PHOTOBOOK 2015 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 sixth year. The competition results were exhibited at Davis Orton Gallery and thirty-four 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 2015.

Photobook 2015, is featured in the galleries at the Griffin Museum January 14 through March 6, 2016. An opening reception takes place on January 14, 7-8:30 p.m. Yorgos Efthymiadis has a members’ talk on his exhibition Domesticated: Seeing Past Seduction at 6:15 PM. The talk is FREE.

Best of Show photobooks were awarded to Mara Catalan – Williamsburg: A Place I Once Call Home, Anna Leigh Clem – Grounded, Keron Psillas – Loss And Beauty, and Andi Schreiber – Drift. Exhibitors include: Eldar Akbarov – Déjà vu, William Ash – Earth Water Fire Wind Emptiness: Tokyo Landscapes, Leslie Hall Brown – Through The Garden Of Childhood, Karen Bucher – Shadow Run, Mike Callaghan – Com (Me N Cement Notes),
 
 David Curtis – In The Moment: City Spaces, City Faces,
 Mark Diamond – Limitless World, Mario Digirolamo – Visione,
 Melissa Eder – Sunshine Daydream (Dedicated To Jerry Garcia), Michael B. Endy – Lost Highway: A Photographic Hymn To New Jersey, Jeff Evans – What’s Wrong With This Picture, Bill Gore – SWIPE, 
Paul Hockett – Negative Memory, Michael Hunold – The Stone Room,

 Jaclyn Kain – Postcard Stories, Sachiko Kawanabe – Sononite, Ken Konchel – Architectonic, 
Jack La Forte – The Lost Glove Series, Liza Macrae – Together In A Sudden Strangeness, GE Mckerrihan – Hearing Shadows Call, 
Linda Morrow – A Celebration Of Plums, Michael Nelson – Photos From Cuba, Cynthia O’Dell – 0-6, 
Nick Pedersen – Sumeru,
 Jaye R. Phillips – Into The Dark Of Night,
 Gilbert Rios – Look/See, 
Don Russell – Cowboys Of Color, Dan R Talley – Yesterday’s Coffee, Tomorrow’s Eggs, Andrew MK Warren – Some Pictures, and
 Rosemarie Zens – Carousel Of Time.

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.”