In the twenty years since Horacio Fernández first wrote Fotografía Pública (MNCARS, 1999), the first landmark book to position the scholarship of books and magazines as a topic of critical importance to the photographic medium, “book about books” has become a genre of publishing unto itself. Each year, the PhotoBook Awards jury sees at least one well-researched, richly illustrated publication that presents some new facet of photobibliophilia—often using the filter of a particular region or city or even a particular thematic niche. This year, however, the jury noted a rise in the number of books about books that exceeded expectation in terms of design, like Printed Photography in Venezuela; or ventured into new territory, telling the story of a single notable magazine, like Camera Austria International: Laboratory for Photography and Theory. Each of these volumes, in its own way, adds additional detail and texture to the evolving connoisseurship and scholarship dedicated to the photobook.
Camera Austria International: Laboratory for Photography and Theory
Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Spector Books
Leipzig, Germany, 2019
Czech and Slovak Photo Publications, 1918–1989
Manfred Heiting, ed.
Steidl
Göttingen, Germany, 2019
Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Spector Books
Leipzig, Germany, 2019
Czech and Slovak Photo Publications, 1918–1989
Manfred Heiting, ed.
Steidl
Göttingen, Germany, 2019
Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler: Light and Shadow—Photographs 1920 to 1950
Hans-Michael Koetzle, ed.
Kehrer Verlag
Heidelberg, Germany, 2019
How We See: Photobooks by Women
Russet Lederman, Olga Yatskevich, and Michael Lang, eds.
10x10 Photobooks
New York, 2018
Hans-Michael Koetzle, ed.
Kehrer Verlag
Heidelberg, Germany, 2019
How We See: Photobooks by Women
Russet Lederman, Olga Yatskevich, and Michael Lang, eds.
10x10 Photobooks
New York, 2018
Inner World: Modern Argentine Photography 1927–1962
Facundo de Zuviría, ed.
Fundación Malba
Buenos Aires, 2019
Photobook Belge: 1954–Now
Tamara Berghmans, ed.
Hannibal Publishing
Belgium, 2019
Facundo de Zuviría, ed.
Fundación Malba
Buenos Aires, 2019
Photobook Belge: 1954–Now
Tamara Berghmans, ed.
Hannibal Publishing
Belgium, 2019
Printed Photography in Venezuela
Sagrario Berti, ed.
Ricardo Báez, Sagrario Berti, and La Cueva Casa Editorial
Venezuela, 2019
Queer Publishing: A Family Tree
Bernhard Cella and Orlando Pescatore, eds.
Salon für Kunstbuch
Vienna, 2019
Sagrario Berti, ed.
Ricardo Báez, Sagrario Berti, and La Cueva Casa Editorial
Venezuela, 2019
Queer Publishing: A Family Tree
Bernhard Cella and Orlando Pescatore, eds.
Salon für Kunstbuch
Vienna, 2019