American Photography 26

American Photography 26 presents the best photographic images of 2009 and celebrates the craft and passion of the photographer as communicator, artist and documentarian. From over 9,000 images submitted by over 1,000 photographers, magazines, agencies and schools, only 301 were selected. The jury included curator Gail Buckland; Scott Dadich, Creative Director of Wired; Janet Froelich, Creative Director at Real Simple; Luke Hayman, Partner, Pentagram; Steven Kasher of Steven Kasher Gallery; Michael Norseng, Photo Editor at Esquire; and Kira Pollack, Director of Photography at Time. In a year that brought an historic presidential inauguration, the end of a political dynasty, the first Latina supreme court justice, the crash of the housing market, swine flu, the largest federal stimulus since the 1930s, Taylor Swift, Bernie Madoff and Lady Gaga, no subject was off limits and each is brought to brilliant light in this deluxe volume. American Photography 26 includes a fashion portfolio by Terry Richardson for GQ; a series on troops in Afghanistan by Adam Ferguson and a final portrait of Ted Kennedy by Brigitte Lacombe, both for Time; Obama’s administration in a portfolio by Nadav Kander for The New York Times Magazine; and Ruth Madoff through the window of her New York penthouse as her husband stood trial, for Vanity Fair—to name just a few of the many compelling moments from the last year in the first decade of the new millennium.