These New-Guard Photo Books Make Perfect Gifts
Finally, some good news: Photobooks — those objects that wobble between totems of cultural cachet and immersive art experiences — are thriving. This November’s Paris Photo, the Met Gala of the photography world, hosted 25% more book publishers and debuted a “book talks” program. Trot down the road, and you’ll find Polycopies and Offprint, two scrappier-yet-still-sprawling book fairs that now showcase more than 100 international publishers each year. “There are more eyes on photobooks than there have ever been,” says Jesse Feinman, who founded the independent publishing house Pomegranate Press in 2015, and who has attracted a younger readership by throwing parties and selling merch.
There are several reasons for this. For one, the number of indie publishers has multiplied. In the 2010s, the London-based organization Self Publish, Be Happy helped legitimize smaller publishing operations, meaning more photographers had access to the medium. Putting out a photobook became a career milestone for photographers, explain Sarah Piegay Espenon and Lewis Chaplin, the co-founders of publisher Loose Joints.
As demand grew, so did the number of publishing houses. In fact, Loose Joints — which is based in Marseille and dedicated to slice-of-life photographers — recently joined the ranks of the kingpins of photobook publishing: Taschen, Steidl, Aperture, Rizzoli, and Mack. Reaching that level is rare, but as the cost to print has gone down, mid- and small-tier publishers have sprouted up everywhere. There’s Void, hailing from Iceland; Matarile Ediciones in Brooklyn; and Akio Nagasawa Publishing in Japan.
While it’s hotter than ever “to broadcast being well read,” as Feinman says, publishers aren’t sure that eyeballs translate to cash in the bank. Feinman describes looking at his Instagram analytics and seeing that the number of saves is higher than a book’s actual sales. Bastien Forato, the founder of Collapse Books, a small publisher in Montmartre, describes selling his four titles at Polycopies in November and feeling lost in the crowd of new publishers. He recently handed me his latest book to flip through — a collection of stills from gay porn — and said, “Thankfully, I didn’t start this with the goal of making money.”
Thankfully for photobook publishers, photobook lovers, and the otherwise visually discerning, it is the season for giving and receiving plenty of coffee table material. So, after a tornado of book fairs in the fall left the words “spiralbound” and “heavyweight” echoing in my ears, I’ve curated a gift guide featuring all the new players in photobook publishing who are making meaningful work.
Go See* by Ramona Jingru Wang and Momoè Sadamatsuv | Friend Editions
Through the photographs of Ramona Jingru Wang and the styling of Momoè Sadamatsuv, Go See* is a thoughtful exploration of Asian identity in the fashion industry. It’s a counter-narrative to Juergen Teller’s famed Go Sees book featuring very white, very thin portraiture of models, and it illustrates, as far as a photobook can, the different forms Asian identity can take. Wang and Sadamatsuv’s mission is to empower their models. They credit them on every page, and in the back are photocopied handwritten notes from the models about their experiences in the industry. Han Na Shin writes, “IDK why I keep doing this… maybe it’s the fact that I believe in myself and that I’m always looking for other slaysians like me to take a risk.”
Orange Grove by Clifford Prince King | Tis
Orange Grove captures a time in 2016 when King moved to Los Angeles, lived with a friend in a two-bedroom, and worked the morning shift at Sprouts. The book captures late nights with lovers and friends and the wonder of burgeoning queerness. Woven into this world are images capturing the reality of the HIV diagnosis King received in 2018, such as a photo of sheets drenched from night sweats. It’s apparent from a quick page-through that King is a rare talent. He’s able to bottle the feeling of a zing, a frisson, a thrill that twists your insides. This is an excellent book for someone going through a transition.
Beneath the Late Sun by Sierra Breeze Petrioli | Pomegranate Press
Imagine a litter of beautiful fairy people who are set free to scamper about in the autumn light of the northeastern woods. You’ll have the essence of Sierra Breeze Petrioli’s first book, Beneath the Late Sun. Within the pages, Petrioli is working through the micro and macro dramas of being a young person, vying against the confines of a group and the desire for acceptance. Tucked in the middle is an image worth buying the whole book for: A body turned from the camera, perched on a bed with ankles and wrists twisted. For fans of Justine Kurland’s Girl Photos, Petrioli’s work will speak to you.
Hello, I Love You by Derek Ridge | Idea
I love watching people make out; you can learn a lot about someone by the way they kiss. The elusive Derek Ridge — a photographer who’d go to raves in Hackney wearing a button-down and loafers — has condensed his oeuvre of people macking on other people’s faces into a book. Pure delight!
Maputo Diary by Haarløv Johnsen | Disko Bay
Haarløv Johnsen grew up in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, during the civil war. The connective tissue of Maputo Diary is Johnsen’s relationships with the Manas, or “sisters,” a group of queer and transgender locals that she photographed for more than two decades, many of whom have since died. This is a photobook for fans of Nan Goldin’s environmental portraiture, Larry Sultan’s use of color, and Glen Luchford’s experimental framing.
Tokyo Trippy by Haruto Hoshi | Zen Foto
In his 20s, Haruto Hoshi went to prison after getting involved with the yakuza. Once released, he returned to prowling the streets of Tokyo at night, this time for photographs. He’s delightfully unconcerned with making his photos perfect. Heads are cut off, light leaks, and hot flash bounces across the 99 images of Tokyo Trippy depicting nighttime adventures in the sprawling city. On one page, we’re running down an alley in Shibuya past a woman on her phone in a massage parlor; in the next, a dude in his boxers throws his arm around a friend.
Organised Scenery by Loh Xiang Yun | Printed Matter
For pure, touch-grass sensory immersion, check out Organised Scenery. Loh Xiang Yun, a scientific botanical illustrator (!) in Singapore, took photos of green spaces in the city, capturing the welter of engineered nature, and printed them on chiffon.
Blue Sun by Genesis Báez | Capricious
You’ll feel the sun on your neck while looking at these photos — and a sudden desire to call your mom. This book is about Báez’s childhood spent between Puerto Rico and Massachusetts. For a book about dislocation and diaspora, the photographer finds grace in what’s elemental: the sun and a mother’s love. The light in her photos is not fluky or the outcome of coincidence, but rather the product of such precise curation that it will suck you in. Almost all the photos are strung together through matriarchal kinship, often literally. On one page, her mother, blazing in afternoon light, holds one end of a string. On another, two women carry a hose that snakes from the foreground to the background.
