Civilization: The Way We Live Now

In Civilization, a top curator offers an unprecedented look at contemporary photographs that track the visual threads of humankindÆs frenetic, collective life across the globe. We hurtle together into the future at ever-increasing speedùor so it seems to the collective psyche. Perpetually evolving, morphing, building and demolishing, rethinking, reframing and reshaping the world around and aheadùand the people within itùan emerging, planetary-wide Civilization is our grand, global, collective endeavor. Never before in human history have so many people been so interconnected, and so interdependent. With close to 500 images, many previously unpublished, this landmark publication takes stock of the material and spiritual cultures that make up "civilization." Ranging from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from our great collective achievements to our ruinous collective failings, Civilization: The Way We Live Now explores the complexity of contemporary civilization through the rich, nuanced language of photography. Featuring images by some 140 photographersùfrom Reiner RiedlerÆs families at leisure parks, Raimond WoudaÆs high schools, Wang QingsongÆs Work, Work, Work and Cindy ShermanÆs Society Portraits, to Lauren GreenfieldÆs displays of ostentatious wealth, Edward BurtynskyÆs oil fields, Pablo Lopez LuzÆs views on a sprawling contemporary megapolis, Thomas StruthÆs images of high technology, Xing DanwenÆs electronic wastelands and Taryn SimonÆs Contraband, Civilization draws together the threads of humankindÆs ever-changing, frenetic, collective life across the globe. Visually epic, Civilization contains eight thematic chapters, each featuring powerful imagery and accompanied by provocative essays, quotes, and concise statements by the artists themselves.

• | Author: William A Ewing, Holly Roussell
• | Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• | Publication Date: Nov 06, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 352 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/Photography
• | ISBN-10: 0500021708
• | ISBN-13: 9780500021705