Aperture Photobook Awards

Aperture Photobook Awards
Name	Aperture Photobook Awards
Established	2012
Presenter	Aperture Foundation
Country	United States
Location	New York City
Website	Aperture Foundation

Aperture Photobook Awards are annual prizes presented by the Aperture Foundation recognizing excellence in photobook publishing, design, and production. The awards highlight artistic, editorial, and editorial-design achievements within the fields represented by leading institutions and cultural venues, including partnerships with museums, galleries, and publishers. Founded to elevate photobook practice, the awards intersect with major personalities, publishers, and biennials across the international photographic and arts ecosystem.

History

The awards were inaugurated following conversations among figures associated with Aperture Foundation, Museum of Modern Art, International Center of Photography, Tate Modern, and Victoria and Albert Museum and with collaborations involving curators from The Photographers' Gallery, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and National Gallery of Art. Early juries included advisors linked to Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, and institutions that programmed alongside festivals like Rencontres d'Arles, Photo London, Paris Photo, Visa pour l'Image, and Tbilisi Photo Festival. Founding conversations referenced publishers and editors from Steidl Verlag, Mack Books, Dewi Lewis Publishing, Aperture Publishing, Nazraeli Press, and Kehrer Verlag.

Over subsequent editions, the awards gained visibility through associations with photographers and cultural figures whose work sits alongside names such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, Andreas Gursky, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Larry Sultan, Alec Soth, Rineke Dijkstra, August Sander, Imogen Cunningham, Berenice Abbott, Vivian Maier, Sebastião Salgado, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Cindy Sherman, Abelardo Morell, Daido Moriyama, Joel Meyerowitz, Brassaï, Elliott Erwitt, Gordon Parks, Shomei Tomatsu, Lee Miller, and Man Ray in public programming.

Eligibility and Submission Process

Entrants submit titles through a process coordinated by Aperture Foundation staff alongside representatives from Association of International Photography Art Dealers, European Publishers Council, and occasionally in dialogue with curators from Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The British Library, National Library of France, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and institutions that steward photographic archives such as International Center of Photography Library and Harry Ransom Center. Eligibility typically requires publication dates, distribution details, and availability criteria established relative to calendars of Paris Photo, Art Basel, Frieze Art Fair, Sunny Art Centre, and regional fairs including AIPAD Photography Show and The Other Art Fair.

Submission guidelines invoke documentation standards familiar to editors from Steidl Verlag, Mack Books, Dewi Lewis Publishing, Faber and Faber, and designers associated with studios that have collaborated with Taschen, Phaidon Press, Thames & Hudson, and Rizzoli International Publications. Entrants often include independent artists represented by galleries such as Gagosian Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Sadie Coles HQ, and MACK alongside institutional publishers connected to Yale University Press, Princeton University Press, University of Chicago Press, and Columbia University Press.

Award Categories and Prizes

Categories have included PhotoBook of the Year, First PhotoBook, Photography Catalogue of the Year, and special merit citations, in line with prize structures seen at Pulitzer Prize, National Book Awards, Turner Prize, and other arts prizes administered by foundations such as Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Ford Foundation. Prize packages have combined trophies, feature coverage in Aperture Magazine, exhibition opportunities at venues like Aperture Gallery, International Center of Photography, St Petersburg Photofest, and grants or commissioning support from partners including Getty Foundation and Arts Council England.

Monetary awards, distribution support, and promotional campaigns have been structured to align with industry calendars for distributors such as D.A.P. (Distributed Art Publishers), D.A.P., Small Press Distribution, and retailers linked to MoMA Design Store and Tate Shops. Special awards have recognized editorial innovation, typographic design, and archival research, reflecting practices practiced by designers from studios working with Pentagram, DesignStudio, and typographers associated with Monotype Imaging.

Selection and Judging Panel

Selection is overseen by rotating juries comprised of curators, editors, designers, critics, and publishers. Panelists have historically come from institutions including Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, International Center of Photography, National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, and university programs such as Rhode Island School of Design, Yale School of Art, Columbia University School of the Arts, Goldsmiths, University of London, and Royal College of Art. Critics and writers associated with outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, Artforum, Frieze, Aperture Magazine, The British Journal of Photography, and Bomb Magazine have also served.

Judges have included prominent editors and designers from Steidl Verlag, Mack Books, Taschen, Phaidon Press, Penguin Random House, and curators linked to programs at Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, and Serpentine Galleries.

Notable Winners and Publications

Winners and shortlisted titles have often gone on to be carried by retailers such as Bookshop.org, Amazon Books, and institutional bookstores at MoMA, Tate Modern, Getty Museum, and Venice Biennale catalogues. Notable award-associated publications have been recognized alongside landmark photobooks like The Americans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Workers, In the American West, Sleeping by the Mississippi, Exiles, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Uncommon Places, Avedon Fashion 1944–2000, Magnum Contact Sheets, Immediate Family, Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph, and editions from photographers including Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin, Alec Soth, Andreas Gursky, Sebastião Salgado, Sophie Calle, Rinko Kawauchi, Mitch Epstein, Paul Graham, Taryn Simon, Richard Avedon, Mary Ellen Mark, Gillian Wearing, Shirin Neshat, Zanele Muholi, Wolfgang Tillmans, Thomas Struth, Corinne Day, Martin Parr, Michael Schmidt, Masahisa Fukase, and Chris Killip.

Impact and Reception

The awards have influenced collectors, curators, and publishers within networks tied to Art Basel, Paris Photo, Rencontres d'Arles, South by Southwest, Venice Biennale, Documenta, and regional biennials such as Gwangju Biennale and Sharjah Biennial. Reviews and essays in periodicals like The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Artforum, Frieze, and British Journal of Photography have amplified visibility for winning titles, affecting acquisition decisions at institutions such as Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Whitney Museum of American Art, Getty Museum, National Galleries of Scotland, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The awards have also spurred pedagogical attention in programs at Rochester Institute of Technology, School of Visual Arts, University of the Arts London, Pratt Institute, and Parsons School of Design.

Category:Photography awards