Martin Parr

Photographer / Bookmaker

A New Map of Italy.
GUIDO GUIDI

Guidi remains the best not-known photographer in Europe, with many years of shooting behind him. This welcome survey introduces his work, most elegantly, to those who may not be familiar with his truly original images.

God Forgotten Face.
ROBIN MADDOCK

Maddock is one of the freshest talents in the UK and his tale about the city of Plymouth is both crazy and poetic. The book has the added edge of being "For and against Bianca" his ex-girlfriend.

Happy Birthday to You.
ANOUK KRUITHOF

Probabaly the wackiest book of the year. Kruithof
befriended a psychiatric hospital and created personalised cakes for many of the members. She shoots these and puts behind a small paper "door" and places cut out photos of the old folk on the surrounding pages.

Illuminance.
RINKO KAWAUCHI

A beautifully produced volume from one of the true original voices in photography.

C.E.N.S.U.R.A.
JULIAN BARON

Baron's photos taken of Spanish politicians attending various events are totally bleached out by an ultra bright flash. We are left with enough information to understand the rather flaky nature of the subjects. It was published to coincide with the recent general election in Spain.

Paloma al Aire.
RICARDO CASES

Cases is a truly original book maker and hits top form with this, his third book. It tells the story of the brightly coloured pigeons that are beloved and raised by the Spaniards.

Looters.
TIANE DOAN NA CHAMPASSAK

The ever cunning Champassak comes up with a real gem with his third book. By searching the pages on the net and showing photos of looters from the UK riots in the summer, he blows up the blurred faces and gives detailed internet references.

Good Luck. Special edition with perfume.
Christine Otten and Erik Kessels

The tireless and brilliant Kessels is commissioned to produce a book for the Netherlands book week, and this, the special edition is laid out in box with a specially designed perfume to accompany the latest batch of snapshots he has unearthed.

The Stage
Shen Chao-Liang

You never see a book from Taiwan in any of the round up lists, so what a pleasure to come across this well produced and designed book, with a wonderful set of photos showing the Taiwanese tradition of lit up stages around the country.

Box - Pass It On.
PENG YANGJUN & CHEN JIAOJIAO

This exquisite box contains an album of photos which this couple have located, and have written up with stories and secrets associated with the images. Beautifully reproduced with many images and much ephemera tipped in. There are booklets with French and English translations. At the bottom of the box are secret drawers that include anything from a metal toy plane to a vintage train ticket. This is the most stunning artist book I have seen for many years.

Martin Parr is a photographer, a curator and editor. He is currently working on Vol 3 of The Photobook, A History and a book about the history of Chinese photo books.

ADVERTISEMENT

© photo-eye Magazine. This article is printed from photo-eye Magazine (http://www.photoeye.com/magazine/) and is intended for personal use. Please contact us if you would like permission to reprint this article for commercial or educational use. Text © by the author, all images © their respective owners. All rights reserved.