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…

Photographing the everyday can be as trite as saying "A photograph is worth 1,000 words." In its worst form, the claim to "see" what others don't," or "elevate the ordinary," amounts to little more than plain, boring pictures. But when it works, it can be transcendent. Ben Alper has a unique way of transforming the banal into funny, poetic and utterly unsettling pictures. Whether it's digitally disassembling found photos or wandering through condemned houses and uncharted landscapes armed with only a really bright flash, Alper helps viewers see the world as a fragmented, noir-ish crime scene waiting to happen. His recent photobook (which you, dear readers, should buy, especially, this limited edition), A Series of Occurrences, published by his imprint Flat Space Books, follows this sense of discomfort, subjecting the landscape to intense visual scrutiny while pairing and ultimately forcing relationships between seemingly unrelated images. Think Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel's 1970's Evidence collection, but shot by a single photographer. We spoke with Ben to learn more.

Humble Booklist: 32 Photobooks That Dropped Our Jaws in 2018

Ben Alper: Landscape as Crime Scene