Andrew Garn

New York City, arguably the world s Art Deco capital, is well known for its striking and still iconic towers that were early expressions of the style writ large most famously the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, both of which still speak so eloquently of the future and the machine age that continues to move us all forward. Art Deco is drawn in steel, in tile, in brass, in bronze, and in stone upon great buildings and small and in the details, as so engagingly shown here. The reader is brought, for example, into the extraordinary Fred F. French Building at 551 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a treasure house of the form whose ornate lobby is a wonder of sparkling seduction in all directions: racing above is a fan palm and fleur de lis decorated architrave, and golden Assyrian equestrian archers on a field of onyx take aim while stunning chandeliers set with crystal feathers and bronze shoot out their own thin arrows of illumination. Beyond the famous, we are invited to consider little-seen stunners beside the Grand Concourse in the Bronx or upon the face of an apartment house in Brooklyn Heights. Featuring both the legendary and the little known, on display here, through all-new photography, is Art Deco New York as never seen before.

Humans have always bred, farmed, raced, and lived alongside pigeons. Some of us shoo them away as "rats with wings" and others care for them as the city's most famous wildlife. The New York Pigeon, now in its second edition with spectacular new images, is a one-of-a-kind, intimate study of this worldwide neighbor. The New York Pigeon reveals the unexpected beauty of the omnipresent pigeon as if Vogue devoted its pages to birds, not fashion models. In spite of pigeons' ubiquity in New York and other cities, we never really see them closely and know very little about their function in the urban ecosystem. This book brings to light the intriguing history, behavior, and splendor of a bird so often overlooked. While The New York Pigeon is primarily a photography book, it also tells the five-thousand-year story of the feral pigeon. Why are pigeons so successful in cities and not in the countryside? Why do they have such diverse plumage? How have pigeons adapted to survive on almost any food? Why are pigeons able to fly up to 500 miles per day but rarely do? How did Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner teach pigeons to do complicated tasks, from tracking missile targets to recognizing individual human faces? Why can pigeons see in the ultraviolet light spectrum, and why is half of their brain used for visual perception? The second edition of The New York Pigeon, with its fresh portraiture and new essay from Catherine Quayle of the Wild Bird Fund, presents dramatic, hyper-real studio portraits capturing the personalities, expressiveness, glorious feather iridescence, and deeply hued eyes of the New York pigeon.

The New York City treasure, newly photographed, is revealed as garden in the city, repository for memory, and a place for repose, inspiration, and delight. Green-Wood is a living cemetery that brings people closer to the world by memorializing the dead even as it embraces the art, history, and natural beauty of New York. Founded in 1838 and now a National Historic Landmark, Green-Wood was one of the first rural cemeteries in America. By the early 1860s, it had earned an international reputation for its beauty, attracting 500,000 visitors a year, second only to Niagara Falls as the nation s greatest tourist attraction. Crowds flocked here to enjoy family outings in the finest of first-generation American landscapes. Green-Wood s popularity helped inspire the creation of public parks, including New York City s Central and Prospect parks. Green-Wood is 478 spectacular acres of hills, valleys, glacial ponds, and paths, throughout which exists one of the largest outdoor collections of nineteenth- and twentieth-century statuary and mausoleums. Four seasons of beauty offer a peaceful oasis to visitors, as well as its 570,000 permanent residents, including Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Louis Comfort Tiffany. At once a celebration and an invitation, the book ranges from a consideration of the natural landscape in which it is set to a close look at its architecture, statuary, symbols, typography, birds and fauna, trees, and typography.

New York by Neighborhood presents a vibrant tapestry of 75 distinct locales, defined as much by individual residents as by shops, architecture, streets, stories, traditions, and an openness to transformation. More languages are spoken in New York than anywhere else in the world; a testament to this diversity are the city's neighborhoods. From Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, with its age-old Italian restaurants and shops, and Astoria Queens, with its vibrant Greek community and diverse landscape, to Manhattan's Chinatown and Greenwich Village, New York City is its neighborhoods, first and foremost. This book looks at the essential New York through a lens focused on its many distinct and colourful neighborhoods, providing in each case a snapshot of a place and its people, as well as brief and informal texts incorporating anecdotes and fascinating historical facts. Beautifully photographed by New York photographer and author Andrew Garn, the volume will appeal to visitors who want the full picture of this great city; as well, it will appeal to the resident, who continues to marvel at the vast array of wonders that make up the city that never sleeps.

New York City is defined by a certain kind of grit and perseverance, its history sprinkled with stories of unlikely successes found where most would not have thought to go. The flora and fauna of the five boroughs are no exception, and Wildflowers of New York City introduces us to some of the over 2,000 wildflowers that eke out an existence there. Andrew Garn's stunning photography invites us to look, and then look again—to appreciate the marvels that we might have otherwise passed by. Through his lens, the humble burdock and chicory become works of art. Pokeweed assumes an ethereal beauty. Wildflowers of New York City encourages readers to take the time to notice the hidden, to seek out and reflect on the overlooked beauty in crowded spaces, and to wonder at these tenacious plants that thrive and prosper in ways and places we might never expect. Contributors Allison C. Meier, Donald J. Leopold