Drone Vision: Warfare, Surveillance, Protest brings the perfidious character of drones to the fore. Namely, seeing without being seen - and the associated insecurity and vulnerability, but also the usage for resistance and protest. The book presents three projects that move between art and politics - from migrant protests to colonial surveillance and the aesthetics of drone photography. The latter shows the geological scars and war remnants of five abandoned military sites in Israel - army strongholds, shooting ranges and urban warfare training facilities - and juxtaposes them with the personal and political scars engraved and marked on the private human body. Buy

Reverse Hallucinations in the Archipelago reflects on the changing role of colonial natural history collections in the current ecological crisis.⁠ ⁠ From DNA traces tracing teak furniture back to Indonesian plantations, to the extinction of species in the rapidly changing Malay world, an essayistic composition of Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubious's Javanese osteo-mythology, to the harmful role of monocultures, especially oil palm. In addition, a series of drone footage by Akademi Drone Indonesia, a group of young environmental activists from Nusantara, documents controversial land grabs in the region and shows the ongoing environmental violence perpetrated for profit.⁠ Buy

"In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions."⁠ ⁠ This is a trailblazing collection of writings by rule-breaker Binyavanga Wainaina. Full of sharp satire and piercing wisdom, it contains many of Binyavanga's critically acclaimed works, including the satirical sensation How to Write About Africa, quoted above, which plays with the way Western media have reinforced stereotypes and pre-existing notions about Africa. Buy

The world today faces overwhelming environmental and social problems. To combat, change and overcome these challenges, collective action is necessary and inevitable. This has led to new forms of collective art and design practices: Artists collaborate with non-artists, make products for their local environment and take on multiple identities such as researcher, community activist, computer hacker or business consultant.⁠ ⁠ The book "Making Matters" by the fantastic publisher Onomatopee looks at art practices on all continents where the boundaries between art, design, research and activism are blurring or dissolving. ⁠ Buy

From the beginnings of colonial photography in the 19th century to contemporary images of 'white saviours' on social media, photography continues to play an essential role in the maintenance of white sovereignty. As various scholars have shown, the technology of the camera is not innocent either, nor are the images it produces.⁠ ⁠ Thus, the invention and perpetuation of the "white race" is not only a political, social and legal phenomenon, but also a complex visual one. In a time of revived fascism, we must seek to re-locate the image of whiteness in order to better understand its nonsensical construction. What does whiteness look like, and how might we begin to trace an anti-racist history of artistic resistance that works against this image?⁠ ⁠ The Image of Whiteness presents the visual history of whiteness - its falsehoods, its paradoxes and its part in manifesting power. It also presents works by photographic artists who subvert and critique this image. Buy

Out of the Sun sheds light on the people and stories that have remained in the shadows - more specifically, the stories of Black people that history has not recorded.⁠ ⁠ Edugyan tackles in this book race and representation, memory and belonging, and sensitively explores what it means to be seen and who remains unseen. For change to happen, we must first acknowledge "the vastly unequal places from which we each speak, the ways some have been denied voices when others are so easily heard”, she writes.⁠ Buy

There's been a lot of talk lately about space exploration. But Pauline Julier goes one step further. At a time when billionaires and governments are setting out to control space while our planet is still suffering the consequences of centuries of exploitation, Julier points out that efforts to find new worlds are nothing more than a new form of colonialism. Her visual exploration took her to the Atacama Desert in Chile, where the training grounds for NASA's rovers are located next to one of the largest lithium mines in the world. A place where the destructive capitalisation of our planet is most palpable, right next to the attempt to find new habitable worlds or at least some mineable resources. What ever the cost. Buy

Media artist Hito Steyerl illuminates the power structures, inequalities and obscurities of the world. From surveillance, alienated labour, militarisation, protest culture, corporate domination and the art market, she exposes the systemic structures behind them. If one were to give her a title, it would probably be that of a network thinker. No wonder her texts and essays are as groundbreaking as her artistic works.⁠ ⁠ This interdisciplinary anthology analyses how Steyerl's work and writing influence and cross-fertilise each other.⁠ Buy

Here at do you read me?!, we are blessed with all sorts of interesting customers. Tourists from all over the world in search of unusual publications (and lots of tote bags); awkward couples on obvious first dates searching our shelves for books as well as a basic thread of conversation; the occasional gigantic dog roaming in with its owner and promptly sprawling over a sizable section of our little shop. But in the end, nothing tops the simple pleasure of seeing a customer derive visible, almost tactile joy, when they finally hold the latest issue of their favourite magazine in their hands. This month’s installment of our Surprise Subscription is a prime example of this particular phenomenon. We are excited to share with you… Real Review! More

Climate change, political conflict, discrimination, displacement, and social justice - this new issue of Foam Talent addresses the pressing problems of our times and reminds us that photography has the capability to capture the unspeakable. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ 20 upcoming talents in photography look closely at both the world around us, and the one within — without shying away from discomfort or pain. Rather, they use the photographic medium to respond to, digest and navigate a world that continues to present new challenges and problematic structures.⁠⁠ Buy

In recent political debates, the concept of expert has undergone a shift in values from exaltation to disdain. In contexts as diverse as Brexit, climate change or vaccination, one encounters a palpable distrust of experts and an increasing tendency to throw their advice to the wind. Are we really witnessing the "death of the expert", or are the complaints about the "assault on science" just a hysterical reaction by elites who see their status threatened?⁠ Buy

As We Rise presents an exciting compilation of photographs from African diasporic culture. With over one hundred works by Black artists from Canada, the Caribbean, Great Britain, the United States, South America, as well as throughout the African continent, this volume provides a timely exploration of Black identity on both sides of the Atlantic.⁠ ⁠ As Teju Cole describes in his preface, “Too often in the larger culture, we see images of Black people in attitudes of despair, pain, or brutal isolation. As We Rise gently refuses that. It is not that people are always in an attitude of celebration—no, that would be a reverse but corresponding falsehood—but rather that they are present as human beings, credible, fully engaged in their world.” Drawn from Dr. Kenneth Montague’s Wedge Collection in Toronto—a Black-owned collection dedicated to artists of African descent—As We Rise looks at the multifaceted ideas of Black life through the lenses of community, identity, and power. Buy