Photobooks of 2016: Gabriela Cendoya

Anaesthesia by Valentina Abenavoli
A very dark, haunting and demanding book, that raises a lot of questions on authorship and responsibility. Uneasy, uncomfortable, but one you cannot avoid. A great come back of Akina.

Raised by Wolves, the bootleg by Jim Goldberg
Again, a must, if you don’t have first edition, like me. And even. An important book, with a very nice xeroxed look, and some goodies. More bootlegs, please !

Shenasnameh by Amak Mahmoodian.
A beautiful, touching and personal book about women, freedom and identity, in Iran and elsewhere. It should be sold out, but still…

Stray by Paul Gaffney
Maybe from 2015, but arrived in 2016. Very short print run for this handmade book, beautifully done. Both black as the night and luminous, it is a dense, spiritual and mysterious object, with a very soft touch. Gorgeous.

Goodbye America by Brad Feuerhelm
Perfect timing for Brad Feurhelm, editor of ASX magazine. The images shown here are scratched and torn, in a destructive process that is the author’s vision of an agonizing nation. Premonitory or just a personal goodbye? Feuerhelm says goodbye to his past as well as to the culture that has fed the whole world with the ”American dream”. An exorcism? It is moving and poignant.

The Castle by Federico Clavarino
Maybe as an echo of Goodbye America, … Clavarino offers a dark image of XXth and XXIth century’s Europe, from images of the Holocaust , to walls and fences, and a bit of hope and light in the end. Like in Kafka’s castle, Europe is locked in doubt, paranoia and control. Not an easy book, but one i come again and again to very often.

Barespagnol by Pablo Casino
A very charming book, now in its second edition, about the Spanish immigration in Brussels in the seventies. Images that seem from another time, but are from 2013. It tells us what it’s like to live away from home.

Al borde de todo mapa by Juanan Requena
Juanan has been creating intimate and personal diaries for years only for himself. This book is his first published in a 1500 print run, and the closest to handmade. Each copy is hand finished by himself. A dreamer, a poet.

Now something different:

Bookdummies. An imaginary studio, a non-stop process 1993-2015 by Victor Sira.
This book has been a discovery for me, and a precious one. Victor Sira, founder of Bookdummypress, born in Venezuela but living in New York, has been producing hundreds of books throughout these years. With its very nice and effective design and matte paper, it’s one of my favorites of the year.

Autoedit II Lenguajes plasticos y autoedicion by Juan Pablo Huercanos.
A catalog of the exhibition of self edited publications, which took place in Huarte, Navarra, between may and june this year, in its second edition. Mostly spanish, but not only. A very simple book, more like a fanzine, but a wonderful resource for all kinds of self editions. The spanish version of a do it yourself manifesto. A lot to discover here.

Gabriela Cendoya is a Spanish photobook collector, living in the Basque Country. Follow her regularly updated blog at gabrielacendoya@wordpress.com, which features articles about her latest photobook acquisitions.

Images – top: Shenasnameh by Amak Mahmoodian below: Al borde de todo mapa by Juanan Requena