Photobook

A photobook is a book of photographs conceived and sequenced by the photographer or curator so that the images share a common theme, idea, or narrative line. Unlike a casual album, the photobook is a unified work of art in which the order of pictures, the layout, the rhythm of spreads, the printing, and even the choice of paper all carry meaning. The form flourished in the twentieth century, when documentary, poetic, and conceptual photobooks became a major mode of expression. Within the Kharkiv School of Photography, the Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov produced several influential photobooks, among them Case History, which fuse social urgency with intimate voice. Contemporary Ukrainian photographers use the photobook to explore memory, identity, and the experience of war. Because it is reproducible and affordable, the photobook democratizes art, carrying an author's vision to a broad audience beyond the museum wall.