Books 2023 Favorite Photobooks It is with great pleasure we bring you our annual list of photobooks chosen by professionals who are deeply involved in the photobook world. This year we asked over 30 luminaries to choose, not one, but three of their favorite photobooks from the past year.

It is with great pleasure we bring you our annual list of photobooks chosen by professionals who are deeply involved in the photobook world. This year we asked over 30 luminaries to choose, not one, but three of their favorite photobooks from the past year.

Each day, over the next week, we'll unveil 15 new selections. This year's list is even more diverse than in years past. So please check back daily! We hope you will enjoy these insightful selections!

For over 44 years photo-eye has been on the leading edge of photo bookselling, offering an eclectic selection of photobooks from around the world. We curate our selections based on what we feel are noteworthy books that you, our audience, will find interesting and exciting. Thank you for your continued support!

>> View the Favorite Photobooks of 2023!

 

Books 2022 Favorite Photobooks In years past we've asked hundreds of people immersed in the photobook world to make their selections for their favorite book of the year. This year, we've decided to focus our attention internally and let our staff, who are all passionate about photobooks, act as a group and single out those books which we feel are the best contributions to this incredible art form.

In years past we've asked hundreds of people immersed in the photobook world to make their selections for their favorite book of the year. This year, we've decided to focus our attention internally and let our staff, who are all passionate about photobooks, act as a group and single out those books which we feel are the best contributions to this incredible art form.

Each year we see an ever-increasing number of photobooks, from self-published, small press and mainstream publishers, to our diverse, niche publishers throughout the world. From these, we select what we feel are the most interesting titles to market to you, our photobook lovers, through our daily and weekly newsletters, our website and social media, and in our fabulous Santa Fe bookstore.

As a result, photo-eye, now in our 44th year, is in a unique position to select books that we feel rise to the top and merit your attention and consideration.

We hope you enjoy our selections.

>> View the Favorite Photobooks of 2022!

 

Books 2020 Favorite Photobooks Welcome to our Favorite PhotoBooks of 2020 feature. This year we asked over 70 artists, writers and publishers from throughout the world to select their favorite photobook, the one book that made an incredible impression on them above all others.

Welcome to our Favorite PhotoBooks of 2020 feature. This year we asked over 70 artists, writers and publishers from throughout the world to select their favorite photobook, the one book that made an incredible impression on them above all others.

Part one is being released today with the remainder of the list being published tomorrow. Please share this feature to your social media platforms.

We hope you enjoy the list as we have enjoyed putting it together!

>> View the Favorite Photobooks of 2020!

 

Books 2019 Favorite Photobooks — Final Day Today is the final day of photo-eye's Favorite Photobooks, all 78 of our photobook VIPs' selections are now available to view on our website.

2019 Favorite Photobooks — Final Day

Today is the final day of photo-eye's Favorite Photobooks, all 78 of our photobook VIPs' selections are now available to view on our website.

Check back daily to see a new group of favorite books!

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Mark Power's Favorite

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Sleep Creek
Dylan Hausthor & Paul Guilmoth

"A beautiful little book from the excellent Athens-based Void, this was my most exciting find at Paris Photo. Devoid of text, the book appears to blend fact, fiction, and myth, with pictures consistently strange and often difficult to read. [...] It’s a brave publication, but one which (I’m sure) will continue to reveal itself over time."

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Josef Chladek's Favorite

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Dein Kampf
Brad Feuerhelm

"Brilliant, from the first page to the last thanks (that goes to The Sisters of Mercy—how can anything be wrong with that?), shelved right on my Berlin-Olympus beside the masterworks of Michael Schmidt's Waffenruhe and John Gossage’s Stadt des Schwarz/Berlin in the Time of the Wall—it feels like a contemporary companion of those books."

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Rixon Reed's Favorite

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Lake Lahontan | Lake Bonneville

Michael Light

"Michael Light's sumptuous book of abstractions, made from above the North American Great Basin, is brilliant in concept and execution. Here, the scars that are made on our earth's surface by humans act as a semi-permanent record of how we treat our planet."

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Shane Lavalette's Favorite

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American Origami
Andres Gonzalez

"American Origami presents an unusual and moving reflection on the complexity of a seemingly endless cycle of gun violence in America—a timely publication that is visually striking, poetic, and painful."

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RVB Books' Favorite

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Richard Prince 1234/ Instagram Recordings
Richard Prince & Sébastien Girard

"I had already seen early dummies of it, but when I discovered the final version of the Instagram Recordings — 12 chronological books, each packaged in a unique record sleeve — two words came to mind: future classic!"

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Christopher J Johnson's Favorite

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Stages for Being
Ralph Eugene Meatyard

"Meatyard, an optometrist by trade, continues to show us that seeing is miracle, but seeing a photograph is the work of meditation."

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2019 Favorite Photobooks (to be continued)

  

Books 2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Twelve We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Twelve

We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

Check back daily to see a new group of favorite books!

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Michael Mack's Favorite

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were it not for
Michael Ashkin

"Over the past year or more, the most consistently stunning and challenging books have come out of Amsterdam, through the publishing of ROMA and fw:books. I could have selected a number of books by each of these publishers as my favourite of the year but settled on Michael Ashkin’s were it not for".

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Tim Carpenter's Favorite

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I wish the world was even
Matteo Di Giovanni

"Back in July, I wrote about the remarkable photobook I wish the world was even by Matteo Di Giovanni for the photo-eye blog. I loved it then, and my appreciation has only deepened in the months since."

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Miwa Susuda's Favorite

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Entropy

Ari Marcopoulos

"Marcopoulos’ photos are pervasive serenity, an oasis in a frenetic urban landscape. His work is a reminder of hope against all odds—a reminder that we can connect, that we can attain fleeting serendipity and even love in the face of apparent futility."

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Christian Patterson's Favorite

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Family Car Trouble
Gus Powell

"Family. Car. Trouble. Gus Powell’s masterful family photo novella. Beautiful, sad and bittersweet. Perfect. The Volvo cried, and I cried with it."

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Rafal Milach's Favorite

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EVOKATIV
Libuše Jarcovjáková

"EVOKATIV is a manifesto of personal freedom put against the political context of communist Czechoslovakia. Libuše Jarcovjáková is a strong female voice liberating both the body and space from the oppressive look."

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Karen Jenkins's Favorite

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Taken From Memory
Sheron Rupp

"To pass muster on porch and pathway; to weave through lines of laundry, cats and cars; to wait expectantly on a fish or a flower; to trace Sheron Rupp’s thirty-plus year journey to find home in another’s backyard is a wonder worth pursuing."

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2019 Favorite Photobooks (to be continued)

  

Books 2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Eleven We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Eleven

We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

Check back daily to see a new group of favorite books!

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Alec Soth's Favorite

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Family Car Trouble
Gus Powell

"2019 was a banner year for photobooks. Dozens of publications impressed me with their creative horsepower. But the one that touched me the most, Gus Powell’s Family Car Trouble, is as modest, sturdy and lovable as the 1993 Volvo it features."

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Mark Steinmetz's Favorite

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The Pillar
Stephen Gill

"The resulting images of birds (and one fox) are astonishing. Taken together, the photos evoke nature’s rhythms and the passage of time. The book is beautifully produced."

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Nick Waplington's Favorite

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CTY

Antony Cairns

"Using outmoded digital cameras from the early days of their inception combined with an acute knowledge of cutting-edge printing techniques, Cairns brings us into a world that could only exist in the computer-driven landscape of today."

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Dewi Lewis' Favorite

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Deceitful Reverence
Igor Pisuk

"A personal and bravely intimate journey from addiction to rehab, Deceitful Reverence explores vulnerability and fragility in a way that is open and honest, expressing the depth of a struggle to regain a true sense of personal identity and a place in the world."

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Andrew Fedynak's Favorite

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Sleep Creek
Dylan Hausthor & Paul Guilmoth

"In Sleep Creek, by Dylan Hausthor and Paul Guilmoth, we are taken on a journey through raw, unknown spaces of rural land — and of our minds."

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Eamonn Doyle's Favorite

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Ex-Voto
Alys Tomlinson

"Beautifully shot on large format film, the stunning black and white prints were one of my highlights of the Rencontres d'Arles Festival this year where it also very deservedly won this year's discovery award."

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2019 Favorite Photobooks (to be continued)

  

Books 2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Ten We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Ten

We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

Check back daily to see a new group of favorite books!

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Todd Hido's Favorite

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The Pillar
Stephen Gill

"Gill’s book affirms that the natural world is far more interesting than all the nonsense occurring in our world. Also, don't miss his previous book called Night Procession, another book with similar parameters to this."

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Larissa Leclair's Favorite

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Positive Disintegration
Tania Franco Klein

"The cinematic world of Tania Franco Klein is enticing; the dramatic lighting and saturated colors of her photographs draw us into such a disjointed and unsettling existence."

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Paula McCartney's Favorite

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Cloud Service

Batia Suter

"Batia Suter’s Cloud Service is my favorite book of the year because it reminds me of the joy of looking and the rewards of considering the interconnectedness of things. Like a song stuck in your head, once one becomes aware of a subject, it can be seen everywhere, in everything."

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Alex Webb's Favorite

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Animals
Sage Sohier

"Sage’s images—deeply sympathetic, often funny, sometimes tender, and occasionally dark—take the viewer into an enigmatic world where humans and their animals interact in strange and surprising ways, a world in which the pets and their owners all seem equally—and wonderfully—mysterious."

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Richard Renaldi's Favorite

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Midlife
Elinor Carucci

"Simultaneously looking in and out Carucci exquisitely navigates the joys and pains of aging with an exacting and fearless eye. Gratefully for myself, and perhaps any viewer at a similar age, paging through Midlife engenders a bit of catharsis."

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Colin Pantall's Favorite

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English Journey
John Angerson

"John Angerson’s English Journey is that rarest of things, a beautifully designed book that takes a critical look at English identity without resorting to cliché or regionalism."

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2019 Favorite Photobooks (to be continued)

  

Books 2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Nine We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

2019 Favorite Photobooks — Day Nine

We've asked internationally renowned experts and artists from the photobook world to choose just one book as their FAVORITE photobook of the year. Over the next several days we will be unveiling all of our photobook VIPs' favorites.

Check back daily to see a new group of favorite books!

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Bryan Schutmaat's Favorite

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The Pillar
Stephen Gill

"With a simple concept, Gill reveals the vibrancy of bird life as it has never been seen before. These wonderful pictures made me feel as though I was allowed into a hidden world not meant for human eyes. The Pillar is a pure delight and will not be forgotten."

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Ruben Lundgren's Favorite

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Inventions (1915-1938)
Luce Lebart

"Who can't enjoy the simple beauty of a taxi equipped with an anti-crushing device or a nice set of cloud projection disks from 1928? They are beautiful analogue reminders of innovative times. Its funny that now we are able to see these photos (besides their striking visual rigour) as moving, almost adorable and extremely funny."

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Tim Carpenter's Favorite

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I wish the world was even

Matteo Di Giovanni

"Back in July, I wrote about the remarkable photobook I wish the world was even by Matteo Di Giovanni for the photo-eye blog. I loved it then, and my appreciation has only deepened in the months since. In this book, the twin truths of longing and of thwarted desire somehow find precarious coexistence."

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Christian Patterson's Favorite

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Family Car Trouble
Gus Powell

"Family Car Trouble. Gus Powell’s masterful family photo novella. Beautiful, sad and bittersweet. Perfect. The Volvo cried, and I cried with it."

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Kevin Bond’s Favorite

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Elf Dalia
Maja Daniels

"Daniels’ photographs accompany Perrson’s archive from the century before her; their images are woven together with text from the language unique to this small town. The result reads like epic fiction, a mysterious fantasy coinciding with historical fact."

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Owen Kobasz's Favorite

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The Coast
Sohrab Hura

"Sohrab Hura’s fourth book, The Coast, is comprised of flash heavy, unsettling, absurd photographs. In these images, Hura uses metaphorical imagery to photograph the 'beating pulse' of the world he was living in."

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2019 Favorite Photobooks (to be continued)