Category: Books

As the year draws to a close, an annual tribute to some of the exceptional photobook releases of 2023 – selected by Assistant Editor, Alessandro Merola.

Gregory and Rachel Barker founded their photobook publishing house, Stanley/Barker, based in Shropshire in the West Midlands of England, in 2014. Their first publication, Tod Papageorge’s Studio 54 (2014), sequenced the photographer’s unpublished portfolio as a one-night journey into the depths of perhaps the most mythical nightclub ever. Stanley and Barker, who studied photography and art in London, and who are now both in their midthirties, have since published monographs by lesser-known but nonetheless formidable photographers, reviving interest in Mimi Plumb, Judith Black, and Jack Lueders-Booth. Superb black-and-white reproductions and narrative structure have become hallmarks of the Stanley/Barker approach, as well as a sensitivity to the look and feel of a publication held in the hand.

Newspaper, published out of an East Village apartment between 1968 and 1971, was one of a number of scrappy print publications circulating downtown in those years. Most of them were more radical, less serious, or far sexier alternatives to the established Village Voice. Unlike Rat, the East Village Other, or Screw, though, Newspaper’s news involved no words, only pictures. Other than an all-caps logo, the only type was tiny and used for the occasional caption or credit; an early issue included the easily overlooked information that five dollars, addressed to Steve Lawrence at 188 Second Avenue, would get you five bi-monthly issues.

Today we feature some of our Favorite Books of 2022 (and a few from previous years). I’m not a big believer in the word BEST as that definition is different for everyone. There were so many spectacular books created this year but we had to narrow it down to some favorites. We invited out staff and the 2022 Lenscratch Student Prize winners to share there picks.

As the year draws to a close, an annual tribute to some of the exceptional photobook releases that caught our eye during 2022 – selected by Assistant Editor, Alex Merola.