I’m So Happy You Are Here presents a much-needed counterpoint, complement, and challenge to historical precedents and the established canon of Japanese photography. This restorative history presents a wide range of photographic approaches brought to bear on the lived experiences and perspectives of women in Japanese society. Editors Pauline Vermare and Lesley A. Martin, curator and writer Takeuchi Mariko, and photo-historians Carrie Cushman and Kelly Midori McCormick provide a critical historical and contemporary framework for understanding the work in three richly illustrated essays. Additional context is provided by an in-depth illustrated bibliography by Marc Feustel and Russet Lederman, and a selection of key critical writings from leading Japanese curators, critics, and historians such as Kasahara Michiko, Fuku Noriko, and others, many of which will be published in translation for the first time. While this book does not claim to be fully comprehensive or encyclopedic, its goal is to provide a solid foundation for a more thorough conversation about the contributions of Japanese women to photography—and an indispensable resource for anyone interested in a more robust history of Japanese photography.
Sir Elton John, musician and philanthropist, has built one of the greatest private collections of photography in the world. This book presents an unparalleled selection of modernist images, which introduce a crucial moment in the history of photography when artists were beginning to use the camera and darkroom to redefine and transform visions of the modern world. Technological advancements gave artists the freedom to experiment and test the limits of the medium enabling new imaginings of portraits, nudes and still lifes; and street life and the modern world was captured from a new, uniquely modern perspective. Showcasing only original vintage prints by the artists themselves, the book features key figures from the 1920s to 1950s, such as Brassai, Andre Kertesz, Dorothea Lange, Tina Modotti, Man Ray, Edward Steichen and Alexander Rodchenko. Also includes a newly commissioned interview with Sir Elton John and essays on modernist photography and technology and innovation by Dawn Ades and Shoair Mavlian.
The public profile of the Japanese photography book has recently boomed, from near-complete obscurity to great desirability. And not only for the aficionados. Photobooks that once were entirely unknown outside Japan (except to a few well-informed scholars and collectors) now sell at astronomical prices at auctions and online. And yet the photobook has been central to the development of Japanese photography, particularly in its postwar phase. To sketch the stages of this boom: 1999's Fotografia Publica included just one Japanese photobook, Kiyoishi Koishi's Early Summer Nerves of 1937, plus two photo magazines from the 1930s, Nippon and Koga; Andrew Roth's The Book of 101 Books (2001) listed four seminal titles by Hosoe, Kawada, Araki and Moriyama; but it was not until 2004, with the first volume of Martin Parr and Gerry Badger's indispensable The Photobook: A History, that it began to be clear what a rich body of work awaited excavation. Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s may be seen as a culmination of this trajectory and, as such, marks a very exciting moment in photo publishing and in the history of photography. It presents 40 definitive publications from the era, piecing together a previously invisible history from some of the most influential works, as well as from forgotten gems, and situating them against the broader historical and sociological backdrop. Each book, beautifully reproduced through numerous spreads, is accompanied by an in-depth explanatory text, and sidebars highlight important editors, designers, themes and periodicals. A superb production, Japanese Photobooks is a landmark celebration of the distinct character and influence of the Japanese photobook.
Anna Atkins: Photographer, Naturalist, Innovator offers a clear and well-documented introduction to one of the most important yet long-overlooked figures in photographic history. Corey Keller places Atkins’s cyanotypes within their scientific, technical, and social context, showing how her work contributed to the early development of photographic publishing while navigating the constraints faced by women in the nineteenth century. Concise, carefully illustrated, and accessible to non-specialists, the book provides both visual pleasure and historical insight. It is an essential reference for readers interested in early photography, photobooks, and the intersection of science and image-making.
Archipelago, a debut photobook by Yolanda del Amo, explores the tension between the inner and exterior realities of human life. Through staged tableaus featuring friends and family, Del Amo constructs moments that expose the social frameworks shaping identity, class, family, and gender. Her photographs illustrate how closeness and separation coexist within the same space and reveal the fragile balance between connection and solitude.
Photographed in London, Near Dark ventures into a mysterious territory, reflecting a less harmonious city mood, a fever dream of anxiety and unpredictability. London is just as alluring as ever but now everyone is taking shelter, keeping out of sight.
I constantly wonder where I truly belong. This series explores the psychological impact of
relocation and emigration that I have experienced throughout my life. The title is inspired by the
keyboard shortcut I frequently use when typing in Japanese, and it serves as an indirect
representation of my national background.
Agony in the Garden is the second monograph by Magnum Photographer, Lúa Ribeira, created
in her native country of Spain between 2021 to 2023 in the peripheries of Madrid, Málaga,
Granada and Almería. Inspired by the revealing potential of contemporary counter-culture,
she has collaborated with young people to make images that reflect on the alienation and
uncertainty of the present era, evoking a dystopian landscape suspended in time, one that
appears both contemporary and ancient while reflecting the signs of contemporary youth
movements and how they convey the alienation and uncertainty of the present-era
This series of black-and-white portraits depicts the people around whom Denis Dailleux grew up, between love and hate. Created when he was 25 years old and full of doubt, the project marked a turning point in the photographer’s work.
Anastasia Samoylova’s Atlantic Coast is more than a photography book—it is a journey through the evolving landscape of the United States, both literal and metaphorical. Retracing U.S. Route 1 from Key West, Florida, to Fort Kent, Maine, seventy years after Berenice Abbott first documented the road, Samoylova offers a meditation on the tensions between nostalgia and progress, myth and reality, that define the American experience.
Gumsucker laments the loss of untamed Australian wilderness to civilization, ever encroaching, domesticating the land and spirit. It is a ghost story of sorts, populated by withering vestiges and isolated souls. Its title, drawn from the archaic term once used to describe native-born European Australians, also recalls ‘The Gumsucker’s Dirge,’ a 19th-century poem mourning the erasure of wilderness as the frontier was pushed further out and the dream of an untouched wilderness became increasingly inaccessible.
Having spent decades immersed in photography, encountering Daido Moriyama’s work is always a jolt to the senses—but Quartet, the new Getty Publication release edited by Mark Holborn, takes that jolt to another level. This isn’t just a photobook; it’s a journey into the formative pulse of one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century.
