Rafael Soldi’s new monograph, Imagined Futures, published by Candor Arts, uses the photobooth as a sacred space for healing amidst cultural and political turmoil.

Seattle based photographer, curator, and activist Rafael Soldi’s latest series and limited edition photobook lowers the volume on the heated dialogues in which nationality, gender, sexual orientation and their role in identity continue to inflame and divide.

Using quiet self-portraits made in traditional photo booths around the world, Soldi invites us to witness his reckoning with adolescent traumas shaped by socio-religious discrimination and ill-fitting masculine tropes. With closed eyes, he mutes extraneous noise to hear his inner monologue and find empowerment and solace within himself.

I chatted with Soldi about photo booths as interlocutors in the self-portrait process and healing wounds through ritual and performance.

Roula Seikaly in conversation with Rafael Soldi

From Ben Alper and Joy Drury Cox’s claustrophobic photos of tourist caves to Ka-Man Tse’s photos capturing LGBTQ communities in Hong Kong, these photobooks are worth your time (and – hint-hint – money!)

As we declared last year, just like our open calls aren’t “photo contests,” this is not a “Best Photobooks" list. It’s not a competition, and with just a few editors running the Humble show, feels disingenuous and unrealistic to declare it as such. Instead, this is simply a collection of photobooks that made an impact on us in 2018.

As editors and curators with a broad spectrum of tastes, we responded to critical socio-political discussions, adventurous technical or conceptual potential, new takes on photo historical icons, or just damn beautiful image collections. As you move through this list, we encourage you to dig deeper into these photographers’ work and show your support for their careers and practice by buying a few, preferably directly from the publishers or photographers themselves. Without further ado…

Rafael Soldi Transforms a Photobooth into a Sanctuary

Humble Booklist: 32 Photobooks That Dropped Our Jaws in 2018