Arts Design

BEAUTIFUL HUMANITY IN BOOKS & FILM

All week, this week, we are celebrating the beauty of humanity. We begin with a collection of 10 new productions that each examine humanity from a different perspective. We’ve got 9 books and one film that prove that beauty was, in fact, a factor in our human evolution.

1. HUMANS OF NEW YORK

“Humans of New York,” by photographer Brandon Stanton, is a catalog of humanity, documenting the life of everyday people in New York City.

Based on the Humans of New York blog, which boasts more than three million loyal fans, this beautiful, heartfelt, funny, and inspiring collection of photographs and stories, will charm and captivate you.

The book, a #1 New York Times bestseller, includes images from when the blog began, in the summer of 2010, when Stanton set out to create a “photographic census” of New York City.

You’ll get many NY slices of humanity in the 400 full-color photos -- some candid, some “almost candid” -- as well as quotes and anecdotes from the photo subjects.

The book is Amazon’s number one pick for the best books of the year in Photography.

St. Martin's Press (2013)

2. THE HUMAN FRAGMENT

“The Human Fragment,” by Michael Ernest Sweet, is a beautiful photo essay on humanity.

"[Michael Ernest Sweet] is a genius at composition, finding the beauty in the shapes and surprises of everyday life. His works often look set up and arranged, but in reality they're capturing the stylistic sexiness of the urban jungle as it pops up in spontaneous ways that only a photo could let you ponder and dissect."

-- Michael Musto, from the Foreword

“Michael Ernest Sweet's photos are not sweet at all they are rich and investigative, with a unique voice that speaks of presence, mystery, and selectivity a highly personal vision.”

--Jay Maisel

Brooklyn Arts Press (2013)

3. JUSTICE: FACES OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS REVOLUTION

“Justice: Faces of the Human Rights Revolution,” by NY-based photographer Mariana Cook, has produced yet another of her famed character studies.

This collection introduces us to the faces of the human rights revolution, including former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the 39th American President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Interviews and shared insights accompany the stunning photos. They emphasize the personal importance of human rights to each of the subjects. We see the power of a single individual’s ability to transform the world.

These are the faces of humanity standing for humanity. These are the faces of humanity inspiring humanity.

The beautifully written essays accompanying the portraits and the powerful introduction were written by the recently deceased writer and journalist Anthony Lewis.

Cook’s previous bestselling photobooks include Mathematicians, Faces of Science, Mothers and Sons and Fathers and Daughters.

Damiani (2013)

4. FACE TO FACE PORTRAITS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT

“Face to Face: Portraits of the Human Spirit,” by award-winning documentary photographer Alison Wright, is a gorgeous collection of 184 stunning color portraits and text. It speaks to the connectedness of the universal human spirit.

Wright won the Dorothea Lange Award for covering child labor in Asia and is a two-time recipient of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. She documents humanity for humanitarian organizations and publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian, Outside and Time.

Connect with the eyes of monks and geishas, nomads and cowboys, and tribal warriors. Be inspired by the faces of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Revel in the beauty and diversity of the best of humanity.

Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. (2013)

5. THE HUMANS

“The Humans: A Novel,” by Matt Haig, is a dark comedy about an extraterrestrial visitor who arrives on Earth, and isn’t so impressed with the human species. No wonder! In his utopian world, on his own planet, everyone enjoys immortality and infinite knowledge.

“I know that some of you reading this are convinced humans are a myth, but I am here to state that they do actually exist. For those that don’t know, a human is a real bipedal life form of midrange intelligence, living a largely deluded existence on a small waterlogged planet in a very lonely corner of the universe.”

But as the alien integrates and interacts more with humans, he begins to “get” and appreciate humanity more. He begins to see hope and beauty in the humans’ imperfections.

“Funny, poignant and full of heart.”

-- Entertainment Weekly

“The Humans is by turns silly, sad, suspenseful and soulful….Haig manages…to burrow beneath clichés as he explores the meaning of sentimentality, loyalty, love, and mortality….Haig's insights are often compelling.”

-- Philadelphia Inquirer

Simon & Schuster (2013)

6. A NATURAL HISTORY OF HUMAN THINKING

“A Natural History of Human Thinking,” by Michael Tomasello, explores questions about what distinguishes humans from other animals.

Tomasello has studied these questions for over 20 years, looking at comparisons between humans and apes, and concludes that cooperative social interaction is the key to our cognitive uniqueness.

Cooperation is the real key. Becuase while our prehuman ancestors could think their way out of problems, as apes can, they were mostly competitive and self-focused.

As ecological changes forced more cooperative living arrangements, early humans had to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate.

Tomasello's "shared intentionality hypothesis" captures how these more socially complex forms of life led to more conceptually complex forms of thinking and expression. The humanities -- language and art came out of these roots.

This book is the most detailed scientific analysis to date of the connection between human sociality and cognition.

Harvard University Press (2014)

7. PLANTS AND THE HUMAN BRAIN

“Plants and the Human Brain," by David O. Kennedy, looks at the question of why plant- and fungus-derived chemicals have their effects on the human brain. How and why do plants shape humanity? Think coffee, chocolate, and psilocybin, for some more obvious examples.

Our planet’s two dominant life forms, plants and insects, are in a chemical dance with each other. Mammals, plants and insects have suprising biological similarities. And there is a close correspondence between the brains of insects and humans, and the intercellular signaling pathways shared by plants and humans.

Oxford University Press, USA (2014)

8. THE ART INSTINCT: BEAUTY, PLEASURE, AND HUMAN EVOLUTION

“The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution,” by Denis Dutton, takes a look at the disciplines of art and evolutionary science. It stands to revolutionize the way art is perceived.

Why do we like what we like? Dutton posits that aesthetic taste is an evolutionary trait, shaped by natural selection rather than being "socially constructed." We humans innately appreciate art. Certain artistic values are universal across cultures. For example, we all seem to love landscapes that feature water and distant trees.

No matter where we come from, who our ancestors are, and when we live on this planet, art is a common part of humanity.

Bloomsbury Press (2009)

9. NUDE MEN: FROM 1800 TO THE PRESENT DAY

“Nude Men: From 1800 to the Present Day,” edited by Tobias G. Natter and Elisabeth Leopold is a fabulous collection of art that celebrate the naked beauty of one half of humanity -- men.

It’s a veritable tour of the male nude throughout art history. Check out Rodin’s Thinker, Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, and Pigalle’s controversial portrayal of the philosopher Voltaire. With works including Johann Heinrich Füssli, Antonio Canova, Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl, Jean Cocteau, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, and Louise Bourgeois.

The book includes three hundred full-color illustrations, as well as insightful essays examining topics like male identity, visual ideas about desire, and the use of nude men in advertising.

Hirmer Publishers (2013)

10. VISITORS

Visitors, directed by Godfrey Reggio, is an astonishing ode to humanity. Reggio, known for his Qatsi trilogy — 1982’s Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, 1988’s Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation and 2002’s Naqoyqatsi: Life as War continues his exploration of sensory experience in film.

Reggio is an artist and activist who spent 14 years as a Christian Brother (a Catholic Monk). He brings a unique perspective.

His riveting images play out to the music of Philip Glass

“Technology has become the environment of life,” says Reggio. “It is a new host of life and because we’re so human and animal, we become the environments we live in. We become what we see, touch, taste, smell. It’s not so much a judgment, I’m not here to be a judge, I’m here to observe and to feel and this is what I feel. So technology, anything that I could have said about the divines in the past, I can say about technology now. It is the host of life and we’re on for the ride. Its truth becomes the truth. And that’s why I used that quote from Nietzsche, ‘We have art so as not to perish from the truth.’”

You will gaze into the eyes of humanity when you view this beautiful film. Watch the trailer here.

Read more about Beautiful Humanity, it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact.

Enter this week’s BN Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Humanity. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 03.09.14.

PHOTO CREDITS:

By Brandon Stanton. Humans of New York.
Courtesy of St. Martin’s Press. Humans of New York.
Courtesy of Brooklyn Art Press. The Human Fragment.
Courtesy of Damiani. Justice: Faces of the Human Rights Revolution.
Courtesy of Schiffer Publishing Inc. Face to Face Portraits of the Human Spirit
Courtesy of Simon & Schuster. The Humans.
Courtesy of Harvard University Press. A Natural History of Human Thinking.
Courtesy of Oxford University Press. Plants and the Human Brain.
Courtesy of Bloomsbury Press. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution.
Courtesy of Hirmer Publishers. Nude Men: from 1800 to the Present Day.
Courtesy of VisitorsFilm. Visitors (2013)