Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation have joined forces to launch two new photobook awards in 2012, celebrating the book’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography. Entries will be accepted from July 15 through September 10, 2012. A pre-selected shortlist of thirty titles will be profiled in The PhotoBook Review; exhibited at Paris Photo at the Grand Palais and at Aperture Gallery in New York; and tour to other venues, to be determined. Winners will be revealed on November 14, 2012, Paris Photo opening day.

FEATURING TWO PRIZE CATEGORIES

First PhotoBook
A $10,000 prize will be awarded to the photographer/artist whose first photobook is deemed by an independent jury to be best of the year.

PhotoBook of the Year
PhotoBook of the Year will be awarded to the photographer/artist, and publisher responsible, whose book is deemed by an independent jury to be the best of the year.

THE JURY

The awards will be judged in two stages. An initial jury will meet in New York to select the shortlisted entries in both categories. Jurors will include Phillip Block, Julien Frydman, Chris Boot, Lesley A. Martin, and James Wellford. The final winners will be decided by a separate jury that will meet in Paris before Paris Photo begins, including Els Barents, Roxana Marcoci, Edward Robinson, and Thomas Seelig.

ENTER HERE

If  you are a Photobook Review Blog subscriber, you’ve already gotten word that The PhotoBook Review 002 is now available on Zinio for $1.99. This time, the PBR team has reformatted the design for better reading via the iPad and on-line. Is this treatment is a better reading experience for you? Let the team know @PhotoBookReview

If you’re still firmly a believer in the printed object and don’t want to miss out on future issues,  they are still on hand at the Aperture gallery (or check the Aperture display at Kowasa Book Store, Barcelona) … and don’t forget that subscribers to Aperture magazine will receive PBR along with their November and May issues! Subscribe now in preparation for PBR 003 — special guest editor to be announced soon!

Can’t wait? Neither can we.

Good photobooks require having good photographs. But good photobooks need more than that. Photobooks, when done well, are not merely collections of photographs. They are pieces of art in their own right, which means that the contributions of the non-photographers are crucial.

–Joerg Colberg, in his review of The Dutch Photobook (Aperture 2012)

This Wednesday, June 13, 2012, Frits Gierstberg, curator of the Netherlands Photomuseum, comes to Aperture Gallery to speak on the important collaborations between graphic designers, printers, and Dutch photographers that have earned Dutch photobooks so much praise.

Gierstberg, who co-authored Aperture’s latest “book on books,” The Dutch Photobook: A Thematic Selection from 1945 Onwards along with Rik Suermondt, will be explaining some methodology behind his selection in the text, and discussing not only those  books included, but omitted as well.

We’re most excited for the hands-on reception after the presentation during which audience members will be offered a special viewing of a selection of contemporary Dutch photobooks. Joining Gierstberg will be special guest Dutch photographers featured in the book, Jacqueline Hassink, author of the 2009 Aperture monograph Car Girls, and Dana Lixenberg, whose monographs Jeffersonville Indiana and Last Days of Sishmaref won Best Dutch Book Design in 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Attendees will also receive complementary copies of Aperture’s The Photobook Review Issue 002, edited by publisher Markus Schaden, which features extensive coverage of photobook studies and photobook dummy-making.

Read Joerg Colberg’s full review of The Dutch Photobook on Concientious. The work has also been reviewed on Photo-Eye Blog, where you can flip through a few spreads as well.

The Dutch Photobook: Presentation and reception with Frits Gierstberg
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
6:30 p.m.

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555