Holiday Gift Guide 2025 – Part 11! The Books!
When you want to sit down, and take in a collection of photographs, nothing is better that a book. Or a well produced zine.
Whether is a monograph, or a collection from various photographers, it is a great way to slow down and discover images on your time. You can meander through a gallery or museum, which I encourage, but a closer non-timed look at an artists intent is priceless. Physical books you can peruse over the holiday, and dang, for years and years to come!
Since most artists publications are relatively small runs, buy them when you see em. Honestly, as I was putting together this list, many suggestions I was going to make were out of print, and therefore a bit pricey. I have only suggested those currently available.
OK, here is a selection for your gifting pleasure!
*Decisive Moment, by Henri Cartier-Bresson
*New Documents:Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand.
*Music in the 80’s by Lynn Goldsmith
In a colorful mode, is the zine called Toilet Paper, from the mind of Maurizio Catalan
No words, all images. and priced right, with a different way of looking at things, this will hot right with a certain person. Great for gifting or receiving
All fun!
On the classic route we have the Decisive Moment, by Henri Cartier-Bresson. As the originator of the phrase, he captured life in the most unique moments that told a story in the fraction of a second.
True, it may have taken a lot of pressing of the shutter to get that one perfect frame, but he did it.
“In the past decade a new generation of photographers has directed the documentary approach toward more personal ends. Their aim has been not to reform life, but to know it.” ―John Szarkowski
In 1967, The Museum of Modern Art presented New Documents, a landmark exhibition organized by John Szarkowski that brought together a selection of works by three photographers whose individual achievements signaled the artistic potential for the medium in the 1960s and beyond: Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand.
Though largely unknown at the time, these three photographers are now universally acknowledged as artists of singular talent within the history of photography. The exhibition articulated a profound shift in the landscape of 20th-century photography, and interest in the exhibition has only continued to expand. Yet, until now, there has been no publication that captures its content.
Perhaps this group collection will ignite a curious spark and send you to find and purchase separate monographs of each photographer.
Vivian Maier has had the world enthralled with her background as the nanny, who also photographed the world outside of her employment. After her death, her trove of negatives was discovered in a storage unit and has spawned multiple books, and even a documentary. Some find the story more to their liking that the photos. I think the story of the discovery just enhances the images and your perception.
A Photographer Found. Considered the definitive monograph of her work.
If someone on your list is a major music lover, and has an affinity of the 80’s, Lynn Goldsmiths book Music in the 80’s is a great collection of some of the best of music photography in that decade. The biggest stars are captured on stage, at home, and in the studio.
He has unfortunately just left us, but his basic tenants of photography are brought to life in this book: color, documentary, and a view of British life.
“I like making books, it’s ultimately […] the most satisfactory way of getting a body of work out because it’s contained, it has a narrative, it has a beginning and [an end] and it’s a physical thing so, even though we are in the day of the internet, the book still really sings out as being the ultimate statement for a photographer. […] It’s a very good way of seeing how good your pictures are; do they actually hold up and keep someone’s attention for the 50-100 pictures that you need to constitute a book? I would suggest we all make books to see and really appraise how good or bad we are.”
And of course, one book that turned me to photography when I was 8 years old, is the Family Of Man. 
It is basically the capture of the human condition from birth to death from 256 photographers all over the globe. The original exhibit was at MOMA in 1955 and remains the most viewed exhibit ever.
At its heart it shows how much cultures around the world have very similar DNA.
I usually have a few copies of this book around to gift. A family i knew received this at the holidays, and only 4 months later did they go through it and it made such an impression that they called me, and told me what an emotional connection is was.
Unassuming, this paperback can be purchased for about $15. The amazing thing is MOMA still publishes it.
There are so many books to see/share/gift that it all depends on the receiver’s taste.
These are just a few running the gamut.
#aphotographerfound
Published on December 17th, 2025
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