Since 1985, the awards have been one of the UK’s leading prizes for books on photography and the moving image.
In addition to the Book Awards, the Foundation contributes to the National Media Museum First Book Award, in partnership with the celebrated photobook publisher MACK.
The recipient of this prize works alongside MACK to realise a monographic book project of previously unpublished work.
Here are the shortlisted projects for the 2016 edition of the prize:
Best Photography Book Award Shortlist
Selected by judges Anne Lyden (Chair), Mark Power and Julian Stallabrass
This year’s photography shortlist includes a retrospective of rare Soviet photobooks, a meditation on memory through the prism of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an insight into the lives of nine young people living in post-revolution Iran.
· The Soviet Photobook 1920–1941, by Mikhail Karasik, edited by Manfred Heiting (Steidl)
· The Erasure Trilogy, by Fazal Sheikh (Steidl)
· Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album, by Newsha Tavakolian (Kehrer Verlag)
Best Moving Image Book Award Shortlist
Selected by judges James Bell (Chair), Rhianna Dhillon and JD Rhodes
The chosen moving image works trace the development of black cinema in Los Angeles, explore early cinematic colour, and illustrate the relationship between film and modernist art movements in early 20th century Paris.
· L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema edited by Allyson Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Jacqueline Najuma Stewart (University of California Press)
· Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema by Tom Gunning, Joshua Yumibe, Giovanna Fossati and Jonathon Rosen (Amsterdam University Press)
· The Parisian Avant-Garde in the Age of Cinema, 1900-1923 by Jennifer Wild (University of California Press)
The winners of each award will be announced at Photo London on 19 May 2016, with prize money of £10,000 divided between the two awards. The full longlists will be on exhibition during Photo London at Somerset House from 19-22 May 2016.
Best Photography Book Award Shortlist Citations
Selected by judges Anne Lyden (Chair), Mark Power and Julian Stallabrass
The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941, Mikhail Karasik, edited by Manfred Heiting (Steidl)
“A wonderful treasure-trove in which Karasik and Heiting present, in great detail, 160 of the very best Soviet photobooks from this most radical period of design and photography. At least the equal of any of the recent spate of ‘books on books’, this weighty tome will be of interest to bibliophiles, photographers, graphic designers and historians of propaganda. It will give pleasure and inspiration for many years to come.”
The Erasure Trilogy, Fazal Sheikh (Steidl)
“The Erasure Trilogy poetically deals with memory loss and the desire to preserve memory through Fazal Sheikh’s systematic documentation of a region of the world where land rights and national boundaries are constantly in contention. Fazal Sheikh has produced a fascinating account of the geo-political situation of Arab-Israeli relations in an innovative way that sets the bar for documentary photography today.”
Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album, Newsha Tavakolian (Kehrer Verlag)
“Newsha Tavakolian takes her starting point as the unfinished Iranian family photo album and uses it as a metaphor for the social and political changes after the 1979 revolution in the country. Focusing on nine individuals her photographs provide a fresh and considered account of life in contemporary Iran that challenges many of the existing stereotypes and images reported by mainstream media. An Iranian native who continues to live and work in Tehran, Tavakolian uses both reportage and staged photographs alongside existing photo-album pictures to offer insight into the hopes, dreams and realities of these individuals.”
Best Moving Image Book Award Shortlist Citations
Selected by judges James Bell (Chair), Rhianna Dhillon and JD Rhodes
Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema, Tom Gunning, Joshua Yumibe, Giovanni Fossati, Jonathon Rosen (Amsterdam University Press)
“The most beautifully produced film book of the year makes a persuasive case for the ways modern digital technologies can reveal the arcane wonders of early cinema. The high-resolution scans of single frames from hand-coloured early film prints allow for an unprecedentedly close contemplation of the aesthetics of colour in early cinema, and a new appreciation for the meticulous techniques used to achieve them. The results have an enchanting quality, which ought to inspire artists and dreamers as much as film scholars.”
L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema, Edited by Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Jacqueline Najuma Stewart (University of California Press)
“L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema is a groundbreaking and highly readable compendium focused on the kaleidoscopic network of filmmakers based at UCLA between the 1960s and the 1990s. The collection opens up previously obscured historical pathways that deepen our knowledge of black American cinema, and should inspire further research and scholarship. The mix of essays and oral history brings to vivid life the cultural context of the times – taking in music, politics and more – and the personalities of the key individuals involved. The book is particularly welcome as part of a wider project to resurface the work of the UCLA cohort, a project that includes new DVD releases and film screenings.”
The Parisian Avant-Garde in the Age of Cinema. 1900-1923, Jennifer Wild (University of California Press)
“Jennifer Wild immerses the reader in the world of early twentieth-century Paris, a world being reshaped spatially, cognitively and aesthetically by the emergence of cinema and cinema-going. With precision, wit and infinite scholarship, Wild situates modernist artistic practices in this rich and intoxicating ambience and in the process makes us see early cinema and modernism in an entirely new light.”
Best Photography Book Award Longlist
Selected by judges Anne Lyden (Chair), Mark Power and Julian Stallabrass
· Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album by Newsha Tavakolian (Kehrer Verlag)
· T.R. Ericsson: Crackle and Drag by Barbara L. Tannenbaum and Arnaud Gerspacher (Yale University Press)
· The Erasure Trilogy by Fazal Sheikh (Steidl)
· Eyes Wide Open! 100 Years of Leica Photography Edited by Hans-Michael Koetzle and translated by Alexandra Cox (Kehrer Verlag)
· Gordon Parks: Segregation Story by Gordon Parks and Michael E. Shapiro (Steidl)
· Roman Vishniac Rediscovered by Maya Benton (Prestel)
· The Heavens: Annual Report by Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti, essay by Nicholas Shaxson (Dewi Lewis)
· The Photograph and Australia by Judy Annear and Michael Brand (The Art Gallery of New South Wales)
· The Soviet Photobook 1920-1941 by Mikhail Karasik, edited by Manfred Heiting (Steidl)
· Viviane Sassen: Umbra by Viviane Sassen (Prestel)
Best Moving Image Book Award Longlist
Selected by judges James Bell (Chair), Rhianna Dhillon and JD Rhodes
· Army Film and the Avant Garde: Cinema and Experiment in the Czechoslovak Military by Alice Lovejoy (Indiana University Press)
· Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory by Victor Fan (University of Minnesota Press)
· Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta by Howard Oransky, Laura Wertheim Joseph, Lynn Lukkas, Raquel Cecilia Mendieta and John Perreault (University of California Press)
· Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema by Tom Gunning, Joshua Yumibe, Giovanna Fossati and Jonathon Rosen (Amsterdam University Press)
· L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema Edited by Allyson Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Jacqueline Najuma Stewart (University of California Press)
· Sensational Movies: Video, Vision and Christianity in Ghana by Birgit Meyer (University of California Press)
· The Lumière Galaxy: Seven Keywords for the Cinema to Come by Francesco Casetti (Columbia University Press)
· The Parisian Avant-Garde in the Age of Cinema, 1900-1923 by Jennifer Wild (University of California Press)
· The Shining: Studies in the Horror Film Edited by Danel Olson. Written by John Baxter and Tony Magistrale (Centipede Press)
· William Cameron Menzies: The Shape of Films to Come by James Curtis (Alfred A. Knopf)
More information on the award is available here.
