The Best Books of 2015

Best Books 2015 Best Books 2015 photo-eye’s annual survey of the year’s best photobooks as chosen by 24 notables from the art photo world.

We are delighted to present photo-eye’s Best Books of 2015. As in the last six years, photo-eye asked photobook lovers from across the world to share their favorite books of the year. Our contributors for 2015 are:

10x10 Photobooks Gerry Badger Daniel Boetker-Smith Sarah Bradley David Campany Alejandro Cartagena Rémi Coignet John Gossage Yumi Goto Hans Gremmen Christopher J. Johnson Erik Kessels

Jeffrey Ladd Little Brown Mushroom Melanie McWhorter Kevin Messina Rafal Milach Colin Pantall Martin Parr John Phelan Thomas Sauvin Aaron Schuman Miwa Susuda Ed Templeton

Since 2009, photo-eye’s Best Books feature has been comprised of lists from multiple contributors. In recent years multi-contributor lists appear in an increasing number of venues. At photo-eye, Best Books is not about achieving an authoritative overview. In fact, we're confident in saying no one assembling a multi-contributor year-end best photobook list could possibly expect to meet this goal — it would be antithetical to such a project to begin with. But while the expansion of voices dilutes the concept of arbiters, it better reflects our topic — the varied, expanding and unpredictable world of photobooks, too vast for any one expert to command.

Below you’ll find a list of well-loved photobooks published within the last year, give or take a few months. Each bears the recommendation of someone who has seen a lot of photobooks, thought about them and decided to share what they personally liked. While writing this introduction I looked back on our first multi-contributor list in 2009. Its introduction is short and true of this list as well: “The range of books selected... is vast — spanning continents and genres, and together they form a powerful survey of contemporary photography. Since our very format denies the idea of an over-arching and objective top 10, below you'll find a more modest ‘master list,’ made up of the books that appear on at least three individual lists.”

We hope you enjoy exploring the over 150 titles that make up the 2015 lists. You'll find our top 17 picks of 2015 below. Individual lists can be reached by clicking on each contributor's name.

—Sarah Bradley, Editor of photo-eye Blog

Moisés By Mariela Sancari La Fabrica 7 Selections: 10x10 Photobooks Daniel Boetker-Smith Sarah Bradley Alejandro Cartagena Erik Kessels Colin Pantall Thomas Sauvin	Imperial Courts: 1993-2015 By Dana Lixenberg Roma Publications 6 Selections: 10x10 Photobooks David Campany Hans Gremmen Jeffrey Ladd Kevin Messina Miwa Susuda	Nude Animal Cigar By Paul Kooiker Art Paper Editions 6 Selections: Sarah Bradley Hans Gremmen Jeffrey Ladd Little Brown Mushroom Melanie McWhorter Miwa Susuda
Until Death Do Us Part By Thomas Sauvin Jiazazhi Press 6 Selections: Daniel Boetker-Smith Sarah Bradley Alejandro Cartagena Rafal Milach Martin Parr John Phelan	Lago By Ron Jude MACK 5 Selections: Gerry Badger Sarah Bradley David Campany Hans Gremmen Aaron Schuman	Songbook By Alec Soth MACK 5 Selections: John Gossage Jeffrey Ladd Martin Parr Aaron Schuman Ed Templeton
Taking Off. Henry My Neighbor By Mariken Wessels Art Paper Editions 5 Selections: 10x10 Photobooks Alejandro Cartagena Hans Gremmen Erik Kessels Little Brown Mushroom John Phelan	You Haven't Seen Their Faces By Daniel Mayrit Riot Books 5 Selections: Gerry Badger Alejandro Cartagena Rémi Coignet John Gossage Martin Parr	Bottom of the Lake By Christian Patterson Koenig Books 4 Selections: Gerry Badger Rémi Coignet John Gossage John Phelan
Diary By Boris Mikhailov Walter Koenig 4 Selections: Jeffrey Ladd Little Brown Mushroom Miwa Susuda Ed Templeton	My Last Day at Seventeen By Doug Dubois Aperture 4 Selections: David Campany John Gossage Little Brown Mushroom Ed Templeton	Some Thing Means Everything to Somebody By Peter Mitchell RRB Publishing  4 Selections: Christopher J. Johnson Jeffrey Ladd Melanie McWhorter John Phelan
Crackle & Drag By TR Ericsson The Cleveland Museum of Art 3 Selections: Christopher J. Johnson Jeffrey Ladd Melanie McWhorter	Early Works By Ivars Gravlejs MACK 3 Selections: Alejandro Cartagena Colin Pantall Martin Parr	In the Shadow of the Pyramids By Laura El-Tantawy Self-Published 3 Selections: Alejandro Cartagena John Gossage Colin Pantall
Bottom Ash Observatory By Christien Meindertsma & Mathijs Labadie Thomas Eyck 3 Selections: Daniel Boetker-Smith Yumi Goto Melanie McWhorter	Pony Congo By Vicente Paredes This Book is True 3 Selections: Alejandro Cartagena Erik Kessels Miwa Susuda