coffee table books travel

This is a portfolio of the best of Steve McCurry’s photography: classical, magical and powerful images from South and Southeast Asia. McCurry takes photographs all over the world, for National Geographic magazine and his own projects, but it is the people, places, colours and forms of Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma) that have inspired his most sublime images — photographs which transcend their original editorial purpose to become classics of photography.

South Southeast features sixty-seven photographs with brief captions. A short text about McCurry introduces the book and he has written commentaries to accompany eight of the images, telling the stories behind them.

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Nothing compares to the moment when, after arriving in a foreign city, the hotel room’s drapes are drawn back to reveal the world outside – a world that, neatly if barely contained by the window s geometry, seems to belong to you alone. Conde Nast Traveler’s Room with a View column, featuring frame-worthy vistas from all over the world, has been whetting the appetites of armchair tourists for 20 years. This compendium gathers the most breathtaking sights of all time, from Balinese beaches to Asia’s bustling metropolises to African savannahs teeming with wildlife rather than nightlife.

Take, for instance, the bathtub vista from the Royal Park’s Urban Spa room in the 971 foot-high Yokohama Landmark Tower, or Room 609 at Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, the perfect box seat for the Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow, played on the frozen Lake of St. Moritz below. Room with a View presents 160 of these stunning photographs that, along with the magazine’s concise commentary, are sure to stoke the imaginations of even the most seasoned travelers.

Introduction by André Aciman

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This luxurious photography book on New Orleans restaurants celebrates the cityís love affair with food. From the legendary Tujagueís to the down-home Uglesichís, these beloved establishments are shown off in all their glory for residents and visitors alike.

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A magnificent illustrated testimony to Costa Rica’s fragile beauty.

Costa Rica: A Journey through Nature is a hard cover coffee-table book packed with stunning photographs from Costa Rica that represent 13 years of field work.

This exquisite book of photographs, brilliant in color and enchanting in subject, takes readers on a personal journey through the jewelled treasure that is Costa Rica. Images of spacious beaches, muddy river banks, crystal clear waterfalls, and lush jungles adorned with tropical blooms and prehistoric plants will stay in the reader’s mind for a long time to come.

The book is organized by region — the Central Divide, Guanacaste, the Central Pacific, the Osa Peninsula, the North Caribbean and the South Caribbean. It closes with a discussion on conservation and responsible tourism. Like an informed tour guide, the extended captions provide interesting facts and valuable context, all from the perspective of the author / photographer.

Highlights on the journey include Arenal, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, Tortuguero National Park, where a lone jaguar trots across the sand, giant tree ferns — evolutionary relics that predate flowering plants – in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, a blood-scarlet passion flower emerging through leaf litter, a partially submerged crocodile, its riveting stare fixed on the photographer and poison arrow frogs, vividly painted in deadly reds, blues and greens.

Overflowing with brilliant page-filling photographs and informative text, this book is as close as one can get to Costa Rica without a passport.

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A coffee-table style book with 120 color photos by Mark Kelley of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The photos cover the abudant wildlife (humpback whales, bald eagles, seals, birdlife, and bears), the park’s major glaciers, ecosystems, mountain ranges, and recreational users. There are 11 essays by award winning Fairbanks writer Sherry Simpson. The book also contains a six-page history with 20 vintage photos.

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Landlubbers joke that sailors are always wanting to head off to the ends of the earth, but Chris Santella takes that life-changing desire very seriously. In this, the third installment in his immensely successful â??Fifty Placesâ? series, Santella assembles a crew of the worldâ??s greatest championship racers and professional adventurers and persuades them to disclose their favorite destinations around the globe.

Interviewees include some of the best-known men and women in the sport: Tom Whidden and Gary Jobson (members of the winning 1987 Americaâ??s Cup crew), Jeff Johnstone (of J-Boats), award-winning sailing writer Lin Pardy, and many others. The amazingly diverse places theyâ??ve selected range from clubby East Coast ports (Marblehead, Annapolis), to idyllic tropical refuges (Ilha Grande, Brazil; the Polynesian atoll of Mopelia), to some of the most hair-raisingly treacherous waters on earth (Cape Horn).

Coastlines around the worldâ??even Antarctica and the Arcticâ??are represented, and the chosen spots include some spectacular inland waters, such as the Bras dâ??Or Lakes and the North Channel of Lake Huron. For each of the 50 places, the sailor recommending the venue spins an entertaining yarn about his or her experience there, and each description is accompanied by a “make you want to go there now” photograph.
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A tour in words and photographs of the picturesque small towns of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbiaâ?? their architectural treasures, charming inns, quaint main streets, and magnificent scenery.

What is the allure of the Pacific Northwest? Centuries ago it was the gifts of nature that brought the explorers, fur traders, and pioneers. Today Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia still draw visitors to the sparkling coves and waterways, pristine mountains, and broad beachesâ?? and they charm them with artful towns and spirited communities.

The Most Beautiful Villages and Towns of the Pacific Northwest wends its way from nineteenth-century seaports like Port Townsend, Washington, to twenty-first-century ski resorts such as Whistler, British Columbia; from coastal getaways like Cannon Beach, Oregon, to Old West-style main streets in Joseph at the eastern border of that state. And it brings to life the stories of those who made epic journeys across the continent, trudging along the Oregon Trail or building the Canadian Pacific Railway in pursuit of the good life in this corner of North America.

Along with tales of specific towns there are photo essaysâ??on the picturesque lighthouses that protected shipping from the dangers of the Graveyard of the Pacific; on the gorgeous gardens that capitalize on the Northwestern climate; and on wine country, where new and acclaimed vineyards go hand in hand with an emphasis on lifestyle.. 240 color photographs
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Trains and steamships transformed transportation in the mid-19th century and opened the world to a new breed of traveler. Louis Vuitton understood the need for more practical luggage, and strove to create products that were adaptable to all situationsâ??and the travel trunk was born.

 

Authors Pierre Léonforte and �ric Pujalet-Plaà curate 100 of the finest trunks the Louis Vuitton company has produced on commission, including boxes made for movie stars from Douglas Fairbanks to Sharon Stone and couturiers from Jeanne Lanvin to Karl Lagerfeld, as well as cases designed for Ernest Hemingway, Leopold Stokowski, and Damien Hirst. Illustrated with 600 images taken from the Louis Vuitton archives and new photographs made especially for this book, this is the definitive history of personalized objects of both practicality and luxury.