Paris Photo and Aperture have revealed the winners of the 2024 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards—an annual celebration of the photobook’s contributions to the evolving narrative of photography.
A final jury met in Paris on November 7th, 2024, to select this year’s winners. The jury included Kim Bourus, founder and director, Higher Pictures; Azu Nwagbogu, curator; Lisa Sutcliffe, curator, Department of Photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Jean-Baptiste Talbourdet-Napoleone, creative director, M le magazine du Monde; and Mame-Diarra Niang, artist.
Born from the Same Root, by Tsai Ting Bang, was selected by the jury as the winner of the FIRST PHOTOBOOK PRIZE. A beautiful object that marries compelling photography with intimate moments, the book forms a moving portrait of the artist’s older brother, Hsien, that reflects upon their shared family trauma. Tsai utilizes the book’s format to explore the estrangement, misrecognitions, and mystery at the heart of their bond, interweaving archival family photographs and his own tender portraits of Hsien and his day-to-day life.
The PHOTOBOOK OF THE YEAR, Disruptions, by Taysir Batniji, is a powerful meditation on life under occupation. Compiling pixelated screenshots from WhatsApp video calls to his family in Gaza taken between April 2015 and June 2017, warped portraits and pixelated landscapes document signals of failed communication. The fragmentary aesthetic of fragile phone connections offers a metaphor for the breakdown of the psyche in the midst of daily life compromised by conflict.
The winner of the PHOTOGRAPHY CATALOG OF THE YEAR, Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain, by Joy Gregory, editor, and Taous Dahmani, associate editor, is a restorative anthology that charts Black women’s essential but often overlooked contributions to Britain’s photography scene in the late twentieth century. Extensively researched and vividly illustrated, the book showcases a tremendous range of visual materials, including photographs from over fifty artists, archival images, documents, and more.
The final jury also chose to award a JURORS’ SPECIAL MENTION to i am (not) your mother, by Hady Barry, a self-published photobook that unpacks the trauma of an adolescence cut short by the tremendous responsibilities of parenting. The book’s imagery alternates between the vivid, nostalgic palette of rediscovered family photographs and the black and white of Barry’s own austere pictures of nature, people, and interiors. The intimate format and use of one-of-a-kind Risograph printing befit the intimacy and rawness of Barry’s painful subject matter.
This year, Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards received 940 books from fifty-nine countries around the world, including standout entries from Argentina, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, and elsewhere. On September 18–20, the shortlist jury met in New York for three concentrated days of review and deliberation, narrowing the entries down to a shortlist of thirty-five titles. The shortlist jury consisted of the following international team: Negar Azimi, editor in chief, Bidoun; Jacqueline Bates, photography director, Opinion, New York Times; Michael Famighetti, editor in chief, Aperture; Nontsikelelo Mutiti, director of graduate studies in graphic design, Yale School of Art; and Anna Planas, artistic director, Paris Photo.
To view the full shortlist, visit aperture.org/editorial/announcing-the-2023-photobook-awards-shortlist
A presentation of the thirty-five books shortlisted for the 2024 PhotoBook Awards is currently on view at Paris Photo through November 10 and will be on view at Printed Matter in New York, January through February 2025, and then to the Leipzig Photobook Festival, in Germany, in March, with additional venues to be announced.
A selection of books shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards is available for purchase at the Delpire & Co booth (J03) during Paris Photo and afterwards at the Delpire & Co shop in Paris.
About the 2024 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards
The Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards were founded in 2012 and consist of three prizes in the following categories:
First PhotoBook: A $10,000 prize is 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 they will be presented to the jury for final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.
PhotoBook of the Year: This prize is awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s) and publisher(s) responsible for the photobook judged to be the best of the year. Ten books from this category have been selected for the shortlist, and they will be presented to the jury for final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.
Photography Catalog of the Year: Added to the PhotoBook Awards in 2014, this prize is awarded to the publication(s), publisher(s), and/or organizing institution(s) responsible for the exhibition catalog or museum publication judged to be the best of the year. Five books from this category have been selected for the shortlist, and they will be presented to the jury for final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.
About Aperture
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From its base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through its acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs,” Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society. For more information, visit aperture.org
About Paris Photo
Paris Photo is the world’s largest international art fair dedicated to the photographic medium. An annual event for collectors, professionals, artists, and enthusiasts, Paris Photo offers its visitors the most qualitative and diverse selection of artworks alongside an ambitious public program with leading figures in the field.
