2022 Book Awards

“A beautifully researched and contextualised compilation of the female voices that resounded through early film culture. Not just the handful of well-known names but also the pseudonymous and obscure. And of course it is deliciously readable.”
Pamela Hutchinson

“A model of long-form film criticism with broad horizons: evocative, discursive, sensitive and sharp. This is a book that will encourage the reader not just to seek out the work of James Benning, but also to look upwards with fresh eyes.”
Pamela Hutchinson

“Ellis delivers a fascinating history of aerial views and the new perspectives and often very visceral viewing experiences they offered in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The connections to contemporary phenomena, including VR and drones, are clear but not over-played, and the richly detailed and illustrated research allows the reader to under- stand the impact of these largely forgotten viewing technologies as ways of seeing the world anew.”
Dr Melanie Selfe

“Fortmueller’s book puts the precarious working conditions of today’s jobbing actors into historical context and argues for the central importance of this freelance workforce at all stages of the American screen industries. It draws together archival research and contemporary interviews and fieldwork, with a wealth of scholarship on film history and creative industries, weaving these elements into clear and engaging prose.”
Dr Melanie Selfe

“Galt’s text explores an important and under researched mode of popular cinema and national myth, by approaching the many filmic adaptations of the Pontianak, linking these fables to pre-colonial and post-colonial conceptions of nationhood. Alluring Monsters is an accessible and detailed journey through the origins of these Malaysian ghosts which serves to offer an important retelling of global Horror narratives.”
Matthew Barrington

“A monument as much as a book, and far more than a catalogue, although the textual history here is often almost as fascinating as the films, and the behind-the-scenes story- telling. Each word and image across these 500 pages adds something to the tale of two years of remarkable creativity.”
Pamela Hutchinson

“The prehistory of a filmmaker, bringing Billy Wilder’s voice, and the world that shaped him, brilliantly to life. The personality and aslant perspective that makes his films so irresistible is already in place here.”
Pamela Hutchinson

“Outside of Satyajit Ray, filmmakers crucial to developing a national Indian art cinema such as Mani Kaul, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, remain less visible in canons of post war modernist cinema, and Majumdar addresses their importance in establishing a national Indian cinema, post independence, whilst critiquing the nation building world cinema project, through a close reading of this fertile period of filmmaking.”
Matthew Barrington

“A fitting object to reflect the artists critical engagements with questions of post-coloni- alism, national history, artistic creation and radical politics. Xenogenesis provides the reader with an excellent route through the films of the Otolith Group.”
Matthew Barrington

“Wasson’s book explores the long and vital history of portable media and its uses. She argues persuasively that portable projectors were the technology that normalised the moving image within homes, schools and workplaces, and first enabled viewers to con- trol their own programming. As a piece of research it is incredibly impressive in scope, scale and detail. As a book it is a pleasure to read.”
Dr Melanie Selfe

“Rhiannon Adam’s complex artist book is based on her three-months stay on [Pitcairn] island…It is an impressive in-depth research project that pictures Pitcairn as a place of stark contrast: a romantic natural paradise on the one hand and an isolated small human community with dark secrets on the other.”
Dr Lena Fritsch

“This photobook stood out from the submissions in telling an intimate road trip story based on a truly collaborative project between the photographer, Bieke Depoorter, and her photographic subject, A…It…tells of their complicated friendship as ‘performer’ and ‘photographer’.”
Dr Lena Fritsch

“The late Dr Doris Derby was a remarkable chronicler of her time – this crucial debut monograph offers rare insight and visual knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement through the committed lens – and rich lived experience – of an accomplished and long overlooked Black woman photographer, educator and activist who has dedicated her entire life to the movement: a ground-breaking, and essential resource for future generations.”
Renée Mussai

“compelling and complex – a great selection of Deana Lawson’s bold, carefully chore- graphed tableaux are collected in this comprehensive exhibition catalogue, centering Black bodies in intimate scenes infused with raw sensuality, spirituality, and subjectivi- ty…continuously blurring – and refusing – the boundaries between personal andsocial histories, staged portraiture, social documentary, and vernacular photography …”
Renée Mussai

“A staggering body of work documenting Northern Ireland between the 1970s and 80s, a period known as The Troubles. Described by the author himself as a ‘paper movie’, it could best be described as a visual tour-de-force and one that asks a lot from the reader given it often pushes the limits of a traditional photobook.”
Simon Roberts

“Simply a stunning publication, from the exquisite photographs and rich collaboration between the authors (a photographer and architect) to the inspired use of design and impressive production values. It’s an uplifting and immersive experience to make your way through this book, which explores the interplay between natural sunlight, vernacular architecture and everyday life in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.”
Simon Roberts

“A profound meditation on identity, memory, and belonging … that brings together archival and contemporary imagery – and text – in inspired and confounding ways… This is an extraordinary and very special conceptual photobook – exquisitely produced, and deeply touching.”
Renée Mussai

“Over a period of six years, Kusters researched and photographed a blue sky at 1078 locations of former Nazi concentration camps across Europe…Kusters’ photographs of blue skies and his beautifully designed blue-turquoise photobook emphasise the im- possibility of comprehending the horrors of the Holocaust – they are thought-provok- ing and raise questions about history, memory and the medium of photography.”
Dr Lena Fritsch

“Rigorously researched, generously illustrated, and ingeniously designed, this is an extraordinary publication which not only fills an essential gap and missing chapter in photographic scholarship, but importantly foregrounds the creative pursuits of a diverse constituency of women, whose significant contributions to global photobook historiography still too often remains invisible.”
Renée Mussai

“This hard-hitting publication by Jérôme Sessini documents Ukraine’s uprising between 2014-2017 and questions the hypocrisy and misery of a conflict happening on the edge of Europe. The book takes on added significance with today’s war being waged by Russia on its neighbour, and particularly haunting are a selection of photographs Sessini took in Mariupol, a city which has seen untold misery in the past few months.”
Simon Roberts