The Foundation is delighted to announce the long and shortlists for the 2021 Photography and Moving Image Book Awards, chosen from over 180 submissions. The books in the running address global issues related to gender, identity, history, social injustices, community and memory.
Ranging from untold stories of contemporary society, to innovative thinking about the future of film from an African perspective, the diverse lists reflect the Foundation’s enduring recognition of attentive and original books that will likely have a lasting impact on their field.
This year’s winners will receive prize money of £5,000 each. For both categories, the shortlist selected by the judging panel aims to showcase innovative and coherent bodies of work with a focus on cultural relevance for our current times and in years to come. The judges also placed emphasis on each publication’s design, texture and haptic qualities, elements indicative of the collaborative approach taken by writers, artists, editors and designers.
Winners of both categories will be announced on the 18th May, with virtual events centred around the winning titles taking place on 1 and 3 June 2021, hosted by and in partnership with The Photographers’ Gallery.
The Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards, first established in 1985, are open to all Moving Image and Photography books published in the previous year and available in the UK.
2020 Moving Image Book Award Shortlist
Dialectics without Synthesis: Japanese Film Theory and Realism in a Global Frame
Yamamoto’s sophisticated exploration of Japan’s active, but previously unrecognised, participation in global film theory is an exemplary example of why Anglophone film theory must look beyond the Euro-American canon and how this might be done. Within the book Yamamoto examines a variety of Japanese theorists working in the fields of film, literature, avant-garde art, Marxism, and philosophy, and offers a new approach to cinematic realism. Naoki Yamamoto, University of California Press
Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts
In Making Images Move: Handmade Cinema and the Other Arts, Zinman reveals a new history of cinema by exploring moving image artworks that engage deeply with tactility and materiality and the artists who worked experimentally in the intersection between art and media. Gregory Zinman, University of California Press
On the Run: Perspectives on the Cinema of Med Hondo and 1970—2018 Interviews with Med Hondo
On the Run and Interviews with Med Hondo are a long overdue exploration of the life and work of a significant and influential filmmaker, and one of the pioneers of African cinema. These books offer insights into Hondo’s profound intellect and humanity, and pay tribute to his films and practice which look to the past to imagine the future of film and cinema from an African perspective. Edited by Marie-Hélène Gutberlet and Brigitta Kuster, Archive Books.
The Process Genre: Cinema and the Aesthetic of Labor
Skvirsky’s original book introduces and theorises the previously unacknowledged ‘process genre’. The book explores the visualisation of steps of labour that culminate in a finished product, from IKEA assembly guides, to ‘hands and pans’ cooking videos on social media. Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, Duke University Press
2020 Photography Book Award Shortlist
Centralia
Basu’s Centralia brings to light the important lives of indigenous women in India and their families, whose voices, stories and fight are rarely heard. Through a highly intelligent combination of texts and powerful images, the book explores the ways that our perceptions of reality and truth are often manipulated. Poulomi Basu, Dewi Lewis Publishing.
Destiny
In Destiny, Russell-Cook presents a timely monograph showcasing over 40 years of work by photographer and artist Destiny Deacon. Deacon is known for having coined the term ‘blak’, and her work across photography, video, printmaking, mixed media and installation is an interrogation of the way in which Aboriginal people have been, and continue to be, misrepresented within popular culture. Edited by Myles Russell-Cook with contributors, National Gallery of Victoria.
Dream is Wonderful, Yet Unclear
Kapajeva’s book is an extraordinary journey through contemporary social history and personal memory. Dream is Wonderful, Yet Unclear explores the community, of which Kapajeva’s family was part, surrounding a now closed textile mill in Narva, Estonia, that suffered deeply after Estonia asserted its independence from Russia. With a focus on women and socio-political matters in post-Soviet culture, the work is beautifully clever and conceptually rigorous. Maria Kapajeva, Milda Books.
Sunil Gupta: From Here To Eternity
Sunil Gupta’s life and long career in photography and activism are charted through a rich volume of personal and political archival material. Gupta’s socially engaged projects and works have been instrumental in raising awareness and visibility around the political realities concerning the fight for international gay rights, and the book traces the intersectional histories of migration and gay liberation. Edited by Mark Sealy, Autograph in association with The Photographers’ Gallery and Ryerson Image Centre.
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