Paris Photo - Aperture PhotoBook Awards Shortlist

 

This year’s shortlist selection was made by Vince Aletti, curator, critic, and author who writes photography reviews for the New Yorker; Julien Frydman, director of Paris Photo; Lesley A. Martin, publisher of the Aperture book program and of The PhotoBook Review; Mutsuko Ota, editorial director of IMA magazine; and Barbara Tannenbaum, curator of photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The jury felt that a diversity of approaches and styles were represented in this year’s entries, and they spent over ten hours to reach their final decisions. “Both content and form are inextricably partnered,” in the shortlisted photobooks, said Tannenbaum. “The content supports the form, the form supports the content. The design and all the aspects of the book are matched by the quality of the pictures. Both have to be very high.” Aletti summarized the list by noting, “The final selection offers a strong, international mix of genres, styles, and approaches to the photobook. It also represents a particular attention to the book as an object, in which selection of images, sequence, scale, typography, and materials are all carefully considered."

The ten shortlisted titles for PhotoBook of the Year are:

Holy Bible
Photographers: Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
Publisher: MACK, London / Archive of Modern Conflict, London

New York Arbor
Photographer: Mitch Epstein
Publisher: Steidl, Göttingen, Germany

Iris Garden
Photographer: William Gedney
Text: John Cage
Publisher: Little Brown Mushroom, Minneapolis

The Black Photo Album / Look at Me: 1890–1950
Photographer: Santu Mofokeng
Publisher: Steidl / The Walther Collection, Göttingen / New York

Surrendered Myself to the Chair of Life
Photographer: Jin Ohashi
Text: Nobuyoshi Araki
Publisher: AKAAKA, Tokyo

A01 [COD.19.1.1.43] — A27 [S | COD.23]
Photographer: Rosângela Rennó
Publisher: RR Edições, Rio de Janeiro

Rasen Kaigan
Photographer: Lieko Shiga
Publisher: AKAAKA, Tokyo

Birds of the West Indies
Photographer: Taryn Simon
Publisher: Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, Germany

The PIGS
Photographer: Carlos Spottorno
Publisher: Phree and Editorial RM, Madrid

War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath
Photographers: Various
Authors: Anne Wilkes Tucker and Will Michels, with Natalie Zelt
Publisher: Museum of Fine Arts Houston / Yale University Press, New Haven

You can see the twenty shortlisted titles for the First PhotoBook HERE.