Again, this was in the BJP in December. Gary Badger is co-author of ‘The Photobook: A History’ with Martin Parr. Here is the article:
Despite the frequently expressed, gloomy prognosis about the health of the book and the future of the printed page, one area of publishing seems to flourish unabated. Indeed, interest in the photobook has never been higher and is, if anything, intensifying, at a time when photography is subject to great sea changes and a marked degree of uncertainty, especially in traditional editorial markets.
Not all of the publishing activity is with 'regular' publishers. Indeed, large mainstream publishers such as Thames and Hudson and Phaidon, have reined in their photo-publishing programmes, sticking to tried-and-trusted names. The small independents, who are lead by the inimitable Steidl (if Steidl can be called 'small') and for whom a 1500 to 200 print-run is the norm, remain the bedrock of photographic publishing.
As with everything else, the digital revolution has made an enormous impact though. Thanks to online print to order companies such as Blurb, making a photobook is now within everyone's reach. We haven't seen the first online classic but we soon will, and at the very least online printing allows photographers to make great calling cards for regular publishers.
In the last ten years some extraordinary photobooks have been published. Picking out ten to showcase as the 'best' can only be a matter of personal preference, and if ten people were doing it perhaps few would be chosen by more than one selector. I might even choose a different ten on a different day.
A number of elements go into making an important photobook. Firstly, the work. It is possible to make a successful book from less than first-rate images, but in general, the better the imagery, the better the book is likely to be. Secondly, the package presenting the work - design, typography, and so on - can make a crucial difference. Thirdly, the sequencing and narrative drive of the book is vital - that, after all, is why photographers make photobooks, to play photographs off against each other, to create a plausible and telling narrative of some kind. Fourthly, there is the 'X factor', where these elements come together to create a special narrative world of their own, making the book stand out both as a physical and intellectual object.
As in any other artform I'm also on the lookout for newness, although not novelty for its own sake. Perhaps I can call it freshness - a pushing of the envelope, a new twist on an old tale. Here, in no particular order, are ten books from the last decade that I feel meet these criteria in an outstanding way.
 | MOTHER'S - Miyako Ishiuchi, Sokyu-sha, 2002 Ishiuchi's memorial to her dead mother is a complex meditation on loss, memory, history and desire, beautifully realised and packaged. |
 | THE ROMANCE INDUSTRY - John Gossage, Nazraeli Press, 2002 Gossage demonstrating why he is arguably the best American photobook-maker of the last 30 years. |
 | PRENEZ SOIN DE VOUS - Sophie Calle, Actes Sud, 2007 Ostensibly a retrospective catalogue but an artist's book of the highest order, complete with DVDs and books within books. Stunning work. |
 | UTATANE - Rinko Kawauchi, Little More, 2002 More enigmatic, diaristic photography, from perhaps the best young Japanese photographer to emerge in the last decade |
 | IN HISTORY - Susan Meiselas, Steidl, 2008 Like Calle, Meiselas takes the retrospective monograph and turns it into a complex history, a diary, a meditation, and a great photobook. |
A SHIMMER OF POSSIBILITY - Paul Graham, Steidl, 2008
The decade's most enigmatic photobook, a parcel of 'cinematic haikus' that are about nothing and everything but say a great deal about ordinary life, surely photography's mission.
BAGHDAD CALLING - Geert van Kesteren, Episode Books, 2008
The new photojournalism - a professional photographer using cellphone and 'citizen reporter' images to tell us the truth about post-Saddam life in Baghdad.
 | TRYING TO DANCE - JH Engstrom, Journal, 2003 The new, diaristic photography. A journal of everyday life every bit as enigmatic as Paul Graham's, marking the debut of a major new talent. |
| PARRJECTIV: JEANS HUNTING IN ISTANBUL - Martin Parr, Mavi Jeans, 2006 A 'company' book, made in a few days, but containing great pictures and packaged together strongly. It even has a bellyband |
 | TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT : CHAPTERS I-IV - Jules Spinatsch, Lars Muller, 2005 A startling, conceptual exploration of how we record history and the contemporary problem of control, public relations and surveillance. |
