Choosing my favourite photo books each year is both a joy and a small kind of anguish. I know how much time, care, doubt and devotion go into making them, which makes narrowing the list feel almost unfair. I could easily have chosen so many more.
In the end, these are the books that have stayed with me – the ones I keep pulling from the shelf. Some have moved me deeply, others made me smile. A few shifted how I think about what photography can do, but all convey a sense of attention and love that you feel as you turn the pages.
They are books I genuinely enjoy living with. And whether you consider yourself a photography lover or not, I think each of them offers something generous, human and rewarding to spend time with.
Poppy Promises
Thomas Duffield (Witty Books)
I first encountered these photographs when Thomas Duffield came to see me with his portfolio, and they stayed with me long after. Made in the long shadow of family addiction, the work is careful, tender and brave. The book holds fear and love in the same frame, without sentiment or spectacle. Seeing it realised so beautifully now feels deeply earned – a body of work shaped by endurance, attention and an extraordinary generosity of feeling.
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Jeff Mermelstein, published by Void
What If Jeff Were a Butterfly
Jeff Mermelstein (Void)
This book made me grin. Page after page bursts with colour, energy and curiosity, images gathered over decades and woven together with diaries, notes and personal fragments. Mermelstein turns his attention inward without losing his eye for the street, finding joy in flowers, chance encounters and the overlooked. It’s bold, playful and generous – a celebration of attention and the small wonders that make up a life.
Hicham Benohoud, published by Loose Joints
The Classroom
Hicham Benohoud (Loose Joints)
Benohoud transforms a 1990s Moroccan classroom into a site of invention. Working with his students, he bends rules, expectations and bodies into mischievous, surreal photographs that feel both playful and unsettling. The images crack open the idea of authority and discipline, showing how imagination, in the hands of the right teacher, can completely reshape a space. It’s clever, energetic and a joy to move through. You come away wishing more classrooms worked like this.
Francesca Allen, published by Steidl.De
Konkursas
Francesca Allen (Steidl)
Photographed at Lithuania’s annual long-hair competition, this book balances ritual and curiosity with remarkable ease. Allen observes girls as they perform, wait, pose and shake their hair loose, catching moments that feel awkward, proud and strangely moving. Tradition and self-expression sit side by side. The book unfolds with confidence and lightness, its portraits full of grace, humour and a sense of becoming.
Siri Kaur, published by Void
Sister Moon
Siri Kaur (Void)
Built from over 30 years of photographs, Sister Moon is an intimate and absorbing portrait of family life, with Kaur’s sister Simran at its centre. Moving between black-and-white and colour, childhood and adulthood, the images feel layered rather than nostalgic. They sit somewhere between archive and imagination, asking questions about closeness, looking and belonging. It’s a beautiful, deeply felt book that reveals more with each return.
Photo by Alex Webb / Magnum Photos, published by Chose Commune
Clin d’œil
Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi & Stephen Ellcock (Chose Commune)
An endlessly fascinating collection devoted to the eye as symbol, object and obsession. Images from across cultures and centuries are brought together without hierarchy or chronology, creating surprising connections and visual echoes. It’s a book you don’t read so much as dip into, return to and keep nearby. Thoughtfully edited and beautifully made, it has become a reference and a pleasure in equal measure.
Judith Black, published by Stanley Barker
Where the Light Came In
Judith Black (Stanley Barker)
Photographed at home in the early 1980s, these images of Black’s children and their stepfather transform ordinary family life into something quietly profound. Handwritten notes, exposed binding and silkscreened images give the book the feel of something handmade and lived with. What might once have seemed mundane now feels luminous. A tender, unsentimental portrait of care, repetition and time passing.
Amy Friend, published by L’Artiere
Firelight
Amy Friend (L’Artiere)
Friend reworks found photographs from the early 20th century by piercing them with small points of light. The intervention is subtle but transformative, just enough to tilt each image into something newly alive. Faces and landscapes glow, not embellished but reawakened. It’s a thoughtful, absorbing book, one you want to sit with and take your time over; it’s so beautifully made that you instinctively handle it carefully, as if it were already an object of memory.
Henry John Elwes & Augustine Henry, published by RRB Photobooks
Trees of Britain & Ireland
Henry John Elwes & Augustine Henry (RRB Photobooks)
This book draws fresh attention to the photographic heart of a vast Victorian project to catalogue British and Irish trees. What delighted me most are the figures included for scale: tiny people standing, sitting or posing beside enormous trunks. Whether intended or not, there’s humour here, and humility too. The images remind us of nature’s great extent, and our place within it, with warmth and charm.
Max Pinckers, published by Witty Books
2020-MMXX
Max Pinckers (Witty Books)
Conceptually, this is one of the sharpest books on this list. Made during the pandemic, 2020 uses multiple cameras to photograph the same moment from different angles, undoing the idea of a single, decisive image. Time stretches. Space fractures. What first appears subtle becomes quietly radical. It’s an intelligent, formally inventive book that rewards careful attention and leaves you thinking long after you close it.
Cheryle St Ong, published by L’Artiere
Calling the Birds Home
Cheryle St Ong (L’Artiere)
Made alongside her mother as dementia reshapes their shared world, this book is an act of attention and love. Photography becomes a way of staying with one another when language begins to slip. The images are gentle, collaborative and alive with feeling. There’s no sentimentality here, just a sustained tenderness and a deep belief in presence.
Robbie Müller, published by Stanley Barker
LA Polaroids
Robbie Müller (Stanley Barker)
Made during breaks from filming in 1980s Los Angeles, these Polaroids show Müller’s extraordinary sensitivity to light, colour and atmosphere. Motel rooms, sunlit corners, small comforts and fleeting details take on a sensual depth. You can almost feel the heat and stillness of the place. Beautifully designed and rich with context, the book feels both cinematic and deeply personal.
[Further reading: Books of the year 2025]
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