LightBox

The recent Protest Box, compiled by the British photographer Martin Parr, just published by Steidl, contains five facsimile reprints of some of the most important books of protest produced within the history of the photobook

LightBox

Here LightBox spotlights some of the best photobooks of the year as chosen by a group of photographers and photography experts from around around the world…. and of course a few from the photo editors of TIME.  From the selection one can see the art of the photobook continues to flourish in all genres from reportage to fine art photography, fashion and everything in between. This year’s books range from luxurious tomes like Catherine Opie and Alec Soth’s collaboration for Rodarte to smaller precious books like Fred Hunning’s Drei. Overall the selection shows that even as masses of information come at us from all our digital devices, people still enjoy a singular vision and the process of sitting down with a good book—especially one that pushes the boundaries of the format. Herewith, the photobooks we loved the most in 2011

photo-eye

When considering whom to invite for our annual Best Books list, we try to look at all of the diverse corners of the photography world. Of course, we have our regular favorites who are not only staples in the photography community, but offer an incredibly informed and diverse perspective for what makes a stand-out photobook. This year we have also included numerous independent publishers who are not only rising in popularity, but are also changing the focus of how they publish books.

NYTimes.com

It was not unlike a political caucus. The candidates — in this case, nearly 100 photography books published this year — took over every inch of available counter space in the photo department, where they were carefully scrutinized by a group of opinionated voters, each of whom was given just 10 Post-it notes as ballots. Impassioned speeches were made. Votes were cast: a few books grew polychromatic bouquets of Post-its — each voter had his or her own individual color — while others sprouted single lonely Post-its. Votes were changed: worthy candidates, including the likes of Diana Vreeland and Gerhard Richter, were abandoned. Finally, after weeks, a group of winners emerged. Like all campaigns, it was brutal. Here are the 10 victors, in no particular order.

Foto8

Brian Ulrich began his Copia project in response to George W. Bush’s appeal to Americans in the weeks after 9/11 to shop and spend as a patriotic activity, but it developed into something much more far-reaching. The result of a decade’s work, Copia is a project that has grown organically out of its earliest premises. The work examines retail consumerism’s material and cultural legacies and has been shrewdly executed and edited as Is This Place Great or What?, published by Aperture with the Cleveland Museum of Art, where a selection of images from the project is exhibited until 26 February 2012.

LITTLE BROWN MUSHROOM

While reviewing my favorite photobooks of the year, I noticed that numerous selections could be classified as crime stories. So in creating this year’s list, I thought it would be an entertaining exercise to categorize all of the books by genre. Given the quantity and quality of books being published, it is now feasible to think of photobooks in much the same way as we think of literature and cinema. These genre pigeonholes are reductive, of course, but like year-end lists, they are mostly a lighthearted excuse to analyze and discuss quality work.

Rob Galbraith DPI:

PDN Online has published three articles surveying the photo book landscape for 2011

NYTimes.com

The Online Photographer:

I’ll have more to say about it in due course, but I just thought you’d want to know that I received Vivian Maier: Street Photographer yesterday. (It’s available for pre-order in the U.K.and it’s not in stock at The Book Depository yet.)