Photobooks have been booming for the last ten years or so but one prize has been there for the last 49 years – Les Prix du Livre at Arles, which was set up at the same time as the Rencontres d’Arles festival. With its long history and prestigious jury, which is this year overseen by FOAM director Marloes Krijnen, the Prix du Livre is one of the best-respected in photography.
Three Prix are up for grabs in three categories this year – the Historical Book Award, the Author Book Award, and the Photo-text Book Award, each of which come with a €6000 prize to be shared between the photographers and their publishers. The books are on show at Arles until 23 September, and the winners will be announced in the opening week.
39 books have been nominated in the Author Book Award, 17 in the Photo-text Book Award, and 15 in the Historical Book Award category – and many of the projects will be familiar to regular BJP readers. See below for the full lists, and links to BJP‘s previous articles on the works.
Since 2015 Arles has also run a Dummy Book Award, which is supported by the LUMA Foundation and which offers one winner a budget of €25,000 to publish their book. This year 20 books have been shortlisted for the prize, including projects by Michal Siarek, Federico Clavarino, and Lewis Bush. See below for more details of these dummies; the winner will be announced this week at the festival.
https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/prix-du-livre https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/luma-rencontres-dummy-book-award-arles-2018
The 17 shortlisted books for the Photo-text Book Award:
Max Pinckers, Margins of Excess, self-published
Andrea Botto, KA-BOOM The Explosion of Landscape, Editions Bessard
Vasantha Yogananthan, Exile, Chose Commune
Rob Hornstra, Man next door, self-published
Amaury da Cunha, Demeure, H’Artpon Editions
André Principe, Non-fiction, Pierre Von Kleist Editions/Centro Cultural Vila Flor
Anne de Gelas, Mère et fils, Editions Loco
Louis Quail, Big Brother, Dewi Lewis Publishing
Laia Abril, On abortion, Dewi Lewis Publishing
Soham Gupta, Angst, Akina Books
Anne Golaz, Corbeau, MACK.
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, War Primer 2, MACK
Karina Nimmerfall, Indirect Interviews with Women, Camera Austria
Chloe Dewe Mathews, In Search of Frankenstein – Mary Shelley’s Nightmare, Kodoji Press
Saul Leiter, It Don’t Mean A Thing, The Gould Collection
Nina Berman, An autobiography of Miss Wish, Kehrer
Marcelo Brodsky, 1968: The Fire of Ideas, Editorial RM/La Marca Editora/Estudio Madalena/Kaunas Photography Gallery/FotoGallery
The 39 shortlisted books for the Author Book Award:
Katrien de Blauwer, When I Was a Boy, Libraryman
François-Xavier Courreges, Vague souvenir, Jean Boite Editions
Benoît Fougeirol, (ZUS), X Artists’ Books
Sebastián Bruno, Duelos y quebrantos, Ediciones Anomalas
Antoine d’Agata, Manifesto, Studio Vortex
Stephen Gill, Night Procession, Nobody Books
Manfred Willmann, Lightning Flash & Gentian Blue, Fotohof Edition
Tandia B Permadi, Coming Home, Unobtanium Photobooks
Daniel Blaufuks, Attempting Exhaustion, Akio Nagasawa Publishing
Olga Gushkova, A Google Wife, Dalpin/Fiebre Photobook
Nicolo Degiorgis, Blue as gold, Rorhof
Laurence Rasti, There Are No Homosexuals in Iran, Édition Patrick Frey
Laurence Aegerter, Photographic Treatment, Dewi Lewis Publishing
Wang Yishu, Borderless, Jiazazhi Press
Pixy Liao, Experimental Relationship : Vol.1 (2007 – 2017), Jiazazhi Press
Rebecca Topakian, Infra, Classe Moyenne Editions
Giorgio Di Noto, The Iceberg, Édition Patrick Frey
Alix Marie, Bleu, Morel Books
Roman Pyatkovka, You Wait, Red Zet
Morgan Ashcom, What the Living Carry, MACK
Bertien Van Manen, I Will be Wolf, MACK
John Divola, Vandalism, MACK
Susan Lipper, Domesticated Land, MACK
Emilie Traverse, Nuit Blanche, Paien
Sandrine Lopez, Moshe, L’Editeur du Dimanche
Alejandro Cartagena, Santa Barbara shame on us, Skinnerboox
Sambasiva Rao Patchineelam, Samba Shiva, Revista Zum/Instituto Moreria Salles
Daniel Shea, 43–35 10th Street, Kodoji Press
Titus Simoens, For Brigitte, Art Paper Editions
Jurgen Malefeyt, Lips, Art Paper Editions
Vladimir Svetlovs, Rigas Licis, Orbita
Thomas Mailaender, The Fun Archaeology, RVB Books
Tiane Doan Na Champassak, Censored, RVB Books
Clément Lambelet, Two Donkeys in a War Zone, RVB Books
Jessica Backhaus, A trilogy, Kehrer
Giulia Mangione, Halfway Mountain, Journal
Morten Andersen, Fast cities, Journal
Rafal Milach, The First March of Gentlemen, GOST
Eric Tabuchi, Atlas of forms, Poursuite
The 15 shortlisted books for the Historical Book Award:
Diane Arbus, A box of ten photographs, Aperture
Guy Bourdin, Untouched, Steidl
Clément Cheroux and Clara Bouveresse, Magnum manifeste, Actes Sud
Susan Bright, Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography, Aperture
Various, The Hobbyist, Spector Books
Luce Lebart, Gold and Silver, RVB Books/Institut Canadien de la Photographie
Raoul Hausmann, Cécile Bargues, Raoul Hausmann – Photographies 1927 – 1936, Le Point du Jour – Centre d’Art Éditeur/Jeu de Paume/Musée Departmental d’Art Contemporain de Rouchechouart
Arwed Messmer, RAF. No Evidence / Kein Beweis, Hatje Cantz
Julius Neubronner, The Pigeon Photographer, Rorhof
Heinrich Riebesehl, People in the Elevator, Spector Books
Jean-Maurice Rouquette, Denis Barrau, Philippe Dumoulin, Rencontres d’Arles les débuts 1974-1982 : Quand une réunion d’amis devient un rendez-vous international, Geimo Creation
August Sander, Persécutés, persécuteurs, des hommes du XXe siècle, Steidl/Memorial de la Shoah
Jakob Tuggener, Books and films, Steidl/Fotosiftung Schweiz, Jakob Tuggener Foundation
Sory Sanlé, Studio Volta Photo, Yossi Milo Gallery/Tezeta
Rimaldas Viksraitis, At the edge of the know world, Kaunas Photography Gallery/Zephyr – Raum Für Fotografie
The 20 shortlisted books for the LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award:
Mario Capriotti, 42.334N, 13.334E
Max Ernst Stockburger, アメリカ(Amerika)
Michal Siarek, Alexander
Martin Magtorn, Daddy Cool
Angeniet Berkers, Echo
Siska Vandecasteele, Forain, Kaffers en Boerin
Federico Clavarino, Hereafter
Piergiorgio Casotti and Emanuele Brutti, Index G
Alexandre Guirkinger, Lost Island
Vittorio Mortarotti and Anush Hamzehian, Most Were Silent
Kevin Kunstadt, One-Car-Bazaar
Marina Gadonneix, Phenomenes
Alfonso Moral Rodriguez, Phoenicia: Irrational catalogue
Melissa Bennett, Raimundo, Reading David Goldblatt’s on the Mines
Indre Urbonaite, State of shame
Jens Schwarz, Themmuns
Giancarlo Shibayama, The Shibayamas
Muriel Schouten, Ways of understanding, Voodoo/Vodun
Lewis Bush, Wv.B/ English
Schore Mehrdju, you never told me about your time in prison
