5 to Read: This Month

5 to Read: This Month

This month’s selection of must-read publications looks to the history of photography, architecture and design, celebrating a range of pioneering approaches and movements – including Bauhaus and Modernism – from across the globe.

Making it Up: Photographic Fictions, Thames & Hudson; V&A Photography Library

A timely compilation, Making it Up plays with ideas of truth and fiction to examine the constructed nature of images. With over 130 photographs – spanning from early practitioners to the likes of Cindy Sherman and Hannah Starkey – the book responds to life in an age of post-truth.

The Story of the Bauhaus, Ilex/Octopus Books

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, this publication traces 100 figures, designs, ideas and events that shaped the seminal art and design movement. Looking to clean lines and efficiency, it explores an innovative approach that continues to influence cotemporary thought.

Janet Delaney: Public Matters, MACK

This collection of images – taken in the mid-1980s – documents the spirit of protest and parade in Reagan-era San Francisco. A celebration of multiculturalism and collective voices, the publication captures the feeling of an era through nostalgic and powerful visuals.

Cameraless Photography, Thames & Hudson; V&A Photography Library

Providing an alternative overview the history of photography, this book looks to cameraless methods of image-making such as photograms, chemigrams, luminograms and dye destruction prints. It features key figures such as Anna Atkins and Man Ray.

Modern Spaces, Prestel

Prestel’s new publication presents a visually arresting series of modernist interiors by photographer Nicolas Grospierre. Revealing connections between buildings across the world, it takes readers on a compelling journey across spatial and cultural borders.

Credits:
1.Gregory Crewdson, Brief Encounters. 
2. Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 2006.
3. Jump Over the Bauhaus, T Lux Feininger, c.1927.
4. Crowd Waiting, 1986 ©Janet Delaney/Mack
5. Floris Neusüss, Schattenfenger, 1983.
6. Nicolas Grospierre, Hotel Europejski, Warsaw, Poland, 2005 ©Nicolas Grospierre