PHOTOBOOK REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS AND WRITE-UPS
ALONG WITH THE LATEST PHOTO-EYE NEWS

Social Media

Best Books 2013: Martin Parr


Best Books 2013 Best Books 2013 Martin Parr Best Books picks from photographer Martin Parr.

By Sergio Larrain
Aperture
 

What a total treat! Here we have all the classic iconic images from this wonderful photographer who died only last year. On top of that Agnes Sire has dug up many unknown Larrain’s that are as good as the ones we know and love. To supplement all of this, a most elegant design from the excellent Xavier Barral, with stunning printing. It doesn’t get much better than this. 


By Henk Wildschut
Post Editions


This project, undertaken for the Rijksmuseum examines the food industry with the rigor of a scientist analyzing the strange processes that make up this industry. With the single word captions such as ‘scrubbing’ and ‘by-product’ it’s enough to put you off your dinner, but also get an idea of the book’s approach.
By Max Pam
Editions Bessard
 


A great production from Bessard works perfectly with the writing and photography of Australia’s great roving tourist, cum artist.
By Thomas Sauvin
Archive of Modern Conflict
 

Thomas Sauvin has accumulated over two tons of negatives bought from a man on the Beijing tip and worked to categorize them into this set of 5 books. Topics include subjects such as 'in front of fridges' and 'twins.'
By Lieko Shiga
AKAAKA
 

This book deals with the territory of memory with a combination of re-staging and flashed scenes, harking back to the tsunami of recent times.
By Oscar Monzon
RVB / Dalpine
 


This glossy book, with an accumulation of flash snatched scenes of both people and cars taken from all angles weaves itself into a brilliant and somewhat disturbing narrative. 
By Lorenzo Vitturi
Self Publish Be Happy
 

This young Italian living in East London, near the most culturally diverse market in London, has produce a great book showing both his constructed still lifes of goods from the market and assorted head shots, both abstract and real. He also throws in some market scenes and the work is all housed in a delicious book with African material on the cover. A heady mix of colour, food and portraits that brilliantly depict Ridley road market.
By Carlos Spottorno
RM & Phree
 

The ever-enterprising RM publishers have come up with another gem here. PIGS, which is Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, the near bankrupt European countries. The format, based on the graphics of the Economist, is used to house the images of the above countries starting to fray at the edges.
By Jon Tonks
Dewi Lewis


This tour of the remaining British territories, many of which are godforsaken outposts in the Atlantic, is a wonderful study of island life. A mixture of portraits and landscapes, together with the stories associated with the scenes, provide both an entertaining and rather melancholy take on this fading Empire.
AHLAN!
By Nuria Carrasco
Self-Published

Another zine which echoes a magazine format, this time Hello magazine. The subject is the struggle for the liberation of three generations of refugees in the Sahara desert. So we are invited to go in various tents, meet families etc, all in Hello style. This together with some brilliant pastiche ads, makes one the best photographic statements of the year.



Martin Parr is a photographer, a curator and editor. He is currently working on Vol 3 of The Photobook, A History and a book about the history of Chinese photobooks.
http://www.martinparr.com