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Favorite Photobooks of 2019

A very subjective, eclectic list of favorite photobooks from 2019 — personal recommendations from photography experts around the world.

A Wild Gaze

Confronting the contradictions of her upbringing and surroundings head on, this Mexican photographer’s raw images conjure a world that is strange, brutal and beautiful. 

Mundane

Both bewitching and sinister, these staged photographs take a contemplative approach to the news stories of gruesome violence that reach Bangladesh’s headlines every day. 

On the Speed of the Real

How to keep up? Editor at Large for Special Projects at TIME magazine Paul Moakley shares his insights on why the still image is a powerful tool of communication in our age of distraction. 

Shine Heroes

This fun, collaborative graphic novel photobook from La Paz, Bolivia, presents the city’s 3,000 shoe shiners as heroes with superpowers who help all of local humanity. 

Turning Inwards: GoaPhoto 2019

For its third edition, a festival in western India explores relationships with the private, the interior, the domestic and even voyeuristic impulses.

Picturing the Invisible: Seance

What else can photography uncover besides what is physically present in front of the lens? This 16-year project has criss-crossed the globe exploring the mystical, otherwordly beliefs of the Spiritualist community.

Necessary Words: “Conversations on Conflict Photography”

This new book is a vital text that brings together some of  photojournalism’s most prominent voices to reflect on the ethics of conflict photography in our increasingly image-saturated world. 

There is No Ark

Photographed in and around Miami, Anastasia Samoylova’s latest book, “FloodZone”, is an urgent and brooding reflection on the rising sea levels rapidly submerging the city and its environs.

Shock

In her mysteriously-lit “terrariums of grief”, the natural landscape becomes a symbol for the the complicated process of mourning, as the photographer searches for a way to deal with losing her mother. 

The Lingering Urge: A  Review of “Independent Mysteries” by Michael Magers

Shot across multiple locations, Magers’ latest book is made up of poetic enigmas: images that linger beyond their first viewing, inviting us to look again. 

Positive Disintegration

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han says we live in an era of exhaustion and fatigue, caused by an incessant compulsion to make our lives ‘perfect’ — here is a visual response to those ideas.

Stille Berge

Rejecting the stereotypical approach to photographing sublime mountain ranges in the light of day, this photographer instead points his lens towards the snowy peaks of the Alps at night.

Bluid and Sweat

In her meticulously-staged portraits, Stacey Tyrell explores race and identity, drawing on her own family’s histories of immigration to probe overarching structures of colonialism, white supremacy and capitalism. 

Here Among the Flowers

These award-winning photographs aim to offer a more positive portrayal of masculinity, and challenge the collective perception of masculinity in the post ‘Me Too’ world.

Except the Clouds

These enigmatic views of Athens present the city as a paradox, its rich and luminous past forming the backdrop to the turbulent events of recent times. 

Lamentable Tierra/Sorrow Land

An exhibition at the Camera Club of New York provides visionary perspectives on Mexico’s rural and domestic spaces, seen through the lens of three remarkable Mexican artists.

Look Twice, then Again and Again

Barbara Probst interrogates the very idea of a single defining picture of reality by using multiple cameras to register the same moment from many different points of view simultaneously.

Our Songs from the Forest

A loving coming-of-age story that broaches the thorny issue of gender inequality in Nepal and the repression that young women face in their daily lives. 

Twentysix Billboards

Taking inspiration from seminal photographers like Ed Ruscha, Walker Evans and the Bechers, this photographer documents the overlooked sides of billboards of L.A.

Midlife

A journey through the day-to-day dynamics of family life and relationships, this powerful new book confronts an often overlooked period of life: middle-age. 

Pending Memories

This collaborative photo project breaks down the traditional understanding of documentary photography as a medium necessarily bound to reality.

Town Boy

A 15-year collection of ordinary moments plucked from the flow of time, sensitive to the slow pulses and rhythm of the photographer’s hometown in South India. 

Elastic Forms, Elastic Visions

A new mentoring and exhibition program at London’s The Photographers’ Gallery celebrates inventive, sensorial approaches to photography at this animated show. 

Temporarily Censored Home

By disrupting the apartment he grew up in with portraits, family photography and cutouts from fashion magazines, this artist unleashes the repression he feels as a closeted gay man in his parents’ home.

Retrotopia

What does a socialist utopia look like? Enter the world of China’s few remaining village conglomerates that continue to embrace Mao’s legacy today.

The Abstract Underpinnings of Black and White: A Conversation with Barbara Tannenbaum

Journey across photography’s history through the Cleveland Museum of Art’s photography collection, as its head curator shares her insights on the enduring draw of black and white work. 

Into the Void

Created just three years ago, independent publishing house Void has quickly established a singular, gritty vision that speaks to the shared interests and passions of its founders.

Valparaiso

Capturing serene landscapes with a color palette extracted from nightmares, Francesco Merlini tells the story of loss, adolescence and childhood frustrations.

The Path of an Honest Man

People often lie through their teeth, but what about through their visuals? Using a salesman as her protagonist, Alexandra Lethbridge experiments with photography’s effortless ability to present fiction as reality.

n e w f l e s h

In their new photobook, artist and curator Efrem Zelony-Mindell brings together the work of 68 photographers, redefining our approach to constructing queer stories and conversations in the contemporary art world.

Down by the Hudson

Caleb Stein’s monochrome collection of portraits is an “ode” to the small town of Poughkeepsie, that finds its resolution in the edenic summer atmosphere of the local swimming spot.  

Vanessa Winship: Photographing Sète

In her new photobook, Vanessa Winship captures the poetic flow and calm pace of small-town life in southeastern France, bringing together captivating portraits and solitary landscapes.

Persistence Pays Off: Tips and Tricks for Applying to Awards & Portfolio Reviews

What are the benefits of applying to photography awards, even if you aren’t successful the first time around? An expert shares her insights into the hidden benefits of persistence, and what jurors pay attention to when discussing your entries.

Enshroud

In a series of bold and colorful photographs, this photographer sheds light on the joyful and vibrant practice of veiling in Nigeria.

I Need You More Than You Need Me

Transcending the definitions of classic documentary work, photographer Edgar Martins challenges our perception of incarceration by using metaphorical imagery that pushes us to consider the social effects of prisons.

Combing for Ice and Jade

In his “love note” to his nanny, Kurt Tong weaves together personal and public histories to tell the story of Mak Ngan Yuk, one of the last of the self-combed women of China—a community of autonomous, unmarried women that rejected the customs of the era

Wire Formation

As Dhaka’s electrical circuitry advances, the tangled relics of its old infrastructure lay abandoned, forming a city-wide technological graveyard.

Exclusion Zone

Rejecting the dark tropes we usually associate with the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, photographer Robyn Von Swank instead paints a quiet and poetic picture of the historic region and its inhabitants.
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