Photobook recommendations 2014, by Martin Amis

Photobooks seem to be selling out faster than ever.  In recent weeks Cristina De Middel’s Party and Eamonn Doyle’s i have gathered little dust on their publisher’s shelves before going out of print.  Here follows a selection of recent photobooks that have impressed me, and that as of May are still in print.  I have included previews, so you may make some form of judgement for yourself.

1. Ken Grant – No Pain Whatsoever.  Ken Grant’s intimate images of Liverpool and it’s inhabitants are a revelation.

 

2. Robin Maddock – III. A smart photobook in every respect.

 

3. Bertien Van Manen – Moonshine. Another excellent photobook by Bertien Van Manen.

 

4. Paul Seawright – Volunteer.  Hopefully the first of several Paul Seawright books with his lens focused on America.

 

5.  David Thomson – 82.  An archive of war images like no other, and possibly the Archive of Modern Conflict’s best book to date.

 

6. Lucas Foglia – Frontcountry.  An impressive study of the new American West.

 

7. Alisa Resnik – One Another Haunting colour work, winner of the 2013 European Publishers Award for Photography.

 

8. Mark Mattock – The Angler Who Fell To Earth.  His third and best book exploring the English Landscape.

 

9. Vladyslav Krasnoshchok & Sergey Lebedinskyy – Euromaidan.  A handmade protest book with echoes of Provoke.

 

10. Philipp Ebeling – Land Without Past.  An exquisite production for Philipp Ebeling’s excellent debut photobook.

 

11. Michael Kerstgens – Coal Not Dole.  Evocative imagery from a then young German photographer. Makes the 1980’s seem like a very long time ago.

 

12. Ayako Mogi – Travelling Tree.  Sublime images in this abstract Japanese photobook.


Other memorable books so far this year include Margot Wallard’s My Brother Guillaume and Sonia, Gen Sakuma’s Go There, Anders Petersen’s book on Rome and the reprint of Tamiko Nishimura’s Shikishima.

 

Martin Amis founded PhotoBookStore in 2006 and is usually found surrounded by numerous piles of photobooks and rolls of bubblewrap.