Summer books: repose in the sun with one of these unmissable reads

An Eames Anthology
By Charles and Ray Eames, edited by Daniel Ostroff

Charles and Ray Eames remain the best-known designers of the 20th century, purveyors of a warm, eclectic modernism that lives on a million homes and magazine features. They brought an analytic, problem-solving approach to contemporary design, and their practice was extraordinarily diverse, running from architecture to film, graphics, furniture and more. This new anthology fills in the textual background to their output, exploring the words behind the projects and giving a fascinating insight into the creative world of mid-century America.

Published by Yale University Press (opens in new tab), £35

From the book: created between 1941 – 1949, this Möbius ring model was part of Eames' 'The Design of Mathematics' exhibition. Charles Eames said, 'If it makes one wrong turn, it will disappear forever into the fourth dimension.' Courtesy: Eames Office, LLC

An advertisement from a 1959 issue of Life magazine for the world's first solar toy, which Charles Eames designed for Alcoa

Charles and Ray Eames in their living room, seated on the lounge chair and ottoman designed for Vitra, 1959. Photography: Monique Jacot

Wim Wenders: 4 Real & True 2! Photographs. Landscapes
By Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders’ cinematic vision frequently adopts the static, unflinching eye of the stills camera. Bringing a European art house sensibility to the open skies and distant horizons of the American West, his alternative career as a landscape photographer is laid out in this new monograph, published to coincide with his 70th birthday and an exhibition at Dusseldorf’s Museum Kunstpalast (opens in new tab). These are frames from imaginary films, conjuring up stories and characters just out of view.

Published by Schirmer/Mosel Verlag (opens in new tab), €29.80

From the book: these buses are given a persona with their names. The composition of John and Joshua – Behind, Odessa, Texas gives them significance regardless of their positions behind Paul, Luke and Noah.

Shot in Las Vegas in 1983, Entire Family focuses on the smallest shop in the image (though the nameless green shop is the focus, given its verdant luminescence).

The panoramic Street Corner, Butte, Montana, 2003, shows a desolate city landscape embellished with the figures of two unnamed girls

Ferris Wheel, Armenia, 2008, is one of the collection's bleaker shots.

On Being An Artist
By Michael Craig-Martin

An essential read if you’re looking for a name-filled memoir of the evolution of the post-war British art scene, On Being an Artist traces Michael Craig-Martin’s life and career over nearly 75 years. In that time the artist studied at Yale, swung through the Sixties and hung out with Saatchi.

Arguably, Craig-Martin also oversaw the greatest explosion of contemporary talent in the modern era during his stints tutoring at Goldsmiths College in southeast London, where his own bold, highly geometric art was temporarily overshadowed by the scene-stealing output of students like Damien Hirst, Mark Wallinger, Gillian Wearing and Steve McQueen.

Published by Art / Books (opens in new tab), £22.50

From the book: installation view of the ‘Always Now’ exhibition in Kunstverein Hannover, 1998. Courtesy of the artist

Eye of the Storm by Michael Craig-Martin, 2002. An abstract piece showing enlarged everyday objects painted in pop colours

Umbrella (orange), 2011 and Umbrella (purple), 2013, installed at Chatsworth House in 2014. Courtesy of Gallery Gagosian

The Honeymoon
By Magdalena Cwiklicka, with an essay by Christopher Stocks

Photographic mystery tours are rarely conceived with such style. The Honeymoon presents a collection of photography of a 1960s grand tour – a globe-trotting journey by a stylish, photographically savvy pair of newly-weds. Bought at auction and supplemented with an essay by our own Christopher Stocks, The Honeymoon is a beautiful evocation of a forgotten age, the absence of information only adding to the mystery and romance. Were these genuine images of a real romance, or a carefully posed travelogue? Taking in locations from the Eastern Bloc through to the Caribbean, US and Europe, they offer up a world of lost delight.

Published by Zettabyte (opens in new tab), £25

From the book: the newly-wed wife is pictured on the Caribbean island of Martinique, with a restaurant waiter. Courtesy of Peter Marron / Zettabyte

This one was taken in Grenada, Lesser Antilles and shows another unknown man, perhaps a boat captain, presenting an exotic fruit or flower to the bride. Courtesy of Peter Marron / Zettabyte

Across the sea at the Palace of Versailles – a change in location and style. Courtesy of Peter Marron / Zettabyte

Ukraine Youth: Between Days
By Daniel King

A portrait of a country in transition and the lives of a generation caught in the middle of unfinished historical business. Photographer Daniel King not only documented the old Communist infrastructure of Ukraine, but the young people who occupy this public space, many of whom were on the verge of major protests over the impending Russian threat.

Published by Damiani (opens in new tab), £25

From the book: King reveals the daily lives of his subjects, 'strangely unaltered by the political events taking place just a couple of blocks away from their gathering places'. 

The book's images depict the demonstrations that began in Kiev in May – a defining moment for the country.

King chose to photograph the sudden awakening of adulthood in the young people; this coincided with a moment of unprecedented rebellion in the city.

Sacred Spaces: Contemporary Religious Architecture
By James Pallister

This groundbreaking and enlightening exploration of contemporary religious structures 'elevate[s] architecture to spirituality', spanning faiths and and exploring spaces large and small – from diminutive chapels to expansive cathedrals and memorials. James Pallister (opens in new tab) documents and contextualises each of the 30 featured projects with spectacular photography, drawings and accompanying texts. 

Published by Phaidon (opens in new tab), £39.95

From the book: built in 2003, this 'Cardboard Cathedral' displays the innovative work of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Located in New Zealand, Ban designed the structure – fashioned from timber, paper, cardboard tubes and steel – to resist the destructive force of earthquakes.

'Chandgaon Mosque' by Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, Bangladesh, 2007. Chowdhury steered away from conventional Islamic houses of worship and went for a minimalist and clean style. Courtesy of Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury

'White Chapel' was intended as a location for marriage ceremonies; located on the waterfront in Osaka Japan, it was designed by Jun Aoki & associates (opens in new tab) in 2006.

This 'Rituals Crematorium' in Colombia was built in 2005 by +udeb arquitectos. A range of interlinking bridges and tunnels connect the subtle colours of the building.

In the hilltop setting of Acapulco, Mexico, 'Sunset Chapel' by BNKR Arquitectura (opens in new tab) is designed in the shape of a boulder. Made of poured concrete, the geometrical building allows for breathtaking views of the surrounding area.

Sergey Chernyshev: Architect of the New Moscow
By Ivan Lykoshin & Irina Cheredina

Sergey Chernyshev was one of the founders of Soviet urban planning and one of the 20th century's leading Russian architects. The grandiose designs explored in this monograph – from the 1935 'Master Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow' to his work on the restoration of cities such as Kiev, Leningrad, Warsaw and Berlin – saw the architect recieve global fame and recognition, by both adhering to national architectural traditions and forging his own idiosyncratic path. 

Published by Dom Publishers (opens in new tab), €28

From the book: 'View of the Soviet Square from the Lenin Institute.' Photograph from between 1940 and 1947. Courtesy of Shchusev Museum of Architecture

'Scheme of the layout of Moscow, General Plan 1935. Moscow City Council, planning division'

'Moscow Automobile and Roadways Institute, Main Building. Architects: S Chernyshev, M Alkhazov, I Orshansky, with assistance from A Zilberg.' Photograph from the late 1950s. Courtesy of Shchusev Museum of Architecture

The Middle of Somewhere
By Sam Harris and Eva-Maria Kunz in collaboration with Candy Pilar Godoy

In a fast-paced world, saturated with consumerism, Sam Harris' photography presents the increasingly anachronistic phenomenon of an unadulterated childhood in a remote corner of the globe – in this case southwest Australia. 

Featuring 12 years' worth of work and documenting Harris and his family's journey from London to Australia via the Indian villages where they lived for several years, this publication is at once both 'intimate and all embracing... a memorable and inspiring collection of images that will both please the eye and stir the soul'.

Published by Ceiba (opens in new tab), $59.00

From the book: Uma gazes into the camera with a combination of enjoyment and annoyance as she is captured on lens with blackberry juice stained hands and mouth. Shot in Balingup in 2012.

Harris took this photo in mid-summer, just as a freak storm rained hailstones down on their neighbourhood. Here, Uma and her mother, Yael are scrambling to remove hailstones from the sunshade in the garden.