PHOTOBOOK 2014 is an annual competition open to photographers in the United States and abroad who have self-published a photobook. This competition was offered by Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson NY for the fifth year. The competition results were exhibited at Davis Orton Gallery and forty-two books are now traveling to the Griffin Museum of Photography. Karen Davis, co-director of the Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY and Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography were the jurors for Photobook 2014.

Photobook 2014, is featured in the Hall Gallery at the Griffin Museum January 8 through March 1, 2015. An opening reception with the artists takes place on January 10, 7-8:30 p.m. Magdalena Solé has a gallery talk and tour of Mississippi Delta at 4:00 PM. Brandon Thibodeaux has a gallery talk and tour of When Morning Comes at 5 PM. Bryan David Griffith has a members’ talk on his exhibition The Last Bookstores at 6:15 PM. The talks are FREE.

Best of Show photobooks were awarded to Miki Hasegawa, The Path of Million Pens; Michael Hunold, SHOOT; Linda Morrow, Calla; and Rebecca Sittler. All the Presidents’ Men. Exhibitors include: Raymond Adams, America Witnessed; Thomas Alleman, The American Apparel; Jim Baab, Instagram Photography 2011-2014; Rosie Barnes, Understanding Stanley; Karen Bell, Color Field; Karin Borghouts, The House of My Childhood Burned Down & I Took Pictures; Lilian Caruana, Rebels: Punks & Skinheads of the East Village 1984-1987; Sebastian Collett, Vanishing Point; Melissa Eder, Bushes and Balls; Andrew Fedynak, In the Light of a Fading Sun; Deena Feinberg, Morning Meditations; Paola Ferrario, 19 Pictures, 22 Recipes; Andrew Frost, The Northeast Kingdom; Preston Gannaway, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea; Richard Gaston, Lancaster City; Cathryn Griffith, Weaving Hopes & Prayers; Anne Howard, All that Remains; Jos Jansen, Seeds: On the Origin of Food Crops; Robbie Kaye, Beauty and Wisdom; Kay Kenny, Into the Night In the Middle of Nowhere; Barbara Ciurej & Lindsay Lochman, Processed Views: Surveying the Industrial Landscape; Robert Lipgar, Returning; Tom Lowe, Mojave Moonlight: A Series of Nightscapes; Bruce Morton, Forgottonia; Alex Nichols, Proof That Nothing Matters; Franc Palaia, NightLife: Shadow Paintings of Richard Hambleton; Mark Parascandola, Carabanchel; Nathan Pearce, Midwest Dirt; Jaye R. Phillips, Pulse; Don Russell, Caught on Wire; Dianne Jaquith Schaefer, Crummett Mountain Farm; Liz Steketee, Family Chronic – Samuel The Fox; Kris Vervaeke, AD Infinitum; Ira Wagner, Superior Apartments; Nicholas Whitman, Sea Shore Sky & Ice; Angilee Wilkerson, Happenings: The Wondrous Prairie; Heidi Woodman, Gold Fever; and Sebastian Zimmermann, Fifty Shrinks.

There are growing options available for self-publishing a book such as on-demand (blurb, lulu, viovio, iphoto, etc.); small run offset or web printing/publishing firms, binderies. For the competition if photobooks submitted had been hand-made/bound, they had to be available in multiples of at least 25. Entrants could submit up to three different titles that are self-published photography books of any size, format, or style: hard cover, soft cover, case-wraps, landscape, portrait, square, color, black and white.

Submissions were judged on the basis of: cover design, strength of the photography, subject matter of the book, page layouts, editing and sequencing and emotional impact of the overall book. All Submissions had to be original works of authorship created by the photographer who submitted the Submission.

“A photobook relies on the image to form visual sentences,” says Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography. “A photobook that is produced well can transport us in time and place just as any book produced with the written word.”