Geoff Dyer Books

From Here to There: Alec Soth’s Americ a zeigt erstmals das komplette Spektrum des Werkes von Alec Soth (*1969 in Minneapolis), einem der interessantesten Vertreter der zeitgenössischen Fotografie, dessen fesselnde Bilder vom Alltag in Amerika kraftvolle erzählerische Vignetten darstellen. Neben mehr als 200 Fotografien des Künstlers aus den letzten 15 Jahren enthält die Publikation neue kritische Essays, die Hintergrundinformationen zum Arbeitsprozess des Künstlers bieten, zur fotografiegeschichtlichen Tradition, die seiner Praxis zugrunde liegt, sowie Überlegungen zu seiner neuesten Werkserie. Zusätzlich beinhaltet der Katalog ein 48-seitiges Künstlerbuch mit dem Titel The Loneliest Man in Missouri: ein fotografischer Essay mit kurzen, tagebuchähnlichen Texten, der die Banalität und Langeweile städtischer Randgebiete im Mittleren Westen mit ihren Restaurantketten, Striplokalen und Parkanlagen rund um Bürogebäude einfängt. Ausstellungen: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 12.9.2010–2.1.2011 Und weitere Stationen

In a series of fictional portraits, Geoff Dyer captures the beating heart of jazz, its pathos and lyricism, urgency and self-destruction: Charlie Mingus in New York; Art Pepper in prison; Lester Young in the Alvin; Bud Powell in Paris. 'Drawing on how he hears the music of people like Mingus, Monk, Bud Powell, Art Pepper and Lester Young, Dyer has constructed eight variations like highly concentrated novels, 80 per cent proof swigs of fiction. The result, I think, is brilliant...His attempts to recreate the drug-fogged, music-drenched, reality-melting, racism-crazed insides of the minds of people like Powell, Mingus, Webster and Chet Baker are unnervingly effective. So too, are his pen-portraits of their music ...his long postscript on jazz today shows that he can operate as a lucid and catholic jazz critic as well' Miles Kington, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Looming large in the cultural imagination as a wild territory to be conquered and the ultimate perimeter of human power, the seemingly untouched landscape of the Arctic has been an inspiration to artists from the Romantic age to the present. Arctic , published to accompany a major exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, brings together a range of artists responding to the terrifying sublime of the Arctic, from Caspar David Friedrich to Sigmar Polke, Sophie Calle, Mark Dion and Joachim Koester. With contributions from geologists, historians, archeaologists and glaciologists, as well as a new essay by Geoff Dyer about the photographs from the nineteenth-century expeditions that provided some of the first glimpses of the region and its inhabitants, this catalogue considers the place of the Arctic in the history and culture of the West at a moment when the region is taking on a new significance as a threatened, vanishing space.

The American writer, John Cheever, died in 1982, leaving behind 29 loose-leaf notebooks begun in the late Forties. They form the content of this book. His commitment to them was of central importance to his life - as a workbook and a retreat, an unhindered act of self-revelation where he could explore his ambiguities. He loved his wife and their children, but was acutely lonely; he loved women, but he also loved men; he hated himself for his drinking, but for much of his life was dependent upon it; he was a great writer, but one whose acute levels of perception often crippled him as a person.

For the student, for the connoisseur, for the gallery-goer, for those who simply want to thumb through and delight in the world's greatest paintings, this book is indispensable.

By sea and on the airwaves, by dollar and yuan, a contest has begun that will shape the next century. If globalisation has been the driving force of the past few decades, the author argues that a more traditional great power-style competition between the US and China will dominate this century.

The book presents a diverse collection of ideas and themes, showcasing a broad spectrum of knowledge and perspectives. It invites readers to explore various subjects, engaging them with its eclectic approach. The content is designed to provoke thought and inspire curiosity, making it a compelling read for those interested in a wide-ranging exploration of topics.

Sitting down to write a book about his hero D. H. Lawrence, Geoff Dyer finds himself compelled to write about anything else. He is in fact compelled to do more or less anything else instead of write. In Sicily he is too preoccupied by his hatred of seafood to follow the great writer's footsteps; in Mexico he cannot get beyond a drug-induced erotic fantasy on a nudist beach . . . And yet, incredibly, this attempt to write a 'sober academic study' reveals the hold Lawrence and his work still exert on us today. Out of Sheer Rage is a complete one-off, a richly comic study of the combination of bad temper, procrastination and the uncanny power of obliquity.

See/Saw' is an illuminating history of how photographs frame and change our perspectives. Starting from single images by the world's most important photographers - from Eugene Atget to Alex Webb - Geoff Dyer shows us how to read a photograph, as he takes us through a series of close readings that are by turns moving, funny, prescient and surprising.00Following Dyer's previous books on photography, 'The Ongoing Moment' and 'The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand', 'See/Saw' brilliantly combines visual scrutiny and stylistic flair. It shows us how a photograph can simultaneously record and invent the world, and reveals a master seer at work.00In the spirit of the intellectual curiosity of Berger, Sontag and Didion, Geoff Dyer helps us to see the world around us, and within us, afresh.

A wonderful, nostalgic novel about youth in London in the 1980s

In the spirit of Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It, his critically acclaimed collection of travel writing, Geoff Dyer is back on the road

In his last book, YOGA FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO DO IT, Geoff Dyer confessed that not only did he not take pictures in the course of his travels but that he did not own a camera. With characteristic perversity - and trademark originality - THE ONGOING MOMENT is Dyer's unique and idiosyncratic history of photography. Seeking to identify their signature styles Dyer looks at the ways that canonical figures such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Kertesz, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus and William Eggleston have photographed the same scenes and objects (benches, hats, hands, roads). In doing so Dyer constructs a narrative in which those photographers - many of whom never met in their lives - constantly come into contact with each other. Great photographs change the way we see the world; THE ONGOING MOMENT changes the way we look at both. It is the most ambitious example to date of a form of writing that Dyer has made his own: the non-fiction work of art.

A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year There is no other writer at work today like the award-winning Geoff Dyer. Here he embarks on an investigation into Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, the masterpiece of cinema that has haunted him since he first saw it thirty years ago.

In November 2011, Geoff Dyer fulfilled a childhood dream of spending time on an aircraft carrier. Dyer's stay on the USS George Bush, on active service in the Arabian Gulf, proved even more intense, memorable, and frequently hilarious, than he could ever have hoped. In Dyer's hands, the warship becomes a microcosm for a stocktaking of modern Western life: religion, drugs, chauvinism, farting, gyms, steaks, prayer, parental death, relationships and how to have a beach party with 5000 people on a giant floating hunk of steel. Piercingly perceptive and gloriously funny, this is a unique book about work, war and entering other worlds.

From the acclaimed writer and critic Geoff Dyer, an extremely funny scene-by- scene analysis of Where Eagles Dare - published as the film reaches its 50th anniversary A thrilling Alpine adventure starring a magnificent, bleary-eyed Richard Burton and a coolly anachronistic Clint Eastwood, Where Eagles Dare is the apex of 1960s war movies, by turns enjoyable and preposterous. 'Broadsword Calling Danny Boy' is Geoff Dyer's tribute to the film he has loved since childhood: an analysis taking us from its snowy, Teutonic opening credits to its vertigo-inducing climax. For those who have not even seen Where Eagles Dare, this book is a comic tour-de-force of criticism. But for the film's legions of fans, whose hearts will always belong to Ron Goodwin's theme tune, it will be the fulfilment of a dream. 'Geoff Dyer's funniest book yet. Who else would work in Martha Gellhorn on the first page of a book on the film Where Eagles Dare?' Michael Ondaatje 'One of our greatest living critics, not of the arts but of life itself, and one of our most original writers' Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine

Jeff Atman, a journalist, is in Venice to cover the opening of the Venice Art Biennale. He's not expecting to meet the spellbinding Laura, who will completely transform his few days in the city. Another city, another assignment: amid the crowds, ghats and chaos of India's holiest Hindu city, a different kind of transformation lies in wait.

'A screamingly funny genre-defying feat. sublime' Maggie O'Farrell, Daily Telegraph

Could it be that our deepest desire is for it all to be over? A book about the end of days from the award-winning author of Out of Sheer Rage and Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It

The international art event La Biennale di Venezia will take place for the fifty-fifth time from June 1 through November 24, 2013. For this occasion, Germany is not only switching pavilions with France, but is also showing artworks that focus on themes of intercultural and intellectual transference. Susanne Gaensheimer, director of Frankfurt's MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, has curated a selection of work for Germany's pavilion in the building of the French pavilion by Chinese conceptual artist and regime critic Ai Weiwei, the German-French filmmaker Romuald Karmakar, the South African photographer Santu Mofokeng, and the Indian photographer Dayanita Singh. With the selection of these artists, Gaensheimer is continuing her transnational curatorial approach from 2011 that presented Germany as playing an active role in a complex, global structure that benefits from international exchange.0Exhibition: La Biennale di Venezia, German Pavillion, Italy (1.6.-24.11.2013).

Luke zieht nach Paris mit der Idee, dort einen Roman zu schreiben, nur daß ihm immer etwas dazwischen kommt. Er befreundet sich mit Alex, einem anderen Engländer in der Fremde, dann verliebt er sich in Nicole. Alex trifft Sara, und die beiden Paare sind sich so nah, daß dies ihr Leben für immer verändert. Sie erkunden die Clubs und Cafés des 11. Arrondissements und werden unzertrennlich. Luke und Alex arbeiten in einem Auslieferungslager, spielen mittags Fußball und katapultieren sich abends in die fremden Welten des Kinos. Besonders gern sehen sie Filme, die von der Kriegsgefangenschaft handeln, und über die Rolle von Styroporbechern in amerikanischen Actionfilmen entwickeln sie ganz eigene Theorien. Sie gehen in Clubs, erkunden die Wirkung von Ecstasy und erreichen den Höhepunkt der Entrückung - die Wiederbegegnung mit der Realität ist unerwartet harsch und zerstörerisch. In seinem neuen Roman beschreibt Geoff Dyer den Traum vom Glück und dem, was folgt, mit fotografischer Präzision. Erotisch und elegisch, romantisch und komisch.

Luke va a Parigi per scrivere un libro (un'idea poco originale) ed è estate, la città si sta svuotando, per le strade soltanto turisti e chi non può andarsene. Incontra Alex, un inglese come lui che lavora in un magazzino. E' un'amicizia a prima vista. Conoscono Nicole e Shara e se ne innamorano: Luke e Nicole, Alex e Shara. Per un anno i quattro fanno vita comune: frequentano locali notturni, provano le nuove droghe, vanno in vacanza e fanno l'amore, tanto e bene. Luke non scriverà nulla, sarà Alex a raccontare la sua storia, o meglio a raccontare quella parte che comprende lui stesso, Nicole e Shara.

Un investigatore privato dal passato oscuro e dal presente non meglio identificato, che divide equamente il suo tempo fra palestre diurne e sbornie notturne; una donna sensuale e misteriosa, disposta a “starci” ma solo finché e fin dove vuole lei; un uomo d’affari (sicuramente poco puliti) in perenne via di sparizione, di cui nessuno sa più niente da oltre sei mesi, o meglio da sempre, data la sua patologica riservatezza. Guidato dall’istinto più che dalla proverbiale logica deduttiva, l’occhio inquadra paesaggi alienati, imbocca prospettive fantasma e fugge da apocalittici ingorghi autostradali, per poi perdersi in solitarie piazze dechirichiane fino a sfidare il ghigno grottesco e fulminante di mostruose statue medievali, in una drammatica scena madre con svelamento (e relativo rovesciamento) delle parti.

Ehrfurcht ist die Mutter aller Schreibblockaden. Das bekommt auch Geoff Dyer zu spüren, als er sein nächstes Buch angeht: eine Studie über sein Vorbild D. H. Lawrence, den Schöpfer der ›Lady Chatterley‹. Schon das Notizenmachen will nicht gelingen. Also versucht er es mit einem Roman. Den wollte er ohnehin schreiben. Aber wie soll er das schaffen, wenn er nicht einmal weiß, wo er wohnen will? Vielleicht könnte er mit seiner Freundin in Rom sesshaft werden. Oder aber ein wenig herumreisen. Aber auf der griechischen Insel Alonissos ist es einfach zu ruhig zum Arbeiten. Und auf Sizilien will erst mal seine Abneigung gegen Meeresfrüchte verarbeitet werden … ›Aus schierer Wut‹ ist das Porträt eines Autors in einer Schaffenskrise – klug, sprachmächtig und so komisch, dass es einem vor Lachen die Tränen in die Augen treibt. Gequält, gleichermaßen beschwingt und übellaunig reist Geoff Dyer durch die Welt, erzählt von seiner Unfähigkeit, ein Projekt zu Ende zu führen, geschweige denn eines zu beginnen, und lässt doch wie durch ein Wunder dieses Buch vor unseren Augen entstehen. Über alles und nichts hat noch niemand so scharfsinnig, treffsicher und vergnüglich geschrieben.

Venedig: Journalist Jeff Atman soll von der Biennale berichten. Obwohl er die Kunstwelt verachtet, stürzt er sich ins Partyleben. Dort trifft er auf Laura, die ihn sofort in ihren Bann zieht. Er weiß, er muss sie wiedersehen, doch sie will auf den Zufall setzen: Treffen sie sich wieder, ist es Schicksal – wenn nicht, dann soll es so sein. Varanasi: Eine Reisereportage hat den Ich-Erzähler in die indische Pilgerstadt geführt. Wer hier stirbt, soll das Rad der ewigen Wiederkehr verlassen können. Der Journalist taucht ein in die Straßen Varanasis, er sieht brennende Leichen am Ufer des Ganges, trifft auf westliche Aussteiger und indische Straßenkinder, auf heilige Männer und heilige Kühe. Die Stadt verschlingt ihn und will ihn nicht wieder hergeben. Mit dieser grandiosen Zusammenführung zweier mythenbeladener Orte aus West und Ost zeigt Geoff Dyer, warum er in seiner Heimat zu den ganz Großen zählt. Mit unwiderstehlichem Witz und einzigartiger Beobachtungsgabe setzt er seine Figuren dem Geist dieser Orte aus, bis sie merken: Wohin man auch geht, eins hat man immer im Gepäck – sich selbst. »Sehr lustig, voller Mut, so verzehrend wie wohlschmeckend. Sie werden Venedig danach mit anderen Augen sehen!« Michael Ondaatje

Obsažný průvodce světem výtvarných děl jak nejznámějších, tak i méně známých malířů. Uměleckohistorický exkurz do malířství na 960 stranách začíná malbami z dob starého Egypta a končí výtvarnými díly současnosti. Každé dílo představuje kvalitní reprodukcí a výstižným, zasvěceným popisem. Dozvíte se z něj zajímavé údaje o autorovi malby, poznáte historické pozadí jejího vzniku, osvětlíte si symboliku díla, techniky použité k jeho tvorbě a další souvislosti, díky nimž se na obraz můžete podívat z vícerých a snad i úplně nových zorných úhlů. Předností publikace je její široký záběr. Díky tomu si přitažlivou formou můžete rozšířit své znalosti z dějin výtvarného umění.