Photobooks

A Few Books | Flickr

I love photobooks, always have, so it’s probably no surprise that I’m keeping a list of photobooks. These are books which I hope to own some day. Should you ever be looking for inspiration when trying to find me a present just pick from this list.

About photobooks. There are many kinds, such as retrospectives, which look back on the work of a photographer, usually when the photographer is dead, like the books about André Kertész and Henri Cartier-Bresson in the image. Sometimes the photographer isn’t dead, as was the case with Saul Leiter when Steidl issued the truly wonderful Early Color in 2006, and as is (at the time of writing at least) the case with Anton Corbijn when his book 1-2-3-4 was published in 2015.

Then there are the how-did-I-get-here books, where a photographer tries to outline the path which has taken him or her to where he or she is at the moment. There’s an example in the photo, Road to Seeing by Dan Winters. It’s a remarkable book. There are also catalogues which go hand-in-hand with an exhibition. I don’t have many of those, but one is The Family of Man for the 1955 exhibition at the MoMa in New York created by Edward Steichen.

Many photobooks are meant to showcase the works of several photographers, like Magnum Artists (not shown in the image), which gives a brief presentation of the many photographers who have the pleasure of calling themselves a Magnum photographer. Or the massive book A Day In The World, which is a sort of polar opposite to the Magnum book in that it contains images taken by people all over the globe on one day, 15 May 2012.

Finally, I suppose books about the art and practice of photography also count as photobooks. There are, for instance, John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, which resulted from a BBC series on photography, and the really exciting book On Photography by Susan Sontag, where she in a straight-forward and accessibly philosophical fashion dissects what photography is about. It’s a book that anyone with even a tangential interest in photography ought to read. There are of course many, many more types of photobooks.

I don’t mind the above-mentioned types at all, but the photobooks I prefer and gravitate towards are those where a photographer has created a book for a reason, a purpose, as an extension of the photography itself. It could be a project, like Cape Light from 1978 for which Joel Meyerowitz set about to chronicle the light at Cape Cod, or a theme, like Anders Hansson’s Flykt, which depicts the situation of refugees and migrants between 2003-2014. Such books are the most interesting to me because in them it is the photographer’s images which speak and tell the story. It’s much like photography is meant to be — to draw with light is after all the meaning of the word itself.

In brackets below is the year of the first edition and the publisher. That’s the edition to look for. The majority of the books can’t be found at Amazon, but they’re easily found via AbeBooks which is the best place to start. The more current books can be found via the publishers themselves, like GOST Books or Mack Books. With that said, here’s finally the list.

Alberto di Lenardo

  • An Attic Full of Trains (2020, Mack Books)

Alice Attie

  • Harlem on the verge (2003, Quantuck Lane Press & The Mill Road Collaborative) 

Annie Leibovitz

  • Wonderland (2021, Phaidon, New York)

  • Portraits 2005–2016 (2017, Phaidon Press)

  • Images of a Lost Human Epoch (2014, Createspace)

  • Pilgrimage (2011, Random House, New York)

  • Annie Leibovitz at Work (2008, Random House)

  • A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005 (2006, Random House)

  • Photographs: 1970–1990 (1991, Harper Perennial)

  • Olympic Portraits (1996, Bulfinch Press, Boston)

 Arne Svenson

  • The Neighbors (2015, Julie Saul Gallery)

Art Kane

  • Art Kane. Harlem 1958 (2018, Wall of sound editions)

Axel Hütte

  • As dark as light (2001, Schirmer/Mosel Verlag)

August Sander

  • Antlitz der Zeit (1929, Transmare Verlag/Kurt Wolff Verlag; also 1976, 1983)

Brassai

  • Paris Nocturne (2013, Thames & Hudson)

  • Paris de nuit (2001, Flammarion)

  • The secret Paris of the 30s (1976, Pantheon Books)

  • Brassai (1968, Museum of Modern Art)

Bruce Davidson

  • East 100th Street (1970, Harvard University Press)

Cellina von Mannstein

  • Imperfect (2008, teNeues)

Chris Steele-Perkins

  • The Pleasure Principle (1989, Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester)

Christer Strömholm

  • Japan (1981, Radikal/Stockholm, Pax/Oslo)

  • Konsten att vara där (1992, Norstedts)

  • On verra bien (2002, Färgfabriken)

  • Poste restante (1967, Norstedts)

  • Post scriptum (2013, Max Ström)

  • Les amies de Place Blanche (ETC Förlag, 1983)

Cindy Sherman

  • Cindy Sherman (1982, Schirmer Mosel)

  • Cindy Sherman (1984, Pantheon books)

  • The Untitled Film Stills (1990, Jonathan Cape)

  • Fitcher's Bird (1992, Rizzoli)

  • Cindy Sherman (2003, Serpentine Gallery/Art Data, London)

  • The Complete Untitled Film Stills (2003, Museum of Modern Art)

  • Centerfolds (2004, Skarstedt Fine Art)

  • Clowns (2004, Schirmer Mosel)

  • Untitled horrors (2013, Hatje Cantz)

David Drebin

  • The morning after (2010, teNeues)

Diane Arbus

  • Family Albums (2003, Yale University Press)

Ed Ruscha

  • Every Building on the Sunset Strip ( 1966, Los Angeles, Edward Ruscha)

Elliott Erwitt

  • Photographs and anti-photographs (1972, New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, CT)

  • Elliott Erwitt: The Private Experience: Personal Insights of a Professional Photographer (1974, Petersons)

  • Recent developments (1978, Simon& Schuster)

  • Between the sexes (1994, W.W. Norton & Company)

  • Museum watching (1999, Phaidon)

  • Dogs (2002, Phaidon)

  • Elliott Erwitt’s Handbook (2002, Quantuck Lane Press)

  • Pittsburgh 1950 (2017, GOST Books)

  • Found, not lost (2021, GOST Books)

Ernst Haas

  • New York in Color, 1952-1962 (2020, Prestel)

Francois Halard

  • Saul Leiter (2017, Libraryman)

Gunnar Smoliansky

  • Barn (1982, DOG)

  • Promenadbilder (1986, Moderna Muséet)

  • Gunnar Smolianskys fotografier från Slussen i Stockholm 1952 (2002, Byggförlaget)

  • Waldemarsudde (2004, Byggförlaget/Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde)

  • Gunnar af Smoliansky (2005)

  • Centralen vårvintern 1956 (2006, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde)

  • En bild i taget (2008, Kulturhuset)

  • Träd (2017, Libraryman, Paris)

Harry Gruyaert

  • Edges (2018, Thames & Hudson)

Isa Leshko

  • Allowed to grow old (2019, University of Chicago Press)

Jacob Riis

  • How the other half lives (1970, Belknap Press, Cambridge; first edition 1890, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York)

John Berger

  • About looking (1988, Pantheon/Random House)

Jeanloup Sieff

  • J’aime la danse (1962, Rencontre, Lausanne)

  • La Vallée de la Mort (1978, Filipacchi/Denoël, Paris)

  • Portraits de Dames assises (1982, Contrejour, Paris)

  • Jeanloup Sieff (1982, Fabbri, Milan)

  • Verso i Cieli d’Oro - Vers le ciel d’or (1984, Movecento, Palerme)

  • Borinage 1959 (1986, Musée de la Photo à Charleroi, Belgique)

  • Torses nus (1986, Contrejour, Paris)

  • Photographie érotique (1988, Taco, Berlin)

  • Demain le temps sera plus vieux–Jeanloup Sieff 1950-1990 (1990, Contrejour, Paris)

  • Derrières (1994, Contrejour Paris)

  • I had a dream (1995, Asahi Press, Tokyo)

  • Danza (1996, Motta Periodici, Milan)

  • Faites comme si je n’étais pas là (2000, La Martinière, Paris)

  • Etats d’âmes…et ta soeur (2000, Alternatives, Paris)

Horst Faas

  • Requirem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina (1997, Random House)

Kristen Lubben

  • Magnum Contact Sheets (2011, Schirmer Mosel/Thames & Hudson)

Lauren Greenfield

  • Generation wealth (2017, Phaidon)

Linda McCartney

  • Matey for eighty (1979, MPL London)

  • Photographs (1982, Pavilion Books, London/Simon & Schuster)

  • Life in photographs (2011, Taschen America)

Martin Parr

  • The Photobook: A History volume 1 (2004, Phaidon)

  • The Photobook: A History volume 2 (2006, Phaidon)

Merry Alpern

  • Dirty Windows (Scalo 1995, Scalo Publishers)

  • Shopping (1999, Scalo Verlag Ac)

  • Los colores de la carne (2007, Diputación Provincial de Granada)

Michael Wolf

  • A series of unfortunate events (2010, Peperoni Books)

Miles Aldridge

  • Please bring back Polaroid (2023, Steidl)

Mikael Lundberg

  • The mirror between us (2006, Almlöf)

Nan Goldin

  • The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986, 1989, 2005, Aperture)

  • Variety (2009, Skira Rizzoli, New York)

Nikita Teryoshin

  • Nothing Personal – The Back Office of War (2024, GOST books)

Nikki S Lee

  • Projects (2001, Hatje Cantz Publishers)

Pat Booth

  • Self portrait (1983, Quartet Books)

Pete Souza

  • The rise of Barack Obama

  • Images of greatness

Peter Walther

  • The First World War in Colour (2014, Taschen)

Philippe Halsman

  • Jump (1959, Andre Deutsch, London; reissued 1986, Abrams)

Rodney Smith

  • A Leap of Faith (2023, Getty Publications)

Robert Mapplethorpe

  • Flowers (1990, Bulfinch Press)

  • Some women (1992, Bulfinch Press)

Sally Mann

  • At Twelve (1988, Aperture)

  • Still Time (1994, Aperture)

  • What Remains (2003. Bulfinch Press)

  • Deep south (2005, Bulfinch Press)

  • Hold Still (2015, Little Brown)

Sam Stephenson

  • Jazz Loft Project (2009, Alfred A. Knopf Inc, New York)

Saul Leiter

  • Saul Leiter: Early Color (2006, Steidl)

  • Saul Leiter: Early Black and White (2014, Steidl)

  • In my room (2014, Steidl)

  • Women (2014, Space Shower)

Sebastiao Salgado

  • Genesis (2013, Taschen)

Steve Crist

  • The contact sheet (2009, Ammo Books)

Susan Meiselas

  • Nicaragua: June 1978-July 1979 (1981, Pantheon Books)

  • Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography (2024, Thames & Hudson)

Ulf Lundin

  • Bilder av en familj (exhibition catalogue)

  • Monumentet (2019, Galleri Magnus Karlsson)

Vivian Maier

  • Out of the shadows (2012, CityFiles Press, Chicago)

W. Eugene Smith

  • Minamata (1975, Holt)

Walker Evans

  • American Photographs (1938, New York, Museum of Modern Art, also later editions)

  • Let us now praise famous men (1960, Houghton Mifflin)

Watabe Yukichi

  • A criminal investigation (2011, Paris: Xavier Barral / LE BAL)

  • Stakeout Diary (2014, first Japanese edition, Nanarokusha Publishing, Tokyo)

William Eggleston

  • Paris (2009, Steidl Verlag)

Yousuf Karsh

  • Canadians (1978, University of Toronto Press)

  • A fifty-year retrospective (1983, Little, Brown and Company)

  • Faces of Destiny (1946, Ziff-Davis Publishing, Chicago/George G. Harrap, London)

  • Portraits of Greatness (1959, University of Toronto Press)

  • The Warren Court, by John P. Frank with Photographs by Yousuf Karsh (1964, The Macmillan Company, New York)

  • Karsh Portfolio (1967, University of Toronto Press, Toronto)

  • Faces of Our Time (1971, University of Toronto Press, Toronto)

  • Karsh Portraits (1976, New York Graphic Society, Boston, and University of Toronto Press, Toronto)

  • The Art Of The Portrait (1989, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) 

  • Karsh: American Legends (1992, Bulfinch Press, Boston)

  • Karsh: A Sixty-Year Retrospective (1996, Little, Brown and Company)

  • Karsh: Catalog for Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts (2000, Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan)

  • Yousuf Karsh: Heroes of Light and Shadow (2001, Stoddart Publishing Company, Ltd., Toronto)