LensCulture’s 2025 list of favorite photobooks highlights more than 50 diverse titles showcasing the personal favorites of experts around the world.

Layering historic kimonos and family photographs, Aiko Wakao Austin creates her own interpretation of her inheritance, drawing on her background in journalism, photography and translation to create a rich and intimate story.

Born from her own experience as a Russian-speaking Ukrainian, Julia Wimmerlin explores the relationship between internal and external conflicts, personal and wider-cultural struggle, as she reconnects with the Ukrainian language through photography.

Blending black and white photographs, diaristic writing, and carefully chosen family archives, Hady Barry offers us an intimate look at a complex mother and daughter relationship.

A look back at some favorite photography, writing, and interviews from the first 20 years of LensCulture — pure inspiration from some of the best photographers on the planet!

LensCulture’s 2024 list of favorite photobooks highlights 36 diverse titles showcasing the personal favorites of experts around the world.

With a delicate eye for detail, color and texture, French photographer Vasantha Yogananthan’s epic interpretation of the “Ramayana” takes a painterly precision to the medium of photography.

In the face of growing anti-immigrant sentiment, Sachiko Saito explores the struggles of the Kurdish community of Japan —  building a nuanced portrayal of her neighbors as they grapple with identity, exclusion, and cultural survival.

This new photobook blends documentary style with magic realism, challenging perceptions of Colombia often tied to drug trafficking, and revealing complex narratives beneath surface appearances.

Over eight years, Koseki has documented the luminous fireflies of Japan, translating their twinkling flight paths into awe-inspiring photographs, and sounding the alarm about the danger to these creatures caused by human intervention and the climate crisis.