Civilization: The Way We Live Now

We hurtle together into the future at ever-increasing speed--or so it seems to the collective psyche. Perpetually evolving, morphing, building and demolishing, rethinking, reframing and reshaping the world around and ahead--and the people within it--an emerging, planetary-wide Civilization is our grand, global, collective endeavor. Never before in human history have so many people been so interconnected, and so interdependent.

With close to 500 images, many previously unpublished, this landmark publication takes stock of the material and spiritual cultures that make up "civilization." Ranging from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from our great collective achievements to our ruinous collective failings, Civilization: The Way We Live Now explores the complexity of contemporary civilization through the rich, nuanced language of photography.

Featuring images by some 140 photographers--from Reiner Riedler's families at leisure parks, Raimond Wouda's high schools, Wang Qingsong's Work, Work, Work and Cindy Sherman's Society Portraits, to Lauren Greenfield's displays of ostentatious wealth, Edward Burtynsky's oil fields, Pablo Lopez Luz's views on a sprawling contemporary megapolis, Thomas Struth's images of high technology, Xing Danwen's electronic wastelands and Taryn Simon's Contraband, Civilization draws together the threads of humankind's ever-changing, frenetic, collective life across the globe.

Visually epic, Civilization contains eight thematic chapters, each featuring powerful imagery and accompanied by provocative essays, quotes, and concise statements by the artists themselves.

Author: William A. Ewing, Holly Roussell
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 11/06/2018
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 5.25lbs
Size: 11.90h x 9.90w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9780500021705

About the Author
Roussell, Holly: - Holly Roussell is a curator and art historian specializing in photography and contemporary art from Asia. Currently a curator at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, her previous books include Civilization: The Way We Live Now, coauthored with William A. Ewing.Ewing, William A.: - William A. Ewing has been an author, lecturer, curator of photography, and museum director for more than fifty years. His many publications on photography include The Body: Photographs of the Human Form, Civilization: The Way We Live Now, Edward Burtynsky: Essential Elements, and Flora Photographica: The Flower in Contemporary Photography.