techniques and influences. From stark, terrifying, alien landscapes and creatures of terror and blighted evil, to paintings of sensual and evocative beauty; from the childlike vision of cuddlesome dwarves to the pathos of their preparing for to fight to the death; from the sensual lyricism of familiar shapes and forms to the groteque and troubling visions of disturbing difference – White Cloud Worlds is guaranteed to stun and amaze. Showcasing some amazing, innovative creative artists, who operate outside of conventional art culture.

About the Author:

Paul Tobin has worked as a concept designer at Weta Workshop since 2003 and is the director of Ignite Inc., a small company dedicated to the celebration of individual creativity through collective projects. Paul also teaches illustration part time at Massey University and works as a freelance concept designer and illustrator.
Paul has a Bachelor of Design (Hons) from the Massey University College of Creative Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University where he majored in classical studies and English language. He has indulged his passion for ancient worlds by extensive travel and work as a volunteer archaeologist.

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