It can sometimes be overwhelming to find a good photo book. We like to look at new books and talk with photographers about how they come together. Some projects change how you look at the world. Others are enjoyable. All of them are beautiful in their own way.
Here is a list of the best photo books of the year.
Carlota Guerrero is in the Dentro del Corazn.
Carlota Guerrero is both a vision and a visionary, and she dances into a trance to spur on good ideas. She rose to fame after working with Solange on her album A Seat at the Table, and is based in Barcelona. She has created many of her own images of women.
She is warm, she is welcoming, and she has me feeling more acceptance and love for my body as a stranger on a call than I have in months. Her new book, Tengo un Dragn Dentro del Corazn, is a record of her work so far and the closing of a chapter as she looks to the future.
See our story for more on this book.
Amani Willett is on a parallel road.
Amani Willett has pondered the promise of the road for years, wondering if it really is the American dream. His book, A Parallel Road by Overlapse Books, looks at the vastly different experiences of Black Americans and white Americans behind the wheel in the US over the last century. This book is a testament to the psychological weight of the Black experience on the road, thanks to the help of family members who contributed their experiences.
See our full story for more on this book.
Eye to Eye is a collection of portraits of lesbians.
In the 70s, photographer and activist Joan E. Biren set out to publish a book about lesbians. It is easy to take representation for granted, but it took a lot more work to find your people. The book Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians was the first of its kind, and it was bold, as being gay was still stigmatized in most of the country. By today's standards, the book is remarkably inclusive, highlighting women from all different races and background in an effort to broaden the popular view of what a lesbian looks like.
See our full story for more on this book.
Nick Meyer is from The Local.
After the last year, we've all had a chance to think about what home means to us, and it's not always the most comfortable place to be. Nick Meyer, a New England–based photographer, has recently come out with a book, The Local, that is explicitly about his hometown, but it is also a bit about yours. Issues with addiction, housing insecurity, and an overall sense of small-town decline are subjects that are familiar to many. It also raises questions about what it means to love a place and what we owe each other. Meyer's work will not be purchased by the local tourism board because he is biased. He gives a raw take on where we are as a society and the issues we need to examine more closely.
See our full story for more on this book.
Catherine Opie.
If you don't know anything about Catherine Opie, her new book by Phaidon is a good place to start. The professor and fine art photographer has questioned the status quo in America, from the treatment and expectations of the LGBTQ community to how we create myths and interact with democracy. She told us in July that this is her first monograph of all the different bodies of work.
In Plain Air is the work of Irina Rozovsky.
A new book by photographer Irina Rozovsky is a form of escape that epitomizes springtime, going outdoors and that wonderful moment when the world seems to open up after a long winter. In Plain Air, we look at one of Brooklyn's largest parks, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Being able to watch and eavesdrop on other visitors is one of the best features of a good park. In her images of people napping, families lunching, and moments of quiet contemplation, she shows how public outdoor spaces can be used in many different ways.
Peter van Agtmael apologized for the war.
Peter van Agtmael has taken pictures in both the US and countries that the US has been at war with. His new book, Sorry for the War, implicates politicians and regular Americans in the violence and warfare that have torn up the Middle East for the past 20 years. Everything I do moving forward until the day I die will have something to do with 9/11 and the wars that have taken place in the world. They will always be a part of my life. The book encourages Americans to see the absurdity and serious consequences of wars that we are involved in but often opt not to see or engage with.
See our full story for more on this book.
Bart Heynen is a dad.
Bart Heynen is a Belgian photographer who is raising two young sons with his partner. When they moved to New York a few years ago, he knew they had an opportunity to be around more families like theirs. He started reaching out to fathers as a professional portrait photographer. All of us come from straight families. He said it was great to find out how other gay dads bring up their children. My kids realized there were more than one family with two dads. They realized they were not the only ones without a mom. The project was turned into a book called Dads, which looks at gay fatherhood in the United States.
The Peaceable Kingdom is by Sage Sohier.
Being witness to the often private ways people experience love is a common theme in Sohier's work. Her newest book, Peaceable Kingdom, expands on the theme by going into the world of animal rescue organizations. Most of the shelters in the US work with companion animals, such as cats and dogs. Smaller organizations run by individuals or families that aid different kinds of animals are what Sohier focuses on. The images make you think about what makes a good pet.
See our full story for more on this book.
Koreatown Dreaming is a work by Emanuel Hahn.
Emanuel Hahn was in a rut when he moved to Los Angeles. The storefronts in LA's Koreatown reminded him of his parents' hometown of Daegu, South Korea, in the 1990s. He decided to turn his walks and photos into a book, which he plans on publishing in the fall. We spoke with him about the project, the business owners he encountered, and how cultural shifts can threaten once-thriving immigrant communities.
Latinx Photography in the United States: A visual history is written by Elizabeth Ferrer.
BRIC is a nonprofit arts and media organization in Brooklyn. She is the author of Latinx Photography in the United States. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and is Mexican American. She saw how life shaped art when she was growing up during the rise of the Chicano civil rights movement. She remembered seeing the murals going up in the neighborhood when she was in elementary school. When I was a kid, I didn't have a lot of access to museums, but I saw how art can be used for social change and for community.
See our full story for more on this book.
Photo No-Nos is a book written by Jason Fulford.
A photographer and publisher who often works with others in the photography world, Fulford is interested in exploring their minds and work. His new book, Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What Not to photograph, was assembled during the Pandemic lockdown. He asked famous photographers, such as Alec Soth and William Wegman, what they try not to take pictures of. The final book is more of a roller coaster that takes you through highs and lows, personal obsessions, and pet peeves of some of the world's greatest working photographers.
See our full story for more on this book.
Robert Clark is on Friday Night Lives.
Robert Clark and Buzz Bissinger traveled to West Texas in 1988 to chronicle a season of high school football with the Permian Panther. Friday Night Lights was a book and movie that inspired a TV show. Clark shot over 80 rolls of film for the original book, but only a few images were included. Over the years, he has visited Texas a few times to photograph a few of the players and coaches, eventually building his photo book Friday Night Lives, which was released in 2020. Clark presents a body of work that captures the innocence of life before the 21st century, as well as what came after.
See the full story for more on this book.
Vanishing Points was written by Michael Sherwin.
A shopping center was being built on a Monongahela burial ground in Morgantown, West Virginia, almost a decade ago, and it was discovered by an associate professor of art. The realization shook him deeply and prompted a yearslong exploration of what happened to other Native American sites. His work is being published in a new book, Vanishing Points, which challenges the idea that history is ever fully decided with large-format photographs that look critically at seemingly familiar American landscapes.
See our full story for more on this book.
I saw the air fly.
The darkroom is moving on a trailer hitch like a caravan from town to town, a few miles over the Syrian border in Turkey. Most of the refugees like Salih are children. The darkroom at Mack Books took input from students in the program when selecting photographs for the book. The kids chose what they wanted to photograph themselves, and Salih said the photography focuses on the more joyful and playful moments of their lives.
See our full story for more on this book.
Mel D. Cole is the author of American Protest: Photographs 2020.
You may know Mel D. Cole from his hip-hop photography, or from his stunning, unforgettable images as one of the photographers on the ground with the crowd at the US Capitol. Cole's photographs of that day stood out to me as I watched a mob break into the Capitol. The violence and chaos are put into stark reality by his images. Cole captured images of protesters, counterprotesters, police, and regular Americans as they faced off over signs and streets to voice their opinions. Cole told us that he is not the same photographer as he was before the Pandemic.
See our full story for more on this book.
Joseph Rodriguez was with the LAPD in 1994.
In 1994, photographer Joseph Rodrguez was given unprecedented access to cover the Los Angeles police for two weeks for the New York Times. This was three years after the beating of Rodney King was recorded on video and two years after the riots broke out over the acquittal of the four officers involved. The work has been turned into a book.
The questions of justice, force, racism, and who gets to act against whom are highlighted in the photos by Rodrguez. The photos were taken over two decades ago, and they offer a glimpse into how the police see themselves.
See our full story for more on this book.
Street portraits of Dawoud Bey.
Dawoud Bey is a national treasure. His photographs show the experience of Black Americans, and they speak to our shared American history, leaving the viewer with a meditation on the past that is both profound and beautiful.
A retrospective of Bey's career was held at the Whitney Museum in New York City earlier this year and it feels like it's tailor-made for the current moment. It is rare for a living artist to be given a big show, but it speaks to the relevancy of Bey's vision. A collection of his early portraits in Harlem was released by Mack earlier this year.
See our full story for more on this book.
New York Paradise Lost: Bushwick Era Disco is a film by Meryl Meisler.
A photographer and artist who worked in New York City's public school system for 31 years, is named Meryl. Her work looks back at students at Intermediate School , as well as the streets of Bushwick in Brooklyn and the dance scene where she spent her free time. Her book, New York Paradise Lost, shows the queer party scene of New York in the 1970s and the streets before massive development of the area. She hopes it's uplifting to everyone else. The 1970s in New York were bad. Artists moved into all these empty spaces after people ran away from the city. 40 years later, people want to live there and there's a lot to be said about transformation and gentrification.
Karen Marshell is from Between Girls.
What is the purpose of the girl world? Who gets to exist in it? Artists have been interested in these inquiries for a long time. The photographer Karen Marshall asked herself those questions in the 1980s, towards the end of the women's liberation movement, and decided to explore the friendship of young women and their tendency to form symbolic relationships.
Her photos have been collected into a book over 30 years in the making, which is split into different parts and throughout which you can see a group of friends grow up and adapt to the world around them.
Marshall said it was like a piece of cinema. You can read it from cover to cover.
See our full story for more on this book.
Diana Markosian is from Santa Barbara.
We already knew that Diana Markosian is a talented photographer. Her first monograph, Santa Barbara, brings a lot of new pieces of the photographer's background to light. The photo series shows her family's journey from Russia to the US in the 1990s. When her family settled in Santa Barbara, they only learned about her mother's past in Russia. If you like the cinematic photography of Anna Gaskell and Cindy Sherman, you will love this book.
"American geography" was written by Matt Black.
American culture believes that if you try hard enough, you can build a life you want. It has been tested by rising income inequality, skyrocketing housing, healthcare and education costs, and the long-term effects of redlining and other exclusionary practices being laid bare. The myth continues until you look at photographer Matt Black's first book.
The Central Valley in California has been one of the most impoverished regions in the country for the past century. He has been documenting the area for almost 30 years. His images deal with farming, poverty, and the social condition, topics that are easy to sideline as not being relevant to other, wealthier areas. His pictures of people and places on the margins are singular, but they call to mind the work of earlier documentarians who looked critically at American society, such as Robert Frank.
See our full story for more on this book.
"Hello Future" is the title of a song by Farah Al Qasimi.
It feels like you are listening to someone talk and then watching them talk again. The photographs show snippets and details of a life that is very usual and fascinating. The bright, poppy pages show that Al Qasimi is from the U.S., but she now lives in Brooklyn. The photos are almost designed to make you want to vomit, but with wit and humor that will make you smile by the end of the book.
"I can't stand to see you cry," said Fortune.
I Can't Stand to See You Cry won many awards this year, and with good reason. The Texas photographer, who is now based in Brooklyn, documented his family, friends and strangers in his home state. The book is almost like a graphic novel in that it tells the story of a young man's year as he takes pictures of the epidemic, the loss of a loved one, and his own photography career.
More on this.
