The soul of New York. A photographic journey through the history of the world's greatest city

This book presents the epic story of New York on nearly 600 pages of emotional, atmospheric photographs, from the mid-19th century to the present day. Supplementing this treasure trove of images are over a hundred quotations and references from relevant books, movies, shows and songs. The city's fluctuating fortunes are all represented, from the wild nights of the Jazz Age and the hedonistic disco era to the grim days of the Depression and the devastation of 9/11 and its aftermath, as its broken-hearted but unbowed citizens picked up the pieces. 

New York's remarkable rise, reinvention and growth is not just the tale of a city, but the story of a nation, From the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island; from the slums of the Lower East Side to the magnificent art deco skyscrapers. The urban beach of Coney Island and the sleaze of Times Square; the vistas of Central Park and the crowds on 5th Avenue. The streets, the sidewalks, the chaos, the energy, the ethnic diversity, the culture, the fashion, the architecture, the anger and the complexity of the city is all laid out in this beautiful book block and block. This is the greatest city in the world after all and great are its extremes, contradictions and attitude.

More than just a remarkable tribute to the metropolis and its civic, social, and photographic heritage, New York: Portrait of a City pays homage to the indomitable spirit of those who call themselves New Yorkers: full of hope and strength, resolute in their determination to succeed among its glass and granite towers.

Features hundreds of iconic images, sourced from dozens of archives and private collections — many never before published — and the work of over 150 celebrated photographers, including: Victor Prevost, Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Weegee, Margaret Bourke-White, Saul Leiter, Esther Bubley, Arnold Newman, William Claxton, Ralph Gibson, Ryan McGinley, Mitch Epstein, Steve Schapiro, Marvin Newman, Allen Ginsberg, Joel Meyerowitz, Andreas Feininger, Charles Cushman, Joseph Rodriguez, Garry Winogrand, Larry Fink, Jamel Shabazz, Allan Tannenbaum, Bruce Davidson, Helen Levitt, Eugene de Salignac, Ruth Orkin, Joel Sternfeld, Keizo Kitajima, and many many more.

The editor and author:

Reuel Golden is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photography editor at TASCHEN. His TASCHEN titles include: Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, both London and New York Portrait of a City books, The Rolling Stones, Her Majesty, Football in the 1970s, the National Geographic editions, the David Bailey SUMO and Andy Warhol. Polaroids.

Rise and Sprawl: How Los Angeles Came To Be. A pictorial history of the City of Angels

From the first known photograph taken in Los Angeles to its most recent sweeping vistas, this photographic tribute to the City of Angels provides a fascinating journey through the city's cultural, political, industrial, and sociological history. It traces the city's development from the 1880s' real estate boom, through the early days of Hollywood and the urban sprawl of the late 20th century, right up to the present day. With over 500 images, L.A. is shown emerging from a desert wasteland to become a vast palm-studded urban metropolis.

Events that made world news - including two Olympics, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, and the Rodney King riots - reveal a city of many dimensions. The entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, and its celebrities are showcased along with many other notable residents, personalities, architects, artists, and musicians. The city's pop cultural movements, its music, surfing, health food fads, gangs, and hot rods are included, as are its notorious crimes and criminals. This book depicts Los Angeles in all its glory and grit, via hundreds of freshly discovered images including those of Julius Shulman, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton and many other superb photographers, culled from major historical archives, museums, private collectors, and universities. These are given context and resonance through essays by renowned California historian Kevin Starr and Los Angeles literature expert David L. Ulin.

The Streets of San Francisco. An epic pictorial history of the City by the Bay

Starting with an early picture of a gang of badass gold prospectors who put this beautiful Northern California city on the map, this ambitious and immersive photographic history of San Francisco takes a winding tour through the city from the mid–nineteenth century to the present day.

Enjoy eye-catching views of the city’s most enduring landmarks and symbols: the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, the picturesque trams that wind up and down the famously steep hills, the popular waterfront, its beautiful bay, and its spectacular cityscapes and vistas. San Francisco’s counterculture movements that shaped our collective consciousness are also featured prominently: the beats of North Beach, the hippies of Haight-Ashbury, the gay communities of Castro, and the Black Panthers of neighboring Oakland. Some of the city’s most famous residents also make appearances: Robin Williams, The Grateful Dead, Angela Davis, Janis Joplin, Sylvester, and Allen Ginsberg, among others.

This book features hundreds of newly found images from dozens of archives including museums, universities, libraries, galleries, private collections, and historical societies, from 19th-century daguerreotypes to mid-century Kodachromes to 21st-century digital pictures. Master photographers include, among others: Stephen Shore, Imogen Cunningham, Fred Lyon, Steve Schapiro, Minor White, Dorothea Lange, Albert Watson, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, William Claxton, Fred Herzog, Ansel Adams, Jim Marshall, and many local shooters. Also includes introductory essays and captions by Bay Area–based author Richie Unterberger and a “Best of San Francisco” books, music, and movies section and biographies of the photographers. Tony Bennett famously sang, “I left my heart in San Francisco,” and this meticulously researched and conceived portrait will equally inspire and make you fall in love with the spirit of the City by the Bay.

The editor:

Reuel Golden is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photography editor at TASCHEN. His TASCHEN titles include: Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, both London and New York Portrait of a City books, The Rolling Stones, Her Majesty, Football in the 1970s, the National Geographic editions, the David Bailey SUMO and Andy Warhol. Polaroids.

The author:

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Who, Bob Marley, and 1960s folk-rock. A San Francisco Bay resident for 35 years, he has contributed to numerous publications, including MOJO, Record Collector, and The Oxford American. He teaches courses at several Bay Area colleges, including the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and the University of California at Berkeley.

City of Dreams. A visual journey through Vienna’s dazzling history

Explore a city of architectural splendor, ubiquitous history, and incomparable heritage of art, design, and music. This collection brings together hundreds of photographs from the last 175 years to trace the history of Vienna; from imperial city to modern metropolis, from major landmarks to tucked-away treasures, and from the flowering of the fin de siècle to the Cold War.

Vienna combines drama and elegance like no other. For centuries the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the stately city on the Danube, has been defined by vast palaces and imperial grandeur—but behind the Baroque opulence, Vienna is also a place of genteel coffee house culture, epicurean tradition, and a heritage of both delicate and daring music, art, and design, from Johann Strauss to Egon Schiele, from Gustav Mahler to Josef Hoffmann.

This volume is a treasure trove of photography from the last 175 years, following the evolution of Vienna from imperial capital to modern metropolis. Like a visual walk through time and cityscape, hundreds of carefully curated pictures trace the developments in Vienna’s built environment and the cultural and historical trends they reflect, whether the urban Gesamtkunstwerk of the 19th-century Ringstrasse or the experiments of “Red Vienna” in the 1920s, when the city had a social democrat government for the first time.

Through these remarkable photographs, we discover not only the great landmarks and lesser-known corners of Vienna, but also the ubiquity and the tumult of its history. We see the cultural blossoming of the fin de siècle, when radical innovators such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Adolf Loos, and Sigmund Freud turned Vienna into a “laboratory of modernity”; the clashes of 1934; the ascent of Nazi dictatorship; and the horrors writ by the Holocaust in what was once one of the most populous and multi-ethnic cities on earth. More recently, fascinating postwar photographs explore the Vienna of the Third Man, at once a city in ruins and a hub for spies. The book closes with the most recent pictures, celebrating the emergence of today’s Vienna — one of the most attractive cities in Europe, in which rich history once again coexists with international flair and vibrant contemporary culture.

The authors:

Christian Brandstätter, born 1943, founded Brandstätter Verlag in 1982. He is the author and designer of numerous illustrated books, including groundbreaking publications on Vienna around 1900, including Gustav Klimt und die Frauen (1994), Design der Wiener Werkstätte (2003), and Wien 1900: Kunst Design Architektur Mode (2018), as well as on Austrian photographic history.

Andreas J. Hirsch, born 1961 in Vienna, is an author, curator and artistic photographer. His writings include books on Pablo Picasso, Tina Modotti, Friedensreich Hundertwasser and H.R. Giger. From 2009 to 2014, he was curator at the KunstHausWien and organized exhibitions on Henri Cartier-Bresson, Linda McCartney and H.R. Giger, among others.

Hans-Michael Koetzle, born 1953, is a Munich-based freelance author and journalist, focusing mainly on history and the aesthetics of photography. He has published numerous books on photography, including Die Zeitschrift twen (1995), Photo Icons (2001), Das Lexikon der Fotografen (2002), René Burri (2004), Photographers A-Z (2011) and Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler (2019).

Paris, Je t'aime. A photographic tribute to the capital of romance

The perfect celebration of the beauty, romance, and poetry of Paris, city of Marcel Proust and Coco Chanel, of Impressionism and Surrealism, of Left Bank cool and Right Bank elegance. This photographic portrait features some 300 city pictures alongside an extensive appendix of some 100 books, movies, and records inspired by the city of lights. Featured photographers include Atget, Doisneau, Kertész, and Cartier-Breton.

Described by Goethe as the “universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past,” Paris is as rich in its two millennia of history as it is in its beauty, its romance, and its art. It’s the city of Marcel Proust and Coco Chanel, of Edith Piaf and Jean-Paul Sartre, of Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, of Left Bank cool and the twinkling lights of the Tour Eiffel by night.

It was also on the banks of the Seine that Niépce and Daguerre officially gave birth to the new art of photography, and in this evocative tapestry of images, we celebrate the city’s remarkable photographic, as well as cultural, architectural, and civic history. Some 300 pictures bring together past and present, the monumental and the everyday faces and vistas, as well as the talents of such illustrious photographers as Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassaï, Kertész, Ronis, Doisneau, and Cartier-Bresson.

With cover art by Robert Nippoldt, this collection is complemented by an extensive appendix of around 100 books, movies, and records inspired by the city of lights.

The editor and author:

Jean Claude Gautrand, born in 1932, is one of France’s most distinguished experts on photography. An active photographer since 1960, he has also made a name for himself as a historian, journalist, and critic, with numerous publications. He is the author of the TASCHEN books Paris mon amour (1999), Brassaï (2004), Willy Ronis (2005), Robert Doisneau (2014), and Eugène Atget. Paris (2016).

The illustrator:

Robert Nippoldt is a German graphic designer, illustrator, and book artist. He is best known for his award-winning books Gangster, Jazz and Hollywood about America in the 1920s and 1930s. His studio is located at the very hip old depot of Muenster.

About the Series:

Bibliotheca Universalis Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!
Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, the name TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together nearly 100 of our all-time favorite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.
Bookworm's delight never bore, always excite!

Skyscrapers and soul: The most evocative shots of the city that never sleeps

Trace the epic story of New York through hundreds of atmospheric photographs, from the mid-19th century to the present day. Follow its fluctuating fortunes, from the wild nights of the Jazz Age and the hedonistic disco era, to the grim days of the Depression and the devastation of 9/11 and its aftermath.

This remarkable collection, now available in a popular Reader s Edition, pays tribute to the metropolis architecture, energy, civic, social, and photographic heritage. From the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island; from the slums of the Lower East Side to the magnificent art deco skyscrapers, the streets, the sidewalks, the chaos, the energy, the ethnic diversity, the culture, the fashion, the architecture, the anger and the complexity of the city is laid out block by block.

Featuring hundreds of images from such celebrated photographers as Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott, Weegee, Margaret Bourke-White, William Claxton, Ralph Gibson, Ryan McGinley, Steve Schapiro, Garry Winogrand, Larry Fink, Keizo Kitajima, and many, many more, New York: Portrait of a City also includes over a hundred evocative quotations and references from relevant books, movies, shows, and songs.

About the Series:

Bibliotheca Universalis  Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!
Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, the name TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together nearly 100 of our all-time favorite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.
Bookworm's delight never bore, always excite!

Città Eterna. A photographic portrait of Rome

Rome is the city where past and present, spectacle and the everyday collide around every corner; where Baroque drama flourishes alongside ancient classical wonders; where necks crane to admire Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel; and where Fellini immortalized la dolce vita. This photographic portrait of Rome brings you all the history and all the wonders of an incomparable cultural capital.

This bumper photographic portrait of Rome brings together hundreds of photographs from the 1840s through to today to explore the extraordinary history, beauty, and art of this incomparable cultural capital.

From sepia and black and white to colour, these outstanding images dating from the 1840s to the present day allow us — through the eyes of such photographers as Giacomo Caneva, Pompeo Molins, Giuseppe Primoli, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Carlo Bavagnoli, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Pasquale De Antonis, Peter Lindbergh, Slim Aarons, and William Klein — to discover Rome in its many compelling guises: as the center of the Roman Empire, as one of the cradles of the Renaissance, as a favourite destination for travellers and a rich patchwork of varied neighbourhoods, as the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, a stage for politics, and as the perfect backdrop for film and fashion shoots.

Reaching back into illustrious archives, some of the book’s early images offer us a privileged Grand Tour glimpse of some of Rome’s most treasured landmarks, revealing the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Spanish Steps almost void of crowds. Later pictures survey the city’s contrasts — from the luxurious homes and leisure activities of the privileged to street stalls and laundry lines in the working-class districts of Trastevere and Testaccio. Some documentary-style shots show us the dark power of Mussolini, the city bedecked with his own iconography and imagery of strength, athleticism, and the fatherland.

As colour photography comes in, the city transitions from a neo-realismo aesthetic to postwar recovery and hedonism: all the glamorous gowns, exotic celebrities, and Via Veneto café culture immortalized by Fellini. Many famous faces are here, including Louis Armstrong, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Anna Magnani, and Valentino.

The author:

Giovanni Fanelli, professor of Architecture History at the University of Florence, is the author of several works of architectural history, urban history, graphic arts and photography, translated into several languages; he has been the Scientific Director of the Fondazione Ragghianti (Lucca) and is series editor for a number of titles of Laterza publishers (Rome).

L'air de Paris. The vivid history of the capital of love and photography

A city built on two millennia of history, Paris is entering the third century of its love story with photography. It was on the banks of the Seine that Niépce and Daguerre officially gave birth to this new art that has flourished ever since, developing a distinctive language and becoming a vital tool of knowledge.

Paris, Portrait of a City leads us through what Goethe described as a “universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past, where a fragment of history is unrolled at the corner of every street”. The history of Paris is recounted in photographs ranging from Daguerre’s early incunabula to the most recent images – an almost complete record of over a century and a half of transformations and a vast panorama spanning more than 600 pages and 500 photographs. This book brings together the past and the present, the monumental and the everyday, objects and people. Images captured by the most illustrious photographers – Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassaï, Kertész, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more – but also by many unknown photographers, attempt to bottle just a little of that “Parisian air”, something of that particular poetry given out by the stones and inhabitants of a constantly changing city that has inspired untold numbers of writers and artists over the ages.

Presenting an exciting patchwork of images from past and present, Paris, Portrait of a City is a huge and unique photographic study that, in a way, is the true family album of all Parisians. It is to them, and to all lovers of this capital city, that this vibrant, loving and tender testimony is dedicated.

- Huge and unique photographic study of Paris featuring over 150 celebrated photographers, including Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassaï, Kertész, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more
- More than 500 images of the history of Paris, sourced from dozens of archives and private collections
- Also included: an index of photographers’ biographies

London Calling. A photographic journey through the history of this epic city

Samuel Johnson famously said that: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” London’s remarkable history, architecture, landmarks, streets, style, cool, swagger, and stalwart residents are pictured in hundreds of compelling photographs sourced from a wide array of archives around the world. London is a vast sprawling metropolis, constantly evolving and growing, yet throughout its complex past and shifting present, the humor, unique character, and bulldog spirit of the people have stayed constant. This book salutes all those Londoners, their city, and its history. In addition to the wealth of images included in this book, many previously unpublished, London’s history is told through hundreds of quotations, lively essays, and references from key movies, books, and records.

From Victorian London to the Swinging ’60s; from the Battle of Britain to Punk; from the Festival of Britain to the 2012 Olympics; from the foggy cobbled streets to the architectural masterpieces of the millennium; from rough pubs to private drinking clubs; from royal weddings to raves, from the charm of the East End to the wonders of Westminster; from Chelsea girls to Hoxton hipsters; from the power to glory: in page after page of stunning photographs, reproduced big and bold like the city itself, London at last gets the photographic tribute it deserves.

Photographs by: Slim Aarons, Eve Arnold, David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Bill Brandt, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Anton Corbijn, Terence Donovan, Roger Fenton, Bert Hardy, Evelyn Hofer, Frank Horvat, Tony Ray-Jones, Nadav Kander, Roger Mayne, Linda McCartney, Don McCullin, Norman Parkinson, Martin Parr, Rankin, Lord Snowdon, William Henry Fox Talbot, Juergen Teller, Mario Testino, Wolfgang Tillmans, and many, many others.

The editor:

Reuel Golden is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photography editor at TASCHEN. His TASCHEN titles include: Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, both London and New York Portrait of a City books, The Rolling Stones, Her Majesty, Football in the 1970s, the National Geographic editions, the David Bailey SUMO and Andy Warhol. Polaroids.

A photographic journey into the city's history

Berlin has survived two world wars, was divided by a wall during the Cold War, and after the fall of the Wall was re-united. The city emerged as a center of European power and culture. From 1860 to the present day, this book presents the story of Berlin in photographs, portraits, maps, and aerial views. With nearly 700 pages of emotional, atmospheric images, from giddy pictures of the Roaring Twenties to devastating images of war to heartwarming postwar photos of a city picking up the pieces - the Reichstag in ruins and later wrapped by Christo and Jeanne-Claude - this is the most comprehensive photographic study on Berlin ever made. More than a tribute to the city and its civic, social, and photographic history, this book especially pays homage to Berlin’s inhabitants: full of hope and strength, in their faces is reflected Berlin’s undying soul.

• Including images by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton, René Burri, Robert Capa, Thomas Struth, and Wolfgang Tillmans as well as well-known Berlin photo-chroniclers such as Friedrich Seidenstücker, Erich Salomon, Willy Römer, and Heinrich Zille.
• Quotations from Berliners and Berlin connoisseurs such as Vladimir Nabokov, Alfred Döblin, Herwarth Walden, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, Max Schmeling, Willy Brandt, Helmut Newton, Simon Rattle, and David Bowie.

Also included: an index of photographers’ biographies.