A Cabinet of Wonders: A Celebration of Art in Nature at the Palazzo Grimani, Venice by Dr Thierry Morel and George Loudon - Published: Fontanka - 2025 - 240 pages.
The most comprehensive presentation of the George Loudon collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century scientific artefacts as well as paintings and other works of art. The book is based on the exhibition A Cabinet of Wonders at the Palazzo Grimani, Venice.
A Cabinet of Wonders: a Celebration of Art in Nature is the most comprehensive presentation of the George Loudon collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century scientific artefacts to date. Today, this ever-growing collection numbers more than 200 pieces, including teaching models, anatomical specimens, taxidermy, books, prints and drawings. These objects, largely scientific but exquisitely made, are crafted from glass, wax, minerals, papier-mâché, fabric, ivory and more.
The book presents the works currently on display at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice, former residence of Giovanni Grimani, one of the city’s foremost collectors. The palace is undergoing its own renaissance as Grimani’s collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, bequeathed to the city of Venice following his death in 1593, was returned in 2019 and reinstalled in the building.
With around 200 works, the book focuses on the theme of collecting. In the first two chapters, running parallel to the exhibits of the Loudon collection, are objects arranged in the style of a 16th or 17th-century Venetian cabinet. These include not just “curiosities” but also Venetian enamel and maiolica, paintings by the likes of Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese, alongside loans from international institutions such as Vienna’s MAK Museum of Applied Arts. The book also draws connections between Loudon’s sensitivity and that of a 16th-century humanist such as Grimani; although separated by centuries, they were both motivated by a profound love of nature.
Black Chronicles: Photography, Race and Difference in Victorian Britain by Renée Mussai and Val Wilmer - Published: Thames and Hudson Ltd - 2025-06-25 - 304 pages.
A collection of extraordinary 19th-century portraits that radically shifts our understanding of the presence and identities of the Black subject in Victorian Britain.
These striking studio portraits, curated and brought together following ten years of research championed by Autograph, constitute the most comprehensive collection of 19th-century photography depicting the Black subject in the Victorian era, including some of the earliest known images of Black people photographed in Britain.
The historically marginalized lives of both ordinary and prominent Black figures of African, Afro-Caribbean, South Asian and mixed heritage are seen through a prism of curatorial advocacy and experimental scholarly assemblage. Black Chronicles features high-quality reproductions of plate negatives, cartes de visite and cabinet cards, many of which were buried deep in various private and public archives including the Hulton Archive’s remarkable London Stereoscopic Company collection, unseen for decades. These photographs are linked with imperial and colonial narratives through newly commissioned essays and rare lecture transcripts, in-conversation and text interventions by Caroline Bressey, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, M. Neelika Jayawardane, Lola Jaye, Renée Mussai and Val Wilmer, and an afterword by Mark Sealy.
Built upon groundbreaking, in-depth new research, Black Chronicles opens up photographic archives to expand and enrich photography’s complex cultural histories and subjectivities, offering an essential insight into the visual politics of race, representation and difference in the Victorian era by addressing this crucial missing chapter.
Introduction and texts by Renée Musai, Foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr., Text by Paul Gilroy, Text by Stuart Hall, Text by Caroline Bressey, Text by Lola Jaye, Text by M. Neelika Jayawardane, Afterword by Mark Sealy, Text by Val Wilmer
Published by Thames & Hudson in partnership with Autograph.
Daido Moriyama – Record 2 by Mark Holborn, Daido Moriyama - Published: Thames and Hudson Ltd - 2024-10-03 - 352 pages.
The direct sequel to a classic photobook: an exceptional selection of photographs from Daido Moriyama's seminal magazine publication from 2017 to today.
Between June 1972 and July 1973, Daido Moriyama produced his own magazine publication, Kiroku, which was then referred to as Record. It became a diaristic journal of his work as it developed. In 2006, encouraged by the Japanese publisher Akio Nagasawa, Moriyama was able to resume publication of Record. The first thirty issues of Record were edited by Mark Holborn into the now classic 2017 photobook of the same title.
Daido Moriyama: Record 2, also edited by Mark Holborn, picks up from where the original left off, with a selection of images and texts by Moriyama from issues thirty-one to fifty of the magazine. With Moriyama now in his eighties, Record 2 will likely be the end of the story. But despite his advancing years, the work is unmistakably Moriyama's aesthetic – fiercely contrasted images with fragmentary, intensely composed frames that express the vision of one of the greatest photographers.
