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BEST OF 2012

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THE BEST BOOKS OF 2012

SELECTED BY

Erin Azouz

John Gossage

Andrew Phelps

Svetlana Bachevanova

Todd Hido

Markus Schaden

Adam Bell

Anne Kelly

Aaron Schuman

Pierre Bessard

Erik Kessels

Rebecca Senf

Jonathan Blaustein

Shane Lavalette

Alec Soth

Tony Cederteg

Melanie McWhorter

Sputnik Photos

Tom Claxton

Colin Pantall

Miwa Susuda

Marco Delogu

Martin Parr

Anne Wilkes Tucker

Natasha Egan

Christian Patterson

WassinkLundgren

Rémi Faucheux

PDN Editors

Christian Patterson

Photographer

Margaret.
NICOLE DELMES

In 1970 a German business man meticulously documented the six-month affair he had with his assistant. This diaristic book shares every photograph and scrap of paper, along with neatly typed and highly personal notes. Very naughty and very German.

Elementary Calculus.
J CARRIER

The Wailing Wall as a bookend to migrant workers, pigeon-doves, cats, flowers, lemons and telephone booths. Signs, symbols and portals. Permanence and impermanence. Time, distance and infinity. A book to be viewed and read, like a piece of music, and a textbook example of poetic photographic sequencing and storytelling.

Life Size.
SAM FALLS

This massive, sprawling book shows Falls' work and process, shows that they're one and the same, and shows off how painting, printmaking and sculpture relate to photography. It's all about light, space and time, baby.

Lick Creek Line.
RON JUDE

From its opening prologue and its dramatic gush of water, Lick Creek Line leads us into an other-world. A map. A forest. A mysterious, unidentified fur trapper. Beautiful landscapes. Weird interiors. A little blood. And a whole hell of a lot about what photography can do with a little space, a little mystery and a little trust.

Lange Liste 79 - 97.
CHRISTIAN LANGE

During 1979-1997, Gisela Lange kept meticulous records of her family's every activity, expense and tax paid. Here is her record of over 12,000 items, with photographs of her family and the products it consumed over eighteen years spanning two different political and economical systems in the former GDR and reunited Germany.

Another Language.
MÅRTEN LANGE

A small book of black & white images of nature and science and their shapes, patterns and textures. A world within a world. Quietly powerful. Diminutively monumental.

City Diary.
ANDERS PETERSEN

An amazing, dense and off-kilter three-volume first installment of a planned series of Petersen books. Beautifully messy images, expertly sequenced and printed. Imperfect perfection. Dripping with black ink and reeking of burnt soul.

Lebensmittel.
MICHAEL SCHMIDT

From 2006 to 2010 Michael Schmidt ambitiously photographed the production, processing, packaging and presentation of foodstuffs across Europe. A big, cold, clinical book exploring what has become a big, cold, clinical business. With masterful black & white work.

Down These Mean Streets.
WILL STEACY

An obsessive, impassioned collage of Steacy's photographs and four years of newspaper and magazine clippings, journal entries, and various other materials concerned with the state of America today, all released just prior to Election Day 2012.

Moderna Museet 2012 Online Catalog
Wolfgang Tillmans

An extremely well-photographed exhibition catalog showcasing yet another staggering installation of Tillman's work. The physical book is available for free to visitors of the exhibition, or a PDF can be downloaded free from the artist's website.

Christian Patterson (b. 1972) lives in Brooklyn, New York. His work is collected and exhibited internationally. His first monograph, Sound Affects, was published in 2008. His second monograph, Redheaded Peckerwood, was published by MACK in 2011 to international critical acclaim, nominated for the 2012 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards and won the prestigious 2012 Recontres d’Arles Author Book Award. Patterson is represented by Rose Gallery (Santa Monica) and Robert Morat (Hamburg/Berlin).

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