2009bestworst_280

 Books
Attack on Gaza – Jan Grarup, Mohamed Elzanoun, Aberdhaman Elkhateeb and Mohamed Papa, text by Noam Chomsky.
Someone has to speak out and Trolley thankfully put their pages where their mouths are.

Baghdad Calling – Geert van Kesteren
Photography as a means not an end in itself, the most illuminating and unselfish work to come out of Iraq by the photographer who does so much more than just shoot pictures.

Beyond History – Vincent Delbrouck
A gritty take on Cuba through the photographer’s travel diaries and poetry.

The Blue Room – Eugene Richards
A masterpiece from the master; empty houses were never so full of memories, emotions and untold stories.

Black Passport – Stanley Greene

Retrospective collection of works showing the colourful life of a photographer from fashion to war.

Brooklyn – Colm Toibin
A work of fiction documenting one woman’s relocation from Ireland to the US in the 1950s.

Capitolio – Chris Anderson
From the heart and without complications photography at its emotional and unresolved best, sitting somewhere between still and moving images it speaks of form and function in symbiosis.

Congo Rape of a Nation – Marcus Bleasdale

Continuing his undeterred path to make us notice and act on the tradgedy in DRC, powerful photography with accompanying text by Jon Le Carré

East of Eden – Yann Mingard, Alban Kakulya
Lar Muller publishers do great things to this exemplary piece of docoumentary photography with maps, analysis and resources to understand Europe’s moving borders.

East to East – Klavdij Sluban
Moody and atmospheric black and white from the Trans-Siberia railway.

England, My England – Chris Steele-Perkins

Continuing a reputation for taking us on a journey through the countries that have shaped his life. A perspective that reflects our feelings of our own Englishness.

 

Flat Earth News – Nick Davies
Expose` on the motivations and agendas dominating the news machine.

 
Georgian Spring – Chris Boot
Controversial because it opens a pandora’s box to criticism of propaganda but beautiful and well produced thanks to the instinctive good taste of publisher Chris Boot, and the $$$ of the Georgian Govt. 

Here Comes Everybody – Chris Killip
Over 10 years of documenting the Croagh Patrick and Máméan annual pilgrimages and Killip’s first published colour work.

In Almost Every Picture #7 – Erik Kessels
Shooting Gallery where every shot of the gun triggered off the camera. FOAM apparently bought this work for 80,000 euros.

Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold – Tim Hetherington

A book by which to teach your children their history in years to come, what better test of the purpose of photography? The “non-photojournalist” tells it plain and simple.

Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans
Catalogue of National Gallery of Art traveling exhibit celebrating the seminal book.

Maurice Broomfield, Photographs – Maurice Broomfield

Standing the test of time, restrictions on finance and showing us all that quality is for ever, the art of industry by Britain’s master photographer (one that’s particularly close to our heart since we published it)

New Topographics – Britt Salvesen
Re-work of the catalogue from the classic 1975 exhibition of landscape photography.

Nollywood – Pieter Hugo

A followup to his Hyena men with as much insight and surprise from one of Africa’s best documentarians.

PIG 05049 – Christien Meindertsma
Visual essay on consumerism and process of production being far removed from the final product: all the different items that are made out of pig.

Recollections by Philip Jones Griffiths
The book that pays tribute to the photographer who provided us all a standard to live up to. A friend and a towering talent thoughtfully remembered by Trolley.

 

The Rehearsal – Eleanor Catton
Provacative novel centred around a high-school sex scandal and the blurring of boundaries between fact and fiction.

 

The Secret Life of War – Peter Beaumont
Stories of war from the Observer’s Foreign Correspondent.

Scrapbook – Donovan Wylie
A non-sectarian version of a Northern Ireland scrapbook from the 1950s.

 
We are now Beginning our Descent – James Meek
When sentiment, politices, power and imagery come together as a novel they appear in the pages of Meek’s account of a present day Afghanistan.
Vampire – David Gray
Blurring the lines between fiction and documentary photography.

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Bright sparks
Paul Lowe for hosting and developing meaningful discussion on the best practises of photojournalism.

Steven Mayes for his optimistic and creative attitude to the growth of photojournalism and steering VII photo agency towards new challenges whilst keeping the founding goal of social documentary at its core.

Fred Ritchin for continuing his thoughtful exploration of how photography continues to change and how it can be applied and understood by as wide an audience as possible.

Jonathan Worth for experimenting with new intellectual property models and bringing together individuals and visions to give us all reasons to be cheerful.
 
Cory Doctorow for his compelling fiction writing, and the leadership he shows us all in distibuting his work in a variety of free and paid streams that complement each other whilst building and respecting his audience.
David Campbell for his engaging blog and the considered and valuable analysis and perspective he brings to the role of photojournalists, the future of media and the lanscape of social communication and documentary.

Chris de Bode for bringing photojournalism to Slovenia as Fotopub and showing us that good humour, dedication and being a real photojournalist involves giving as well as taking.

Tim Hetherington for always surprising, always pushing the boundaries, always inspiring and always reminding us not to take anything for granted in photography.

NYPH09 for giving us the opportunity to bring Foto8 to life in DUMBO, NYC in 2009

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Thorns in our side

The Digital Journalist for spending 2009 throwing toys out of pram and crying wolf that photojournalism is dead (again).
The Lucie awards  for putting a nail in the coffin of printed media by awarding best Magazine category to a website*.
The Sony World Photography Awards  for taking many thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of pounds in Sony sponsorship and then expecting a freebie to host their touring exhibition devised to advertise the Sony Alfalfa system.
Section 44 for granting UK police broad rights to stop photographers from making pictures in public.

The New York Times Magazine and Kathy Ryan for asserting that Edgar Martins did not use photoshop in making his pictures of stalled real estate projects, and for not being able to tell that he did.

Edward Burtynsky for suggesting we pay him  $25,000 for a HOST gallery talk on Oil. Well if we make a packed house then I’m sure everyone will wish to contribute $340 towards that! (not)

 

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A goodbye to old friends
Gamma Presse
Grazia Neri Agency
L’Oeil Public Collective
Roy DeCarava
Bill Jay
Philip Jones Griffiths
Mary Morris Lawrence
Jo Leggett
Helen Levitt
Irving Penn
Christian Poveda
Willy Ronis
Larry Sultan
 
And a happy 2010 to you all.