The best books of 2023 – as featured in AP – reveal another bumper year for book publishing, says Amy Davies
Ican hardly quite believe it’s time to select the best books of the year once again.
Despite the difficulties it presents in terms of narrowing down the huge selection that passes across the features desk every year, it’s always one of my favourite things to do – and a real joy to put together the finished list of recommendations.
As usual, I’ve tried to include a broad church of different volumes in my selection. There should be something to meet most budgets and interests, but we’re always keen to hear reader recommendations too – so do let us know your favourites via the usual methods listed on page 3.
It’s been another great year for documentary and street photography books. These are a great favourite of mine as I always feel like I can get lost in the stories that are created within each frame of this type of genre.
However, it’s also been a great year for other subjects such as wildlife, while historical and archival work has also had an excellent showing.
Again, I’ve tried to include a good mix of work from the past as well as showing off more contemporary photography, a continuing testament to the power of the book regardless of when the images have been created.
I hope you enjoy looking through my selection. It was a real treat to look back across the past 51 issues of the year and see the extraordinary breadth of publishing talent that we’ve been able to feature.
I’m writing this as I’m about to go off on maternity leave, but I’m hoping to delve deeper into some of my own recommendations during that time – and I’m looking forward to seeing what gets published while I’m away, when I’ll become a just another AP reader like you for a few months.Happy reading!
Magnum Magnum (2023 edition) Edited by Brigitte Lardinois Foreword by Olivia Arthur
£125, Thames & Hudson, 728 pages, hardback, ISBN: 9780500545621
A couple of members of Magnum Photos are mentioned elsewhere in this round-up, but for the ultimate of the agency’s enormous and well-regarded collection, then Magnum Magnum is the one to get.
Yes, it’s priced at £125, which is by no means cheap, but at 728 pages and more than 500 pictures, it actually scores highly on the value for money scale (and you are likely to find it cheaper than the RRP anyway).
Magnum Magnum is an epic tome covering the span of the agency’s 75 years, with images being selected by other members, a reflection of the agency’s founding principle of collaboration. It was first published in 2007, and sold a staggering 200,000 copies. This new edition adds in 25 new photographers who have joined the agency in the past 15 years.
