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by Ken Miller. Rizzoli (September 2009), $54 and £30

 

Perhaps inspired by the digital mindset, this new collection concentrates on spontaneous photography—one-shot images with no elaborate sets, staging or artistic pretence. More than 20 contemporary artists are included, ranging from Stephen Shore, a snapshot pioneer, to the recently departed Dash Snow. Highlights include Yurie Nagashima's often humorous shots of her home life and Ola Rindal's ambiguous landscapes and empty hallways. Though the mood varies wildly from one page to the next (the images run from beautiful to lonely to strangely intrusive), each retains an edgy urgency: we sense that these are real and fleeting moments in time.

 

by Ryuichi Kaneko and Ivan Vartanian. Aperture (September 2009), $75 and £40

 

Mid-20th century Japanese photographers routinely presented their work as photo albums. These cleverly designed books combined images with storytelling resulting in unique works of art. Aperture's new book comprises 40 examples from the era (culled from Kaneko's collection of more than 20,000). Each example is given its due: a thoughtful essay explains the album's significance, and the pages are nicely laid out. In individual photobooks, striking stories come to life (for example, Fumiaki Kuwabara's "Minamata Disease" chronicles victims of chemical poisoning). As a collection, "Japanese Photobooks" beautifully celebrates an important chapter in the country's artistic history.

by Thierry de Duve, Arielle Pélenc, Boris Groys, Jean-François Chevrier and Mark Lewis. Phaidon (October 2009), $69.95 and £39.95

 

Jeff Wall, a Canadian photographer, has aspired to create images that couldn't be contained by books. His dramatically staged photographs are often exhibited in a true-to-life scale, backlit by fluorescent bulbs for an eye-catching glow. Yet Wall's images have filled many coffee-table books since his rise in the 1980s, and Phaidon follows its 2002 Wall survey with another eponymous volume this autumn. Jeff Wall: Complete Edition showcases 250 photographs spanning his career, including the whimsical "A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)" and grotesque "Dead Troops Talk". And though the photos are obviously more engaging in their original form, these brilliant reproductions capture the photographer's taste for beauty and grandeur.

 

by Frank Hülsbömer. Gestalten (October 2009), $60 and £37.50

 

Frank Hülsbömer's "The Fiction of Science" claims to explore minimalist forms from a scientific perspective (the introductory essay describes the process as moving "from the exterior to the interior"). But the book's draw ultimately has less to do with scientific theory than with refreshingly simple photography. Hülsbömer has a knack for making even the most mundane subjects playful and flirtatious. His layered still-lifes, which feature such everyday objects as textured paper, broken mirrors and rubber bands, are carefully assembled in natural yet dynamic compositions, and Hülsbömer's camera captures every defined shadow, curve, and surface. There's something strangely comforting in these sterile images, which lends an element of magic to Hülsbömer's high-concept experiment.

edited by Tony Shafrazi. Taschen (November 2009), $700 and £450.00

 

When actors dabble in other fields—music, fashion, fine art—we tend to expect some half-baked vanity project. But Dennis Hopper, who became an American counterculture icon with his 1969 film "Easy Rider", is a rare exception. An avid photographer, Hopper witnessed many of the decade's defining events, and his trained eye captured everything from Martin Luther King's civil-rights march to Andy Warhol's debut to his own famous co-stars lounging on set. In more than 500 pages, this volume chronicles popular culture during a tumultuous time. With only 1,500 numbered copies in print, each signed by Hopper himself, the book is a must-have for fans of '60s Hollywood—or at least those who can spare the £450.

 

~ ERIN DEJESUS