The 14th edition of the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards has shortlisted 35 titles drawn from a record pool of submissions originating in 56 countries, the partners announced. The selection spans three categories: First PhotoBook (20 titles), PhotoBook of the Year (10), and Photography Catalog of the Year (5).

The shortlisted books will go on view at Paris Photo from November 11 through November 15, followed by a tour that opens at PhotoIreland in Dublin in December 2026 and continues to Printed Matter in New York in January 2027. Winners will be revealed on Friday, November 13, at 3 p.m. CET. The five-member final jury meets in Paris the day before.

How were the 35 books selected?

On September 22–24, the shortlist jury convened in New York for three days of review: artist Alejandro Cartagena; Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, director of design at Judd Foundation; Michael Famighetti, editor in chief of Aperture; Anna Planas, artistic director of Paris Photo; and Anshika Varma, curator and founder of Offset Projects.

"Reviewing the many submissions from around the globe underscores how photography books are a quietly powerful medium with endless possibilities for design, storytelling, and reflection on human experience," Famighetti said.

Planas added: "The jury brings together different perspectives on photography and publishing. Through the selection presented at Paris Photo, we aim to highlight the photobook as a space for experimentation and to celebrate its importance within photography today."

Standout submissions arrived from Armenia, Iran, Morocco, and Venezuela. The shortlisted publishing ecosystem shows the now-familiar clustering of independent houses: MACK, Loose Joints, Spector Books, Kehrer Verlag, and TBW Books each appear more than once. Five shortlisted photographers are self-publishing.

First PhotoBook: 20 debut monographs

The First PhotoBook category rewards first monographs:

• Ivan Anisimov, Pants on Top of Shoes (Kult Books, Stockholm) — design by Janne Riikonen
• Amparo Baquerizas, Gauchito Querido (Editorial RM, México and Barcelona)
• Miranda Barnes, Social Season (Important Flowers, London) — design by Anamaria Morris
• Sara Bennett, Looking Inside: Women with Life Sentences (Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg) — design by Teun van der Heijden and Heijdens Karwei
• Nata Drachinskaya, Binom (BLOW UP PRESS, Warsaw, with Rencontres d'Arles) — design by Drachinskaya, Yumi Goto, Aneta Kowalczyk, and Jan Rosseel
• Franco Dupuy, Cruising Diaries (Set Margins, Eindhoven)
• Jakob Ganslmeier and Ana Zibelnik, If a Flower Bloomed in a Dark Room, Would You Trust It? (Spector Books, Leipzig) — design by Hamid Sallali
• Jesse Glazzard, The Sound of Dirt and Beauty (SPBH Editions, London)
• Ma Hailun, Üruklyn (Jiazazhi, Ningbo) — design by Studio Pianpian He and Max Harvey
• Moeko Ishiguro, Notation(s) (self-published, Tokyo)
• Adél Koleszár, Only Have Faith / Solamente Ten Fe (Art Paper Editions, Ghent) — design by Jurgen Maelfeyt
• Jeremy Liebman, Coincidence (Apartamento Publishing, Barcelona)
• Augustin Lignier, Turning Point (Art Paper Editions, Ghent)
• João Linneu, JJ VFF VV (Void, Athens)
• Yufan Lu, Make Me Beautiful (Editorial RM; Ediciones Posibles / Fundación Photographic Social Vision, Barcelona; Phree, Madrid)
• Swan Moon, Swan Moon's Swan Moon (TBW Books, Oakland) — design by Paul Schiek
• Peter Rauch, 2, 3 (Perimeter Editions, Melbourne) — design by Žiga Testen
• Allie Tsubota, Dead Letter Room: A Transhistorical Correspondence with Hara Tamiki (The Eriskay Connection, Breda) — design by Carel Fransen
• Joël van Houdt, Afghanistanism (self-published, London) — design by -SYB-
• Farren van Wyk, Mixedness Is My Mythology (Fw:Books, Amsterdam, with Deadbeat Club, Los Angeles) — design by Hans Gremmen

PhotoBook of the Year: 10 mid-career projects

The PhotoBook of the Year category recognizes photographers with established practices. Sohrab Hura's Snow (MACK, London) and Bieke Depoorter's The Beds I Slept In (Hannibal Books, Antwerp) headline a list that also includes:

• Michele Borzoni and Rocco Rorandelli, Silent Springs (Loose Joints, Marseille / London) — design by Tommaso Tanini
• Bérangère Fromont, République (Chose Commune, Marseille)
• Roger Grasas, WALLS: A Visual Study on Border Geographies (Institut de les Desigualtats, Barcelona)
• Nick Haymes, Chronograph (SPBH Editions, London) — design by Lina Kutsovskaya and Brian Paul Lamotte
• Takashi Homma, This Is Not My Cat (Nieves, Zurich, and Perimeter Editions, Melbourne) — design by Benjamin Sommerhalder
• Zhu Mo, Undercurrents (JZZP, Ningbo) — design by PAY2PLAY
• Keisha Scarville, Passports, 2012–2025 (MACK, London)
• Newsha Tavakolian, And They Laughed at Me (Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg)

Photography Catalog of the Year: 5 scholarly volumes

The Catalog prize honors exhibition-related and research-led publishing:

• Nanina Guyer (ed.), A Kind of Paradise: Artistic Counter-Narratives to Colonial-Era Photography (Spector Books, Leipzig) — design by NODE Berlin Oslo
• Marta Martín Núñez, Ecos de la Memoria / Echoes of Memory (Editorial RM, México and Barcelona, with Campgràfic Editors, Valencia)
• Damarice Amao, Ghana! Rêver l'indépendance, 1957–1976 (Atelier EXB, Paris)
• Anne Lacoste and Rose Durr (eds.), L Is for Look: Children's Photobooks (Spector Books, Leipzig)
• Anuschka Blommers, Niels Schumm, and Julie Peeters, More (Roma Publications, Amsterdam)

Where the photobook goes from here

The November 13 ceremony at Paris Photo will set the tone for an international exhibition tour that, by reaching PhotoIreland and Printed Matter in successive months, offers the clearest annual reading of which independent and self-publishers the jury regards as the field's present standard-bearers.