Announcing the 2020 PhotoBook Awards Shortlist

The Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards welcome a new partner in DELPIRE & CO, who has joined forces with Paris Photo and Aperture to ensure the continuity of the awards in this most unusual of years. While the international photography community will not be able to gather in celebration at the Grand Palais this year, Paris Photo and Aperture are delighted to confirm that the prize continues. The exhibition of the shortlisted books will be hosted in Paris by DELPIRE & CO from November 5–28. The final jury will take place as planned, and the winner will be announced on Friday, November 13—including the announcement of the recipient of the $10,000 cash prize in the First PhotoBook category. The shortlisted books for 2020 will also be featured in Issue 018 of The PhotoBook Review, co-published with DELPIRE & CO. Additional selections from this special issue of The PhotoBook Review, guest edited by Dr. Deborah Willis, will be presented alongside the exhibition of shortlisted books in Paris.

The 2020 shortlist jury took place over the course of three days at Mana Contemporary in New Jersey, and involved the review of more than seven hundred submissions. Our thanks to the shortlist jurors, including Joshua Chuang (New York Public Library), Lesley A. Martin (Aperture Foundation), Sarah Hermanson Meister (MoMA), Susan Meiselas (photographer, Magnum Foundation), and Oluremi C. Onabanjo (independent curator and historian).

“Despite the fact that the usual rhythms of book perusal and discovery have been disrupted, it’s clear that the photobook community has continued to find ways to connect, and more importantly, to keep creating,” states the jury chair, Lesley Martin. Juror Oluremi Onabanjo asserts, “In 2020, the book and catalogue in contemporary photographic practice continues to evolve and unfurl in many different directions, while offering more audiences the opportunity to get involved and fall in love with books.”

The Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards were founded in 2012 to celebrate the photobook’s contributions to the evolving narrative of photography and comprise three major categories: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalogue of the Year. Below are the 35 books selected for the 2020 PhotoBook Awards Shortlist.

First PhotoBook

Stephen Berkman, Predicting the Past—Zohar Studios: The Lost Years, Hat & Beard Press, Los Angeles

Judith Black, Pleasant Street, STANLEY/BARKER, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom

Soumya Sankar Bose, Where the Birds Never Sing, Red Turtle Photobook (self-published), Kolkata, India

Maryna Brodovska, My Dear Vira, Self-published, Kyiv, Ukraine

June Canedo de Souza, Mara Kuya, Small Editions (self-published), Brooklyn

Ronghui Chen, Freezing Land, Jiazazhi Press, Ningbo, China

Ryan Debolski, LIKE, Gnomic Book, Brooklyn

Caroline & Cyril Desroche, Los Angeles Standards, Poursuite, Paris

Buck Ellison, Living Trust, Loose Joints Publishing, Marseille, France

Charlie Engman, MOM, Edition Patrick Frey, Zürich

Zahara Gómez Lucini, Recetario para la memoria, Self-published, Mexico City

Jessica Ingram, Road through Midnight: A Civil Rights Memorial, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

Janna Ireland, Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View, Angel City Press, Santa Monica, California

Francesca Leonardi, ’O Post Mio, Postcart Edizioni, Rome

Yael Martínez, La casa que sangra, KWY Ediciones, Lima, Peru

Sara Perovic, My Father’s Legs, J&L Books, New York

Fabio Ponzio, East of Nowhere, Thames & Hudson, London

Agnieszka Sejud, HOAX, Self-published, Wrocław, Poland

Diana Tamane, Flower Smuggler, Art Paper Editions, Ghent, Belgium

Efrem Zelony-Mindell, n e w f l e s h , Gnomic Book, Brooklyn

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Stephen Berkman
Predicting the Past—Zohar Studios: The Lost Years
Hat & Beard Press, Los Angeles

Judith Black
Pleasant Street
STANLEY/BARKER, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom

Soumya Sankar Bose
Where the Birds Never Sing
Red Turtle Photobook (self-published), Kolkata, India

Maryna Brodovska
My Dear Vira
Self-published, Kyiv, Ukraine

June Canedo de Souza
Mara Kuya
Small Editions (self-published), Brooklyn

Ronghui Chen
Freezing Land
Jiazazhi Press, Ningbo, China

Ryan Debolski
LIKE
Gnomic Book, Brooklyn

Caroline & Cyril Desroche
Los Angeles Standards
Poursuite, Paris

Buck Ellison
Living Trust
Loose Joints Publishing, Marseille, France

Charlie Engman
MOM
Edition Patrick Frey, Zürich

Zahara Gómez Lucini
Recetario para la memoria
Self-published, Mexico City

Jessica Ingram
Road through Midnight: A Civil Rights Memorial
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

Janna Ireland
Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View
Angel City Press, Santa Monica, California

Francesca Leonardi
’O Post Mio
Postcart Edizioni, Rome

Yael Martínez
La casa que sangra
KWY Ediciones, Lima, Peru

Sara Perovic
My Father’s Legs
J&L Books, New York

Fabio Ponzio
East of Nowhere
Thames & Hudson, London

Agnieszka Sejud
HOAX
Self-published, Wrocław, Poland

Diana Tamane
Flower Smuggler
Art Paper Editions, Ghent, Belgium

Efrem Zelony-Mindell
n e w f l e s h
Gnomic Book, Brooklyn

Photography Catalogue of the Year

Anne Turyn: Top Stories, Elena Cheprakova and Kirsten Weiss, eds., Weiss Berlin, Berlin

African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other, Steven Evans, Max Fields, and Mark Sealy, eds., Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam, and FotoFest, Houston

Bill Brandt | Henry Moore, Martina Droth and Paul Messier, eds., Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut

Hommage à Moï Ver, The Ghetto Lane in Wilna (Schaubücher 27): 65 Pictures by M. Vorobeichic, Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, ed., Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Vilnius

Imagining Everyday Life: Engagements with Vernacular Photography, Tina M. Campt, Marianne Hirsch, Gil Hochberg, and Brian Wallis, eds., Walther Collection, New York, and Steidl, Göttingen, Germany

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Anne Turyn: Top Stories
Elena Cheprakova and Kirsten Weiss, eds.
Weiss Berlin, Berlin

African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other
Steven Evans, Max Fields, and Mark Sealy, eds.
Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam, and FotoFest, Houston

Bill Brandt | Henry Moore
Martina Droth and Paul Messier, eds.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut

Hommage à Moï Ver, The Ghetto Lane in Wilna (Schaubücher 27): 65 Pictures by M. Vorobeichic
Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, ed.
Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Vilnius

Imagining Everyday Life: Engagements with Vernacular Photography
Tina M. Campt, Marianne Hirsch, Gil Hochberg, and Brian Wallis, eds.
Walther Collection, New York, and Steidl, Göttingen, Germany

PhotoBook of the Year

Carolyn Drake, Knit Club, TBW Books, Oakland, California

Samuel Fosso, Autoportrait, Walther Collection, New York, and Steidl, Göttingen, Germany

Takashi Homma, Symphony—Mushrooms from the Forest, Case Publishing, Tokyo

Thomas Kuijpers, Hoarder Order, Fw:Books, Amsterdam

Adam Lach and Dyba Lach, How to Rejuvenate an Eagle, Self-published, Warsaw

Edgar Martins, What Photography & Incarceration Have in Common with an Empty Vase, The Moth House, Bedford, United Kingdom

Orbita, Glass Strenči, Orbita and The Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga, Latvia

Gloria Oyarzabal, Woman Go No’Gree, Editorial RM, Barcelona, and Images Vevey, Switzerland

Luis Carlos Tovar, Jardín de mi Padre, Editorial RM, Barcelona, and Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland

Cemre Yeşil Gönenli, Hayal & Hakikat: A Handbook of Forgiveness & A Handbook of Punishment, GOST Books, London, and FiLBooks, Istanbul

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Carolyn Drake
Knit Club
TBW Books, Oakland, California

Samuel Fosso
Autoportrait  
Walther Collection, New York, and Steidl, Göttingen, Germany

Takashi Homma
Symphony—Mushrooms from the Forest  
Case Publishing, Tokyo

Thomas Kuijpers
Hoarder Order
Fw:Books, Amsterdam

Adam Lach and Dyba Lach
How to Rejuvenate an Eagle  
Self-published, Warsaw

Edgar Martins
What Photography & Incarceration Have in Common with an Empty Vase
The Moth House, Bedford, United Kingdom

Orbita
Glass Strenči
Orbita and The Latvian Museum of Photography, Riga, Latvia

Gloria Oyarzabal
Woman Go No’Gree
Editorial RM, Barcelona, and Images Vevey, Switzerland

Luis Carlos Tovar
Jardín de mi Padre
Editorial RM, Barcelona, and Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland

Cemre Yeşil Gönenli
Hayal & Hakikat: A Handbook of Forgiveness & A Handbook of Punishment
GOST Books, London, and FiLBooks, Istanbul

All photographs by Daniel Salemi.

Note: Given the jurors’ extensive engagement in the scholarship and production of photography books, the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBoook Awards maintain a strict policy of recusal, in which the juror in question must remove themselves from the discussion of books in which they were directly involved; those books must be unanimously voted in by the remaining jurors.