My Favourite Photobooks of 2024

Many year-end listmakers have mentioned that 2024 was a good year for photobooks. I've been reading this for some successive years and see it as a promise for the year that has just started. Let me add: 2024 was surely a good year for me. I'm very thankful for all the books, and that I could keep pace with the increasing paper prices.

This may be a good place to thank everyone who made a year-end list or share their favourite books throughout the year. Thanks to you, I and hopefully others discovered 'new' photographers and gems of books. Some were made in such small editions that I wouldn't have seen them, hadn't you shared them generously, and hadn't I made the meta-list.

Discoveries are exactly what the meta-list is about for me. The 'who chooses what' is a great compass to navigate through the 500-800 photobooks that usually make the list. It often points me to books chosen by only one or two people. I don't see the meta-list as a competition. However, its 'top 15' helped me with my list below. You know about the most selected books by now. Instead of mentioning (five of) them, I added an extra 'Treasure Box' here.

But first, fourteen of my 'regular book list':

1) They are the books still glued to my lap, minutes after I closed them with a deep sigh. I'm still in their world, enchanted until a dry throat reminds me of a drink left on the table. Or something else tells me life goes on, a little richer again. I call them 'Impactful Books'.

• State of Emergency: Harakati za Mau Mau kwa Haki, Usawa na Ardhi Yetu – Max Pinckerset al. (self-published)

- my words for photo-eye: https://bit.ly/Max_Pinckers

• Anchor In The Landscape – Adam Broomberg & Rafael Gonzalez (Mack)

- my words for photo-eye: https://bit.ly/Broomberg-Gonzalez

• Soledades – Gilles Roudière (Lamaindonne)

- my words for photo-eye: https://bit.ly/Gilles_Roudière

• Questo ricordo lo vorrei raccontare – Mario Giacomelli (Skinnerboox)

• The Memories of Others – Akihiko Okamura (Prestel)

• Les Ruines Circulaires – Orianne Ciantar Olive (Dunes editions)

• Journey to the Center – Cristina de Middel (Editorial RM, Editions Textuel)

• Go home Polish – Michal Iwanowski (self-published)

• ’89 Tiananmen – Kan-Tai Wong (Zen Photo)

• Epitome – Vic Bakin (Void)

• Pestka – Magdalena Wywrot (Deadbeat Club)

• Good morning, America (IV) – Mark Power (GOST)

The following books didn’t just touch. Their edits were cruel, just as their topics:

• HUN – Julia Mejnertsen (Dalpine/Fiebre Photobook)

• Failing – Michael Brodie (Twin Palms)

Seven 'Books as Objects'

2) Treasure box books; the objects I hold on my lap - or table - for minutes before daring to 'consume' them. Impressed at first sight by their delicacy, or the craftwork that has gone into making them. Often handmade, with the use of different papers and materials. Form and function are part of the narrative: the 'Book as an Object'.

• Valleys – Harrison Miller, ed of 200 (underlife editions)

• Inversion.Negative - Daisuke Yokota, each book is unique (self-published)

• CTY: Screens – Antony Cairns, ed of 75 (self-published)

• Thinking like an Island - Camilla Marrese & Gabriele Chiapparini (Overlapse)

• I SEE 吾見｜Chan Dick 陳的, ed of 300 (self-published)

• Gate Hack Eden – Osamu Kanemura, ed of 1000 (ori.studio)

• Indosso la Montagna Come L'uccello le Piume – Boris Snauwaert, ed of 100 (Grani Edizioni)

Links to reviews:

* State of Emergency: Harakati za Mau Mau kwa Haki, Usawa na Ardhi Yetu: review PhMuseum

* Anchor In The Landscape: links to reviews

* Soledades – Gilles Roudière review l'Intervalle

* Questo ricordo lo vorrei raccontare review Collector Daily

* The Memories of Others review Conscientious

* Les Ruines Circulaires review 9 lives

* Journey to the Center review The Independent Photographer

* Go home Polish interview LensCulture

* ’89 Tiananmen review LensCulture

* Epitome review LensCulture

* Pestka interview The Guardian

* Good morning, America (IV) review Exibartstreet

* HUN flip-through (by Fiebre) on YouTube

* Failing review Exibartstreet

* Valleys review Collector Daily

* Inversion.Negative review Detrituszine on Instagram

* CTY: Screens presentation Plac'art

* Thinking like an Island review Lenscratch

* I SEE 吾見 presentation arte-mate

* Gate Hack Eden review Conscientious

an extra interesting long read on Gate Hack Eden

* Indosso la Montagna Come L'uccello le Piume presentation Boris Snauwaert

This was my personal photobook year-end list. It’s one of 83 lists I collected on Facebook as the meta-list

I might try to publish the entire meta-list here after I have added the last contribution. (Yes, I left X for Bluesky and I’m considering using a combination of Substack and Bluesky as an alternative for Facebook due to Zuckerberg’s policy changes.) Until then, you can find all photobook year-end lists in the following links.

• Here is the meta-list of 2024

• The List-of-Lists 2024: 83 Lists (on January 8) in the comments.

• The ‘Listmakers’ 2024: 191 people and institutions who shared their favourite books (until January 8).

You can still send me links to your favourite photobooks of 2024, I will stop adding them on Lunar New Year (January 29).