2018 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards Shortlist Announced

On Friday, September 21, Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation announced the Shortlist for the 2018 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, celebrating the photobook’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography, with three major categories: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalogue of the Year.

First PhotoBook: A $10,000 prize will be awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s) whose first finished, publicly available photobook is judged to be the best of the year. Twenty books from this category have been selected for the Shortlist, and will be presented to the jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

PhotoBook of the Year: This prize will be awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s) and publisher responsible for the photobook judged to be the best of the year. Ten books from this category have been selected for the Shortlist, and will be presented to the jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

Photography Catalogue of the Year: This prize will be awarded to the publication, publisher, and/or organizing institution responsible for the exhibition catalogue or museum publication judged to be the best of the year. Seven books from this category have been selected for the Shortlist, and will be presented to the jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

This year’s Shortlist selection was made by a jury comprising: Lucy Gallun (associate curator in the Department of Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Kristen Lubben (executive director, Magnum Foundation, New York), Yasufumi Nakamori (incoming senior curator of international art [photography], Tate Modern, London), Lesley A. Martin (creative director, Aperture Foundation, and publisher of The PhotoBook Review) and Christoph Wiesner (artistic director, Paris Photo).

The jurying of the Awards takes place in two stages. The first part took place from September 19 to September 21, a three-day-process that involved reviewing more than 980 submissions to select the shortlisted books in all categories. “The varied approaches and high level of experience that each of the jury members bring to the table leads to a process of selection that is very intense; a rigorous exchange of ideas about the many incredible books being made today,” says Christoph Wiesner. “The best photobooks can offer a more in-depth, heightened experience of an artist’s work, augmenting and expanding how we encounter that work in exhibitions or online.” 

A final jury in Paris—comprising Hervé Digne (president of Manifesto and the Odeon Circle), Martha Kirszenbaum (curator), Kevin Moore (curator), Azu Nwagbogu (director of African Artists’ Foundation and LagosPhoto Festival, Nigeria) and Batia Suter (artist)—will select the winners for all three prizes, which will be revealed at Paris Photo on November 9, 2018. All shortlisted and winning titles will then be profiled in the fall 2018 issue of The PhotoBook Review, a biannual publication that accompanies Aperture magazine, and exhibited at Paris Photo and Aperture Gallery in New York, touring thereafter.

 Since the announcement of the 2017 winners last November, last year’s shortlisted titles have been exhibited in multiple venues internationally, including Lithuania, Germany, Moscow, Switzerland, and Italy.