Let’s take a look back at some of the photobooks created by hardworking D.C. area photographers this year — some are self published, some are print on demand, and some were created with the help of a publishing house.
We could not have assembled this list without the help of Larissa Leclair, founder of the Indie Photobook Library. The Indie Photobook Library is based in D.C. and is an archive for indie, and self-published books. Much more than just an archive, “the iPL promotes and showcases the books in the collection through international pop-up and feature-length exhibitions, articles, conferences, guest lectures, and also preserves them as a non-circulating public library.” We encourage you to find out more about this great local resource, which is funded by donations.
If you know of a photobook published this year by a D.C. area photographer, please let us know. We will be happy to add it to the list.
- Assembly Affect
Photographer: Kyle Tata
Summary: Assembly Affect features photographic work that explores Modernism and its relation to contemporary domestic living. Citing influences that range from Oscar Niemeyer to IKEA, Assembly Affect plots a nonlinear line through history to connect the dots between abstraction and domesticity. In addition to the subject matter, the photographs in this exhibition contain both digital and antiquated printing processes as a way to conflate contemporary and historic approaches to photography. - BOUCHÉ/SHAY
Photographers: Ginevra Shay, James Bouché
Summary: Two separate artists’ books that were conceptualized and printed together by Ginevra Shay and James Bouché. Each book explores non-traditional photographic processes. Ginevra’s zine is a series of 16 paintings on found photographs. James’ zine is composed of 16 scans of personal objects with talismanic qualities. - Capturing Love: The Art of Lesbian & Gay Wedding Photography
Photographers: Various, including D.C. area photographer Kat Forder
Summary: Featuring the work of 38 of the best same-sex wedding photographers and 46 loving couples, [author Kathryn] Hamm & [co-editor Thea] Dodds provide needed support to wedding photographers who must revisit the rules of traditional wedding and engagement portraiture and develop an expanded skill set to better serve all couples in today’s dynamic wedding market. - Creative Spaces: Inside Great Falls Studios
Photographer: Dean Souleles
Summary: This book explores the work and work-spaces of artists that are members of Great Falls Studios in Great Falls, Virginia. - Culture Over Everything: Raleigh, North Carolina Hip Hop
Photographer: Jared Soares
Summary: This set of photographs explores the daily lives of rappers, who are attempting to gain notoriety outside their local scene in Raleigh, North Carolina. - Hard Art, DC 1979
Photographer: Lucian Perkins
Summary: Pulitzer prize–winning photographer Lucian Perkins captures four electrifying punk shows in Washington, DC, in 1979, with narrative by Alec MacKaye and an essay by Henry Rollins. - I’m Alright To Drive
Photographer: Jordan Swartz
Summary: I’m Alright To Drive is a document of the life of a touring band. We Were Skeletons existed from 2007 to 2013 & Jordan Swartz was there for the first practice through to the last show. This is a visual journey through Europe, Canada, & America, show the side of tour that takes up the most time, the hours you aren’t playing music. - Selections from the Joint Photographic Survey
Photographer: Adam Ryder
Summary: The book is a re-curation of a document containing images authored by a joint survey team operating in the colonial Middle East in the 1920s who set out to record historic architectural sites. While the historic setting is real, the Survey team and and images themselves are fabrications [Ryder] created out of photos sourced from the Library of Congress. - This is Cool & All, But it Ain’t You
Photographer: Zack Ingram
Summary: This zine comprises the altered photographs taken on a road trip across the states during a lengthy period away from home. It focuses on the recognition of absence despite the overwhelming fulfillment and elation experienced during travel. - Transfer
Photographer: E. Brady Robinson
Summary: Transfer combines mobile image capture with the concept of the psychogeographic drift. Robinson uses the camera to examine her environment and present fleeting moments of existence. The snapshot aesthetic is utilized as means to quickly record, document, and observe. Transfer presents a mapping of geography encountered at home and abroad. Emphasis is on the journey, not the destination. - Washington DC Art Deco Architecture
Photographer: John Shumate
Summary: This photograph collection details in the interior and exterior architecture of Art Deco style buildings in Washington, D.C.