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The Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, celebrates the book's contribution to the evolving narrative of photography.

About the Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards

Initiated in November 2012 by Aperture Foundation and Paris Photo, the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards celebrate the photobook’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography, with three major categories: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalogue of the Year.

What winners receive

The First PhotoBook Prize A $10,000 prize will be awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s) whose first finished, publicly available photobook is judged to be the best of the year. Twenty books from this category will be selected for the shortlist, presented to the Jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

The PhotoBook of the Year Prize This prize will be awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s), and publisher responsible, for the photobook judged to be the best of the year. Ten books from this category will be selected for the shortlist, presented to the Jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

The Photography Catalogue of the Year Prize Awarded to the publication, publisher, and/or organizing institution responsible for the exhibition catalogue or museum publication judged to be the best of the year. Five books from this category will be selected for the shortlist, presented to the Jury for the final selection and exhibited during Paris Photo.

The shortlisted books, accompanied by the jury’s comments, will be featured in the fall 2018 edition of The PhotoBook Review issue 015 (published by Aperture Foundation), to be released at Paris Photo.

All books must be received by Aperture’s New York office by September 14, 2018.

About Paris Photo

Paris Photo, the world's largest international art fair dedicated to the photographic medium. The annual event for collectors, professionals, artists, and enthusiasts, Paris Photo offers its visitors the most qualitative and diverse selection of artworks alongside an ambitious public programme with leading figures in the field.

About Aperture Foundation

Aperture, a not-for-profit foundation, connects the photo community and its audiences with the most inspiring work, the sharpest ideas, and with each other – in print, in person, and online. Created in 1952 by photographers and writers as “common ground for the advancement of photography”, Aperture today is a multi-platform publisher and center for the photo community. From our base in New York, we produce, publish, and present a program of photography projects, locally and internationally.

All books must be received by Aperture’s New York office by September 14, 2018.

How to enter

You will need to provide the following information for each book submitted:

Entry fees

From May 30, 2018 to June 30, 2018: Early Bird Special

Delivery of books

All books must be received by Aperture’s New York office before September 14, 2018. This date does not include postmark. All entries must be physically received by this date and there will be no refunds if the books are not delivered on time. Books should be sent to:

Aperture Foundation
Attn: PhotoBook Awards
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York 10001

All books must be received by Aperture’s New York office by September 14, 2018.

Timeline

Call For Entries Open
30 May 2018
Submission Deadline
14 September 2018
Shortlist announcement
September 2018
Winner announcement
9 November 2018
Exhibition Start
8 December 2018
Exhibition End
3 February 2019

Requirements

Submission Requirements

  • Book cover [upload an image or render of the book cover]
  • Author / Photographer information
  • Book dimensions (in inches and centimeters), number of pages, the edition number or print run
  • ISBN number
  • Short description where the book is sold
  • Book title, year of publication, and publisher information
  • Book cover [upload an image or render of the book cover]
  • A short description / summary of the book and why it’s being submitted to that particular category
  • The photographer or author’s name, as well as the designer and editor’s names
  • Biography and CV

Entrance Fees

  • From May 30 - June 30: Early Bird Special
  • First PhotoBook: $30 per book
  • PhotoBook of the Year: $60 for first entry from a given publisher, $30 for each additional entry
  • Photography Catalogue of the Year: $60 for first entry from a given publisher, $30 for each additional entry

Judging criteria

First PhotoBook

PhotoBook of the Year

Photography Catalogue of the Year

Books by or featuring the work of more than one photographers/artists are eligible in all categories.

Juror information

The awards will be judged in two stages. An initial jury will meet in New York to select the shortlisted entries in both categories. The final winners will be decided by a separate jury that will meet in Paris immediately before Paris Photo begins. The initial jury will include representatives of both Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation, and the final jury will include neither.
Each award winner will be chosen from the juried shortlist, all of which will be exhibited at Paris Photo. The fall 2018 issue of The PhotoBook Review (published by Aperture Foundation) will feature all of the shortlisted books. Following their display during Paris Photo, an exhibition of the thirty shortlisted books will travel to Aperture Gallery in New York and may be exhibited at other venues.

All books must be received by Aperture’s New York office by September 14, 2018.

Exhibitions

Paris Photo, November 9 – 12, 2017

Paris Photo, November 9 – 12, 2017

Each year, the thirty-five shortlisted books are exhibited around the world, ensuring maximum exposure for all titles, including the winners in each category.

The 2017 Shortlist Exhibition traveled to the following venues:

In past years, venues have included Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York; Flash Forward Festival, Boston, Massachusetts; Copenhagen Photo Festival, Denmark; Photo Ireland, Dublin; Backlight Photo Festival, Tampere, Finland; FotoFocus, Cincinnati, Ohio; IMA Concept Store, Tokyo, Japan; Photobook Melbourne Festival, Melbourne, Australia; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada; Self Publish Riga, Riga Photomonth, Latvia; Fotofestiwal, Lodz, Poland; Look3 Festival of the Photograph, Charlottesville, Virginia; and Landskrona Foto Festival, Landskrona, Sweden

All books must be received by Aperture’s New York office by September 14, 2018.

Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards Shortlist 2017

Previous winners

2017
First
First PhotoBook, Mathieu Asselin, Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation
PhotoBook
PhotoBook of the Year, Dayanita Singh, Museum Bhavan
Catalogue
Catalogue of the year, Mattie Boom, Hans Rooseboom, New Realities: Photography in the 19th Century

2016
First
First PhotoBook, Michael Christopher Brown, Libyan Sugar
PhotoBook
PhotoBook of the year, Gregory Halpern, ZZYZX
Catalogue
Catalogue of the year, Karolina Puchala-Rojek & Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, Wojciech Zamecznik: Photo-graphics

2015
First
First PhotoBook, Daniel Mayrit, You Haven’t Seen Their Faces
PhotoBook
PhotoBook of the year, Thomas Mailaender, Illustrated People
Catalogue
Catalogue of the year, Diane Dufour & Xavier Barral, Images of Conviction: The Construction of Visual Evidence
All books must be received by Aperture’s New York office by September 14, 2018.