PhotoBook PhotoList

book design for Pier 24 Photography
creative director: Christopher McCall
cover illustration and sculptures: Libby Black
artwork photography: Josef Jacques
essays: Christopher McCall, Vince Alletti

From Christopher McCall's introduction:
Many of my conversations with Larry [Sultan] eventually zeroed in on the impact of books on photographers.... The subject, amorphous but beginning to coalesce, was something we returned to again and again, trying to understand its implications. It was clear to us both that books were integral to most photographers’ educations and understandings of the art form. More than any other medium, photography has had a subculture rooted in books, and for decades photographers have been discovering, sharing, and talking about old, new, or lesser-known titles.

From Vince Alletti's essay:
Encouraged by years of conversations with the late Larry Sultan, Chris McCall, the brilliant director of San Francisco’s invaluable Pier 24, has been asking photographers to make lists of between eight and fifteen photobooks that engaged, inspired, and influenced them, as well as books that never received the attention they deserved. The results are rarely predictable, and always revealing—the more subjective, the better. The lists speak to the respect, affection, pleasure, and insights beloved books can spark. I suspect everyone had to contend with the imposing weight of the “great” photobooks—with Frank’s Les Américains (1958) and Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment (1952), with Sander and Brassaï, Evans and DeCarava. But in the end, most lists favor the idiosyncratic and the deeply personal. They’re the books that changed the way we saw photography—its possibilities, its range, its depth—and the world. Our world.


168 pages
8.25 x 11 inches