Skip to main content

Favourite Photobooks 2023

This year, we were particularly impressed by three photobooks from the center of Europe. Here is our "Directors' Choice - Our Favourite Photobooks of the Year"!

Werner Amman / Kein Morgen
Tomasz Tomaszewski / The World Is Where You Stop
Claudio Pogo / BILD

Have a look!

Stay tuned, all our best wishes.
Happy New Year from Cologne!

Markus Schaden, Frederic Lezmi 
& the Team of the PhotoBookMuseum

New Show!

 


 

01.12.2023 – 14.02.2024

HÉROES DEL BRILLO
SHINE HEROES

by Federico Estol

In the award-winning photobook Héroes del Brillo, the shoeshine boys of La Paz become superheroes. Stylistically manoeuvring between graphic novel and new photography, Federico Estol stages the local underdogs as cult figures and creates an urban fairy tale between indie fashion and activist social reportage.
more...


Vernissage: 
01.12.23 from 19:00
Federico in Town: 07.02.24 from 20:00

THE BOX  
Körnerstraße 6–8
Cologne - Ehrenfeld 

Open:
Thursday: 16:00–22:00
Saturday: 12:00–16:00
and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Click here for THE BOX program

  

from Héroes del Brillo von Federico Estol, El Ministerio Editiones, 2018

 
Send your Dummy!

A New Home for the Dummy Award

We are very proud to announce that as of 2024, we will be taking over the prestigious Dummy Award from our good friend Dieter Neubert from the Fotobook Festival Kassel. We are sure that this will increase the importance of the Dummy Award for young photographers and put the award on an even broader footing. Together with our printing and publishing partner Ufuk Sahin from Mas Matbaa in Istanbul, this is destined to maintain the high quality and reputation of the Kassel Dummy Award in the future.

The organization of the Dummy Award 2023, still in close cooperation with the Fotobook Festival Kassel, was a good test run and so we are now looking forward to taking the reins completely and to announce the next Dummy Award 2024.

We therefore invite all photographers worldwide to take part. There are no restrictions concerning age, format or topic. From all entries, 50 books will be selected for a shortlist to be exhibited at various international photography and photobook festivals and events. In a jury including votes from all exhibition venues 5 winning books will be selected from the shortlist.
One of these books will be awarded the PBM/MAS Prize and will be produced in one of the finest printing houses in Istanbul and published by MAS Matbaa in cooperation with The PhotoBookMuseum.

Check in from 1st October 2023 to 18th February 2024

more on: dummyaward.org



sponsored by: 

 
Museum goes Club

Japanese Photobooks from the Collection

TOKYO EXPRESS was a POP-UP show with photo books from and about the metropolis Tokyo. The Club Nachtigall in Cologne's bustling quarter Ehrenfeld was transformed into a Japanese bar.
 
Tiny and yet full of stories are the bars in "Golden Gai," a collection of small alleys and old houses in the nightlife district of Shinjuku. These condensed hotspots are often reserved for certain (professional) groups. This is also the case with the "Kodoji" bar, which has become a legendary meeting place for Japanese photographers, combining exhibition space, library and pub in a few square meters in a wild mixture that appeals to all the senses. Today, the photo books by Onaka Koji, Keizo Kitajima, Daido Moriyama, Hiromix, Mika Ninagawa,Takashi Homma and Nobuyoshi Araki have international cult status - as does the legendary "Golden Gai" bar.
 
With its authentic setting TOKYO EXPRESS was a temporary reminiscence of all the "stories & pictures" that that place has inspired: from obscure darkroom experiments to longing black-and-white scenes in the street canyons of Shinjuku to the candy look of an entire city and its selfie girls to the "Tokyo Innocense", a Japanese garish gender carnival.
 
Sake drinking "Tokyo Style" was included as well as "Guided Tours" with PhotoBookMuseum director Markus Schaden, exciting "Movie Nights" (about Daido Moriyama among others) , "DJ Sets" with DJ Tobby-Lolli and "Sofa Talks" with Koji Onaka.
 

A big thank you to the Nachtigall Team and all the many vistors that joined us on that wonderful TOKYO EXPRESS experience. 

Click here for the TOKYO EXPRESS program

 

Photo: Koji Onaka from memories of younger days in Shinjuku, Tokyo 2018

Recommended reading

»I am shocked.«

The Reception of Photobooks.

What would photobooks be without their critical audience? Not much!
The articles in the new issue 35/21 of PhotoResearcher published by the European Society for the History of Photography show exactly that.


In seven case studies, authors examine the relationship between photobooks and their recipients. The selected books are remarkable examples of the history of photography. They have shocked, crossed social boundaries and opened the eyes of entire generations to social and political matters. The issue gives unexpected, fascinating insights into the reception history of well-known photobooks and allows its readers to follow up on how the books and social discourses influence one another.

Click here for PhotoResearcher

 

 

Photo: Michael Schmidt, Spread from Waffenruhe, Berlin 1987

New Release

Photobooks for everyone!


“The Photobook in Art and Society”
Participative Potentials of a Medium

Photography has been undergoing a paradigm shift since the turn of the millennium. The fine art print has been increasingly replaced, making way for the photobook which is experiencing a certain boom. However, it remains to be seen if the medium finds its way out of the ivory tower of the elitist photography scene. Is the photobook capable of establishing a visible literature that is accessible and understandable for everyone?

The PhotoBookMuseum and the Montag Foundation for Art and Society have tackled this question in a collaborative mobile project. Under the motto "World in Transition", the participatory qualities of photo books have been examined on the basis of new communication concepts. In the recent publication, professionals from the fields of science, art practice and culture institutions impressively unveil the social relevance of the medium. The Reader demonstrates how photobooks nowadays, act as a structuring force against the immanent flood of images.

 

PBM tempweb
“The Photobook in Art and Society”
Participative Potentials of a Medium

Montag Stiftung Kunst und Gesellschaft (Ed.)
in cooperation with The PhotoBookMuseum

Swiss brochure binding
16,7 x 24 cm
468 pages, 220 col. und b/w images.
English
Jovis Verlag, 2020
ISBN 978-3-86859-594-9; € 42,80

reading extract

Photo: Sarah Larissa Heuser
About

The PhotoBookMuseum


„The photobook is one of the most important mediums in our culture.“
Manfred Heiting, Photobook Collector, Los Angeles


The PhotoBookMuseum was founded in Cologne in 2014 as a non-profit organisation that aims to foster the photobook as a significant photographic medium. It serves as a public platform for collections, exhibitions and events and is committed to research and education on contemporary photobook culture. As a museum of the twenty-first century it offers an inclusive environment for active involvement with the arts to a diverse audience.

Acting as a mobile museum, it uses innovative exhibition strategies and hosts international curatorial co-operations far away from the mainstream of traditional museums. So far, the PhotoBookMuseum is the only museum in the world that is exclusively dedicated to the medium of photobooks, focusing on its democratic potential.

  • Carlswerk Prototype / Köln / 2014 / Foto: Daniel Zakharov
  • Carlswerk Prototype / Köln / 2014 / Foto: Dieter Röseler
  • Carlswerk Prototype / Köln / 2014 / Foto: Daniel Zakharov
  • Carlswerk Prototype / Köln / 2014 / Foto: Daniel Zakharov
  • Carlswerk Prototype / Köln / 2014 / Foto: Wolfgang Zurborn
  • Carlswerk Prototype / Köln / 2014 / Foto: Daniel Zakharov
  • TRACK-22 / Krakau / 2015 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • TRACK-22 / Krakau / 2015 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • Cargo to Oslo / Oslo / 2015 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • Cargo to Oslo / Oslo / 2015 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • PhotoBookStudy: Reading New York / Barcelona / 2017 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • PhotoBookStudy: Reading New York / Barcelona / 2017 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • Welt im Umbruch / Rostock-Duisburg-Kassel / 2016-2018 / Foto: Eisenhardt Keimeyer
  • Welt im Umbruch / Rostock-Duisburg-Kassel / 2016-2018 / Foto:Marvin Ibo Güngör
  • Welt im Umbruch / Rostock-Duisburg-Kassel / 2016-2018 / Foto:Marvin Ibo Güngör
  • Welt im Umbruch / Rostock-Duisburg-Kassel / 2016-2018 / Foto:Marvin Ibo Güngör
  • Welt im Umbruch / Rostock-Duisburg-Kassel / 2016-2018 / Foto: Thekla Ehling
  • Welt im Umbruch / Rostock-Duisburg-Kassel / 2016-2018 / Foto: Sarah Larissa Heuser
  • Nobody’s Library - Stephen Gill’s Photobooks / Braunschweig / 2018 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • Nobody’s Library - Stephen Gill’s Photobooks / Braunschweig / 2018 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • Nobody’s Library - Stephen Gill’s Photobooks / Braunschweig / 2018 / Foto: Frederic Lezmi
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: DAVID KLAMMER
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: FREDERIC LEZMI
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: DAVID KLAMMER
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: DAVID KLAMMER
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: DAVID KLAMMER
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: MARVIN IBO GÜNGÖR
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: MARVIN IBO GÜNGÖR
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: MARVIN IBO GÜNGÖR
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: MARVIN IBO GÜNGÖR
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: MARVIN IBO GÜNGÖR
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: MARVIN IBO GÜNGÖR
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: MARVIN IBO GÜNGÖR
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: FREDERIC LEZMI
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: FREDERIKE FINSTER
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: FREDERIKE FINSTER
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: FREDERIC LEZMI
  • DAS CHARGESHEIMER PROJEKT / KÖLN / 2018-2020 / FOTO: FREDERIC LEZMI
Follow us


ic twitteric fbic ig


This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


press inquiries:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.