Image © Patricia Borges, featured in FOOD STORIES, Shutter Hub Editions
Who doesn’t love a good photo book? To flick through the pages, be enlightened, educated, distracted and absorbed into another world through another’s eyes? Totally fantastic!
We’re here to share our Photobook Favourites – a selection of our favourite photography books recommended by the Shutter Hub community, an archive of titles we’ve enjoyed, and a reference point for you to explore.
Plein Soleil © Jessica Backhaus, Kehrer Verlag
Plein Soleil by Jessica Backhaus, Kehrer Verlag
Following her series from A Trilogy (2017), Jessica Backhaus embarked on a transformative exploration, shedding the constraints of traditional photography for the depths of abstraction. Cut Outs (2021) marked a breakthrough into a new creative phase with its innovative abstraction. In Plein Soleil, she presents a visual symphony of color, surface, and form. These images, using a complex visual language, are even more radical than before. Through minimalist compilations of reality, Backhaus crafts images that transcend the ordinary, transporting viewers into vibrant realms filled with life-affirming energy.
Jessica Backhaus (*1970) is considered one of the most important voices in contemporary photography from Germany. With Plein Soleil, Kehrer Verlag presents her ninth monograph.
28 x 36cm, 96 pages, 41 colour photographs / Otabind softcover / Published as a limited edition of 800 copies.
Tulip © Celine Marchbank, Dewi Lewis
Tulip by Celine Marchbank, Dewi Lewis
In September 2009 Celine Marchbank’s mother, Sue Miles, was diagnosed with lung cancer and a brain tumour.
“While I was trying to come to terms with the fact she was dying, I decided I wanted, or maybe needed, to document the time she had left. I didn’t want to create a graphic portrayal of her death, it would have been impossible and wrong to focus only on the dying part, but rather I wanted to photograph our last months together. I looked at the things that made her uniquely her, the details in her house I thought I knew so well, the things that would also be gone when she was.
Her love of flowers was a beautiful part of her personality; the house was always full of them, and as I photographed them I realised they were symbolic of what was happening – they represented happiness, love, kindness and generosity, but also isolation, decay, and finally death.”
Celine Marchbank is a documentary photographer specialising in British based stories, fascinated by the small everyday details of life. Based in London, she spends her time between personal documentary projects, exhibiting work regularly, and undertaking commercial and editorial work. She is also a regular sessional lecturer in documentary photography at Ravensbourne University in London. A Fellow of the RSA, Celine Marchbank has exhibited widely throughout the UK. Tulip has already received widespread acclaim and Celine’s work has been shortlisted for several prestigious awards including The European Publishers Award For Photography, The Deutsche Bank Photography Award, The Lucie Foundation and the Emergentes DST International Photography Award. Tulip is her first book.
22cm x 19cm, 152 pages, 84 colour photographs / Clothbound hardback.
Flowers © Zara Carpenter, RIKARD
Flowers by Zara Carpenter, RIKARD
This series of Polaroid chemigrams is a celebration of nature and that despite the darkness of the past year hope is growing and peeking up thought the soil to bring us joy and solace.
“My garden, as well as the plants that I grow outside and inside our home, have always given me comfort. Something that calms my mind, quiets the noise when nothing else can, in this past year even more so. Lockdown gave me the time to work on these images of flowers. Allowing me to push my process, seek new textures and visual landscapes, and create vibrant daydreams that I could lose myself in.
These experiments were made from:
Flowers grown
Flowers received
Flowers I have seen.
Each flower carries with it the memory of a moment, place or person.”
170 x 205mm, 56 pages, 30 colour photographs / Blind embossed softcover.
Find out more and buy Flowers here.
An Attic Full of Trains by Alberto di Lenardo, Carlotta di Lenardo (ed.), MACK
An Attic Full of Trains by Alberto di Lenardo, Carlotta di Lenardo (ed.), MACK
At the top of Carlotta di Lenardo grandparents’ house in Italy there is a room which houses the library. A hidden door amongst the bookshelves opens into a secret attic, a large room dominated by an enormous model railway, which her grandfather built and added to throughout his life.
Significant though it was for her relationship with him, one day during a family lunch he revealed her another of his not very secret passions – his enduring love for photography – and shared with her his archive of more than 8,000 photographs: a body of vernacular work capturing over half a century of life in vivid colour.
Unknown in his lifetime, Alberto di Lenardo’s work offers a precursor to some of Italy’s best-loved photographers, from Luigi Ghirri to Guido Guidi, with work made across Italy, the USA, Brasil, Morocco, Greece and beyond. In Carlotta’s scrupulous sequencing, An Attic Full of Trains shows us a joyous cross-section of life in the 20th Century: one of beaches and bars, mountains, road trips, lovers and friends.
21 x 14.8cm, 232 pages / Swiss-bound paperback with flaps / Bilingual text (English, Italian)
Find out more and buy An Attic Full of Trains here.
Better Days © Seunggu Kim, Kehrer Verlag
Better Days by Seunggu Kim, Kehrer Verlag
Over the past forty years, South Korea’s economy has developed rapidly, with various consequences. As well as long working hours, many Koreans only take half of their vacation, and due to lack of travel time they mostly spend them at home. At the same time, the South Korean population is aging, the society is characterized by a hierarchy determined by age and social status. Seunggu Kim shows us the special South Korean vacation culture of urban leisure facilities in his balanced image compositions, but also focuses on how people deal with the challenges in a country full of contrasts. His photographs visualize people’s fast-paced lifestyle and community-based trust, and he shows South Koreans adapting to their situation and enjoying themselves. The series Better Days received the Ilwoo Photography Award 2023.
29.2 x 23.9cm, 112 pages, 48 colour photographs / Hardcover.
Find out more and buy Better Days here.
My Father’s Things © Wendy Aldiss, Pannoval Press
My Father’s Things by Wendy Aldiss, Pannoval Press
The book is a beautifully designed selection from the 9,000+ images Wendy Aldiss took following the death of her father in 2017. Wendy realised that, in a way, she could continue to photograph him – by making images of his possessions: books, magazines, clothes, toys, paintings, furniture, receipts, photos, postcards, wine bottles, kitchen implements etc – he had even kept the bullet that struck him in 1945. This labour of love and grieving has resulted in a fascinating and complete catalogue of the items owned by a man of 92yrs; a writer, poet and artist- Brian Aldiss.
256 pages (with a number of fold-outs) / Soft-touch laminated hardcover / Signed copies available.
Find out more and buy My Father’s Things here.
FOOD STORIES, Shutter Hub Editions
From the simple fried egg to the Michelin-starred masterpiece, the grabbable snack or the family recipe passed on through generations, every meal has its place. Within the pages of FOOD STORIES, photographers invite you to join them at the table as they serve up a slice of their own food stories.
100 recipes without words.
14.8 x 21 cm, 116 pages, 100 colour photographs / Softcover.
Find out more and buy FOOD STORIES here.
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