122 /

Let’s talk about photo books.

I love them. I respect them. I admire the work that goes into them — from the photography to the design to the production. I have shelves full of them. I aspire to one day make one of my own.

My friend Josh has stopped offering to help me move because of my photo books. And my wife and I even joked while looking for houses that there were some we liked but that wouldn’t work for us, as she would turn to me laughing and ask, “But where will all your photo books go?!”

I’ve tried to be more selective about what photo books I purchase. And this is what I want to get into in this post — the WHY of these particular books.

I have also cut back on unnecessary spending this year (more on that in a subsequent post), but I still wanted to highlight some recent greats.

[NOTE: I got a “POST TOO LONG FOR EMAIL” warning while working on this one so if the newsletter is truncated in your email, you can click on "View entire message" and you’ll be able to view the entire post in your email app or online.]

These are the last 10 +1 photo books, I’ve purchased.

Here’s the plus one, and it’s classified as such because it’s not a photobook, but more of a meditation on the creative process. For my birthday last year Anna and I spent the day in Baltimore, after the American Visionary Art Museum and before an amazing diner at Dylan's Oyster Cellar, we ducked into a cool little bookstore to avoid a sudden downpour and where I picked up The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Yes, that Rick Rubin. The book was on my radar, and a handful of friends were talking about it, so I started leafing through it. It now sits in my office as some sort of creativity Bible, so when I feel stuck or need inspiration or a new way of thinking, I open it up and read a chapter or quote.

where to buy the book

My favorite photography podcast, A Small Voice, is great for many reasons, but especially because host Ben Smith has a special monthly video chat for members only — featuring a photographer talking about their photo book. The most recent Photobook Focus was Peter van Agtmael talking about his most recent, Look at the U.S.A. Now I’m a fan of Peter’s work. I think I have every book he’s published on my shelf because there’s something about the aesthetic and the approach I gravitate toward. He’s one of those conflict-not-conflict photographers. He was 24 when he went to Iraq to cover the second Gulf War, then he followed the war back home, then he went back to see the other side, and then he came back to the US to see the other side of it, too. This book remixes some of Peter’s older work, but nearly a third of it is new work diving deeper into the divisions. [NOTE: Ben has a contest after each Photobook Focus, asking questions to see how well you were paying attention, the winner gets a copy of the book. I won Look at the U.S.A. If there weren’t enough reasons already to be a member and support his podcast…]

Peter van Agtmael’s website / IG / where to buy the book

All except César Rodríguez’s were bought in 2023. My one splurge this year was buying his new book through an IndieGoGo campaign, which also allowed me to get a copy of his previous book Montaña Roja which was in high demand and impossible to find.. and offered as a featured perk. I’m glad I did. Both books are gorgeous, and I was sad I’d missed out on Montana Roja before it sold out. The title translates to “Red Mountain” and it’s about the poppy farmers in Guerrero, Mexico, and everything from the photos to the design and assembly of the book shows thought, complexity, tenderness, and an incredible commitment to the project. His new book Hoja Dorada (“Golden Leaf”) is about the largely indigenous tobacco farmers who travel to the Mexican coast, where César is from. Place informs his work, and then he digs deeper into the people each time. He’s one of my favorite contemporary documentary photographers.

Cesar Rodriguez’s website / IG / where to buy Hoja Dorada, good luck finding Montana Roja! Keep your fingers crossed for a second edition.

Occasionally I do some freelance consulting, mostly on photo business stuff, as well as photo editing projects and contest entries. Kate Medley reached out a while back to talk through pricing a big commercial job, licensing, usage, coming up with a rate sheet for it, etc... Since then I’ve started following her work. We’ve kept in touch, and since food is a passion project of hers whenever I’m in the South I usually reach out to her for a dining recommendation. It’s usually me naming some small town in Mississippi, Louisiana, or Alabama where I’ll be for a few days and Kate telling me that I absolutely have to go to this gas station for the best hot tamales/sandwiches/bbq/Indian food. She’s never steered me wrong. The work she’s been doing documenting food culture is such a rich visual tapestry of a people and place. It’s the perfect combination of community journalism meets food, and I love it. Last year she published that work as Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South. And deservedly so, it was a James Beard finalist for Visuals this year. That’s pretty freaking awesome.

When I was in Indianola, Miss. last year, Kate recommended eating lunch at Betty’s Place. I let Betty’s brother Otha, the man behind the counter, tell me what I should order. On his authority, I got a plate of catfish, mac n cheese, greens, and some peach cobbler. Then he asked me what brought me in. I said I was friends with Kate Medley and she told me I had to come here. He pulled her book out from under the counter, all bookmarked with the pages that Betty’s Place is on, grinned, and said take a picture and send this to her, please. Happily, I said. :)

Kate Medley’s website / IG / where to buy the book

Kenneth Dickerman of the Washington Post said that David Butow’s "Brink will go down as an essential photographic document of a most unusual time in U.S. politics." And he’s right. David’s work here starts in 2016 and goes through the January 6 insurrection, beautifully capturing a nation descending into chaos and getting closer and closer to the edge of the unknown. The way he sees politics and its players in a bigger-picture sort of way is remarkable, as is his composition and storytelling. He’s one of my favorite “political” photographers working today, and now that he’s no longer in DC, I’m excited to see what he sees in LA.

David Butow’s website / IG / where to buy the book

I have and will continue to buy anything and everything Carolyn Drake does. Her work is genius and has veered away from photojournalism and into esoteric explorations, experimental documentary, digital surveillance, and physical art. Knit Club explores the bonds of women in a small Mississippi town in the ultimate Stitch 'n Bitch situation, as well as what it means to be an outsider to it all.

Carolyn Drake’s website / IG / where to buy the book (and if that price is too good to be true here are a few other options)

Rich-Joseph Facun is an APAD OG. If you know what that means, you probably are, too. I’ve been a fan of his work since the early aughts, when he was just a young newspaper photographer finding his voice and honing his craft. To see him with books out in the world now is no real surprise. His first, Black Diamonds, is an ode to a place he now calls home, rural Ohio. He explores place, community, and cultural identity in Appalachian towns, stripping back the stereotypes and leaving us with the curiosity of an outsider and the humanity of an insider.

Rich-Joseph Facun’s website / IG / where to buy the book

Benjamin Rasmussen is a smart guy. And this is a smart book. He delves into who was freely invited into this place we call America and who wasn’t. And how our histories inform our present and future. He weaves a narrative through complex issues: Violence, Exclusion, Archetype, Beauty and Whiteness, and Surveillance, by finding threads that connect them and the people he’s photographing.

Benjamin Rasmussen’s website / IG / where to buy the book

For 150 years, the shipping forecast has been broadcast four times a day by BBC radio and has seeped into the British public consciousness. For Mark Power The Shipping Forecast has been a 30-year exploration of the coastal towns touched by a lifeline, stoked in the imagination by these poetic readings, and captioned with the 0600hr forecast on the day they were taken, creating a correlation between image and words. The work is terrific and thoughtful and just as lyrical as the inspiration. [Fun fact: The weather report for the seas around the British Isles has inspired the likes of Blur, Radiohead, The Prodigy, and Carol Ann Duffy.]

Mark Power’s website / IG / where to buy the book

And last but not least is Trent Parke’s Monument. I’ve been a fan since his Oculi days, and the work he and his wife Narelle Autio were putting out. This new book is a monument in and of itself: it’s a hand-stitched book with a leather-bound cover that appears to be embossed with the totemic coordinates to the planet Earth, has thick card stock and the printing is deep and dark, the edges are even painted black… The book even has an inky smell when you crack it open for the first time. And there’s a little engraved metal card loose in the book (I laid it on the cover for the photo). When it’s removed, so too are all the words in the book. This book is Trent’s monument to life on earth, its slightly surreal, completely dystopian, and wonderfully haunting and ethereal.

Trent Parke’s portfolio on the Magnum website / IG / where to buy the book