As we transition into winter and the temperatures begin to drop, we wanted to give our community a list of photo books that will keep you busy indoors. We hope this list will inspire you to remain creative while inside and provide you with additional ways to continue educating yourselves on the history of photography and archives. With work from artists including Dorothea Lange, Weegee, and LaToya Ruby Frazier, these photo books explore themes of social awareness and identity. Each of these photographers utilize imagery to reflect on the state of their home countries, while offering viewers a platform to engage in a critical discussion of central issues surrounding race, politics, and identity that characterize society. These themes are especially pertinent to the current politics and social movements in the United States. As you look through the list, let us know which photo books you have found yourself reaching for during this time. Has this list brought to mind any other photo books with similar themes?

The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship

The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship, documents the lives of Black Civil War soldiers through intimate ephemera and stoic portraits taken from “primary and archival materials.” Created by American historian, artist, and educator, Deborah Willis, this book includes more than 70 images that highlight the way photography shaped African-American narratives during the Civil War, despite many Black soldiers initially being excluded from Union and Confederate armies. Alongside the images, Willis brings together handwritten captions, personal letters, and found material to create an engaging memoir that speaks on themes of patriotism, resilience, and perseverance.

Price: $35

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Bystander: A History of Street Photography

In this book, curator, Colin Westerbeck, and photographer, Joel Meyerowitz, dive into the evolution of street photography. The authors analyze the work of popular figures known to this genre including Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and André Kertész, while considering the common ground that connects late 19th century, 20th century, and contemporary photographers within this style of photography.

Price: $59.38

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Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures

Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures chronicles the work of photojournalist, Dorothea Lange, a “committed social observer” who aimed to capture the human condition through stories that highlighted the voices of the overlooked. Published in conjunction with the MoMA exhibition of the same name in 2019, this book examines Lange’s lesser known works including her projects on the criminal justice system and her early ventures into street photography.

Price: $45.49

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Latif Al Ani (published by Hatje Cantz)

This photo book assesses the work of Iraqi photographer, Latif al-Ani, who made history as the first individual to document “cosmopolitan life in Iraq” between the 1950s and 1970s. Known as the “father of Iraqi photography,” Al Ani’s work combines ancient and modern themes within his black and white images. In capturing the country’s “belle époque,” or Golden Age, his work uncovers the complexities of Iraqi culture which materialized in the contrast between the westernized aspects of everyday life, and the traditional values ingrained in politics.

Price: $53.26

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Susan Meiselas: Tar Beach

Susan Meiselas’ Tar Beach captures the life of Little Italy residents from the 1940s to the early 1970s. Incorporating “found images” from various families, Meiselas provides first hand insight into the evolution of the community across multiple generations and familial perspectives. Created in conjunction with two of Meiselas’ neighbours, Angel Marinaccio and Virginia Bynum, this book pays homage to the artist’s memories of growing up in Little Italy and the unique transition she saw her community undergo as Italian immigrants assimilated into American culture.

Price: $45

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The Americans by Robert Frank

Originally published in France in 1958 and a year later in the United States, Robert Frank’s The Americans offers a critical view of American culture through the eyes of the Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker. Frank goes deeper beyond the idea of the “American Dream” to explore the issues of racism, crooked politics, and mass-consumption that continue to plague the nation today. At the same time, the artist finds “beauty in simplicity” that shows up in the form of old cars, jukeboxes, and the open roads that decorate the American landscape.

Price: $44.97

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Image Credit: ©National Museum of African American History and Culture

Pictures with Purpose, Double Exposure: Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Pictures with Purpose is the seventh volume in the Double Exposure series which seeks to analyze images from the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s collection. With a focus on 19th and 20th century photography, this book explores “early photographic forms” including stereographs, cyanotypes, cartes de visite, and daguerreotypes while considering the way imagery of African Americans was circulated and utilized during this era. Through photographs of African American soldiers during the Civil War, children “before and after Emancipation,” as well as renowned figures such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, this work explores how Black individuals utilized photography to shape their perception of themselves and their greater community.

Price: $14.45

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Photos Day or Night: The Archive of Hugh Mangum

American photographer, Sarah Stacke, created this photo book to chronicle the life and work of “early 20th century American photographer,” Hugh Mangum. Known for making portraits of people from the American South, Mangum’s work highlights the hardships and pivotal moments that outlined the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, and World War One. While this era was marked by segregation, inequality, and disenfranchisement, this publication gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of individuals through candid, intimate portraits.

Price: $55

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Atget by John Szarkowski

In this photobook, American curator, historian, and photographer, John Szarkowski, takes us through the work of Eugéne Atget, a French architectural photographer who devoted most of his life to documenting Paris. Through a collection of approximately 8,000 photographs created over 30 years, Atget’s imagery captures street scenes, the French countryside, and the modernization of Paris that took place during the 20th century.

Price: $94

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The Magnum Manifesto
The Magnum Manifesto was created in celebration of Magnum Photos’ 70th anniversary. Published in 2017, this book traces the iconic photo agency’s long history and its member photographers’ navigation of the photographic medium as art object and documentary evidence. Curated by Clément Chéroux, of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and photography historian, Clara Bouveresse, this work comprises individual and group projects, magazine spreads, letters, and newspaper features that chronicle the origins and evolution of Magnum alongside work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Susan Meiselas, and Alec Soth among other renowned photographers.

Price: $59.38

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Timeless

This photo book outlines the work of the longest-running African-American photography collective, the Kamoinge Workshop. Founded in 1963, Timeless traces the imagery created by its members across 50 years from 1965 to 2015. Edited by two of its members, Anthony Barboza and Herb Robinson, this work includes 280 poignant photographs alongside insight from the collective, and depicts abstract work and moments of daily life taken in New York City, West Africa, Guyana, and suburban America.

Price: $54.84

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Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings

Sally Mann’s photobook, A Thousand Crossings explores themes of memory, existence, and desire through the lens of the American South. These themes have reappeared throughout Mann’s experimental body of work and materializes in the form of large format black-and-white photographs that touch on subjects of decay and death. Categorized into five sections: “Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains,” this photobook encompasses all of Mann’s artistic achievements while confronting challenging questions surrounding race, history, identity and religion.

Price: $55

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LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Notion of Family

LaToya Ruby Frazier is an American artist and professor from Pennsylvania, specializing in photography, video art, and performance art. In her first book, The Notion of Family, Frazier assesses the “legacy of racism and economic decline” in small towns within America against the backdrop of her hometown, Braddock, Pennsylvania. She incorporates personal narratives by including three generations of female figures within her family: her Grandma Ruby, her mother, and herself, to assess questions of “civic belonging and responsibility.”

Price: $33.99

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Weegee’s Naked City

In Weegee’s Naked City, the Ukranian photographer incorporates complex compositions and his trademark use of flash depicted in his black-and-white photography to illuminate the gritty street life of New York City after dark. Through unexpected juxtapositions and playful sequencing, this photo book characterizes Weegee’s distinctive, energetic eye and his ability to capture subjects ranging from eccentric outsiders and criminals, to Hollywood celebrities.

Price: $17.99

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To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes

This photo book explores the work of American photographer, Joseph T. Zealy, known for his creation of some of the most challenging daguerreotypes made in our photographic history. Originally photographed for “Harvard professor, Louis Agassiz, in 1850,” Zealy’s daguerreotypes illustrate portraits of African-American women who were “enslaved in South Carolina” during the 19th century. Zealy’s works were “rediscovered at Harvard’s Peabody Museum in 1976,” and have motivated audiences to return to conversations concerning the “relationship between photography and race.” In addition to Zealy’s photographs, this book includes essays by prominent scholars whose work focuses on the relationship between identity and visual narratives, as well as photographs by Carrie Mae Weems.

Price: $51

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