Photobooks by women shine in the winning and shortlisted titles of this year’s Kraszna-Krausz Awards

Spread from Shirin Neshat, Women of Allah, 1997. Photographs of book by Jeff Gutterman.

An anthology of publications by women scoops the photography award, recognising omissions in photobook history, and crucially the lack of access, support and funding for photographers of colour

The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation has announced the winners of its annual book awards in two categories: photography and moving image. Each category winner has been awarded £5,000. The winning title for the photography award is 10×10 Photobooks’ What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843-1999, edited by Russet Lederman & Olga Yatskevich. The moving image prize has been awarded to John G. Hanhardt’s The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: 1963–1965, published by the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Highlighting notable publications made by women since the dawn of the medium, What They Saw critically addresses the omissions in current photobook history. Crucially, it recognises the lack of access, support and funding for non-Western women and women of colour. 

The prize was juried by a panel including Dr Lena Fritsch (curator at the Ashmolean Museum), photographer Simon Roberts, and Renée Mussai (senior curator at Autograph Gallery). Commenting on the winning title, Mussai said: “Rigorously researched, generously illustrated, and ingeniously designed, this is an extraordinary publication which… importantly foregrounds the creative pursuits of a diverse constituency of women, whose significant contributions to global photobook historiography still too often remains invisible.”

Additionally, two titles have been recognised in the shortlist for the award. Agata by Bieke Depoorter and Agata Kay, which is an intimate story that examines the relationship between a photographer and their subject. And Peter Eleey and Eva Respini’s monograph Deana Lawson, published by MACK  – the first scholarly publication on the artist, which is an important document of the artist’s meteoric rise.

The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation will present two events celebrating both the winning and shortlisted titles. Firstly through a film screening and talk on 19 September 2022 at The Barbican Centre, followed by an event in collaboration with the Parasol Foundation Women in Photography project at the V&A on 05 October 2022.

Find out more about the winning and shortlisted publications here.