Review: Vince Aletti’s Top Ten Photobooks of 2022 at ICP
Vince Aletti
Written by Gabrielle Keung
Copy Edited by Robyn Hager
Photo Edited by Alanna Reid
Vince Aletti shared his top ten photobooks of the year and the imprint they leave on the works of contemporary and aspiring photographers at the International Centre of Photography last Thursday. Amongst Aletti’s picks are Périphérique by Mohammad Bourouissa, Beautiful, Still. by Colby Deal, August by Collier Schorr, Elaine Mayes: The Haight-Ashbury Portraits 1967-1968, Baldwin Lee, Steven Klein and Wolfgang Tillmans: To Look Without Fear. In his conversation with Jordan Weitzman, Aletti reflected on the function of the photobook, its interaction with the photographers’ works currently or once on view in exhibitions, its materiality and the photographers’ artistic control over its curation and publication.
Horse Pool, Guinevere Van Seenus, Windsor, CT, 2005
© Steven Klein
Aletti first turned our attention to the cover design of the photobooks on his list, just as a reader does when they scan books on the shelves, pick up whichever strikes their fancy, flip through the pages and try to decipher the tone and genre of the story: Is it fiction or nonfiction, a collection of personal essays, a murder mystery or a biography? Aletti’s list certainly runs the gamut, from Klein’s photos that were seemingly plucked from crime scenes to Deal’s intimate journal-like book, to Lee’s tender travelog of the American South. Aletti related the photographers’ stylistic reputation to the cover of the photobooks. For instance, Klein’s taste for the transgressive is immediately visible in the design of the cover of Steven Klein, where a pair of feet in bright red heels occupy the frame. On the other hand, Lee’s photo book cover offers a glimpse into his soulful approach to exploring Black communities in the American South. Aletti emphasized the meticulous attention photographers pay to each detail of the cover, stressing that they should and often do drive the creative conversation about what goes into it.
Kathleen & Max Damian, 22 & 1 year, San Francisco, 1968
vintage gelatin silver print (1968)
paper 14 x 11" (35.6 x 28 cm)
signed in ink & pencil, & titled & dated in pencil on verso (12-9)
© Elaine Mayes
When Aletti was asked why he thought photographers turn to photobooks to showcase their works, he highlighted the element of preservation that photographers seek and find in printed works. Once published, photobooks enter the publishers’ and one’s personal archive, and can be passed on from one generation to the next or shared between readers. The barrier to accessing a photobook is also lower than going to an exhibition, allowing photographers to reach an audience that they might otherwise miss – those who either prefer browsing art in solitude or do not know enough about the artists to go to their shows. Additionally, photographers can transcend the institutional formalities and traditions, as well as spatial and temporal constraints imposed on them when exhibiting their works in museums and galleries, having more control of the publishing process and its decisions from cover to cover.
Wolfgang Tillman
To Look Without Fear
A photobook can sometimes feel more intuitive than an exhibition because the medium itself collapses the distance between the photographer and the viewer, giving the reader a more intimate look into the photographer’s artistic process and journey. Aletti compared Schorr’s work to a scrapbook, which allows the reader to see “where her mind went when she created it.” However, depending on how a photographer conceives their project, a photobook can come secondary to an exhibition. To Aletti, Tillmans is a brilliant installation artist, whose footsteps in sequencing and presenting his works on gallery walls have scarcely been followed. His photobook essentially serves as a reminder of how stunning and impactful the show remains.
The conversation ended with a brief introduction to Aletti’s book, The Drawer, which involves “contents of one drawer in my apartment arranged repeatedly, 75 times.” The idea came spontaneously to Aletti to present the photographs he had collected over the years in a single drawer of his filing cabinet. Published in September 2022 by Self Publish, Be Happy, it is available in the UK and Europe, and shipping to North America in January 2023.
Vince Aletti at home in New York, June 2020
Photograph by Balarama Heller
