Photobooks of 2019: Miwa Susuda

Young New York by Ethan James Green
Eschewing complicated explanation, Green’s portraiture is timeless and authentic, pure and simple. I’m confident that Green is a natural successor to 20th century maters such as Diane Arbus, David Heath, Peter Hujar… and the list goes on.

Sunshine Hotel by Mitch Epstein
Epstein’s photos are always suggestive. He resembles the haiku writer who challenges us to read between the lines, connoting that what’s invisible is more important than what is presented prima facie. “Sunshine Hotel” warrants recognition as the cornerstone of an accomplished career, spanning over four decades.

Lost and Found by Bruce Gilden
I felt a deep kinship and respect for publisher Editions Xavier Barr’s monumental effort in realizing this project with Gilden. It is a tremendous accomplishment. Perhaps right up there after Scalo, Editions Xavier Barro is one of the leading vehicles in the industry, uniquely dispositioned to propel the photo book into the new century. “Lost and Found” is a terrific achievement, and undoubtedly ranks as one of Gilden’s most memorable titles to date.

Entropy by Ari Marcopoulos
Marcopoulos demonstrates his unfailing acumen for the contemporary city landscape, captured here with a sharp precision and lucidity. Disorder, chaos, abundance, resignation, remorse, anguish, past, now and all are forgiven through an acceptance of what’s real in front of our very eyes. Where truth intersects with fact and emotion, we always find something fragile yet definitive in an individual’s gaze.

Neighborhood Stroll by David Brandon Geeting
If Roy Lichtenstein had taken photos, I suspect they would have resembled Geeting’s work. Inheriting the mantle of the American Pop masters, Geeting celebrates those trivial and vernacular elements that populate our surroundings. His photos are not the studied product of deliberate contemplation, nor do they pander to academic or institutional approval. Rather, it’s the purity, playfulness, and passion of his impulse that bring attention to things otherwise easily dismissed.

Miwa Susuda is a publisher at Session Press, photobook consultant at Dashwood Books and writer/reporter for IMA magazine.

Images: top – Young New York by Ethan James Green, below – Sunshine Hotel by Mitch Epstein, Lost and Found by Bruce Gilden