'Tis the season to be making listicles. Within a week, every major photo blog (despite lots of folks saying blogs are dead, to which we say 'pshhhh'), magazine, content marketing generator, and probably a bunch of Instagram feeds will deliver their lists, break some hearts and make new friends for life. We thought about making our own list, but are trying something different this year. Instead of waxing authoritatively on our favorite photobooks, we've handed the reins to the photographers and publishers of Humble's best photobooks of 2014 to let them do the heavy lifting...er, we mean, to keep the decision more open, more varied, and potentially less of what our dear readers might expect. With that said, we strongly encourage you to check out some of these books and support each of the artists' hard work. In most cases, you can purchase directly from the photographers/publishers, or support amazing photobook stores and distros like Photoeye, Spoonbill and Sugartown, Dashwood Books, and Printed Matter. So behold! Humble's best photobooks of 2015 (in no particular order) according to some of the best photobook-agraphers of 2014. hotobook-agraphers of 2014.
Catharine Maloney's photographs are not technically beautiful. They're not pictures (most) people would immediately think to hang over their couch, nor are they the types of images camera-vest wearing Facebook forum commenters might use as flexing examples of their immaculate Photoshop wizardry. Most of those folks would probably take issue with the spontaneous sloppiness her work. Maloney's photographs are a refreshing exercise - a playful, collaborative process that's stripped of academic theory and pretensions in exchange for the simple joys of having fun while making art. Sure there's an unspoken dialog on photographic process, collecting moments and analyzing interpersonal interactions, and her work touches on gender and gaze, but at the crux of it all is the desire to experiment and have fun. Just in time for the release of her new book, Teleplay Pt 1, published by Skinnerboox Books, we caught up with Ms. Maloney to hear more about the process and ideas behind the work.