PHotoESPAÑA announces the winners of its Best Photography Book of the Year Awards
2026/07/28
PHotoESPAÑA recognizes the work of photographers, galleries, publishers, and artists through an awards program that highlights the quality, commitment, and originality of the projects awarded in this edition, thus reinforcing the festival's commitment to the publishing industry and cultural dissemination. This year, the jury for the Best Photography Book Awards, composed of Paco Gómez (photographer and writer), Laura SanSegundo (visual artist and photographer), and Dieter Neubert (founder and director of the Kassel Fotobookfestival), emphasized the exceptionally high level of the submissions received, demonstrating a consolidated and essential artistic format in the current landscape.
In the First Publication category, the winning book was Changing Room by Chiara Calgaro (Altana), a volume that explores gender identity through football. The author begins her journey with the team she plays for, a self-managed collective made up of women, trans, and non-binary people, and continues with a trip across Europe in search of other queer teams. In the Creation category, the award went to FASHION (GOST Books) by Mark Power, who, over 27 years and in 23 countries, photographed production spaces such as construction sites, quarries, shipyards, and recycling plants; images devoid of captions that, removed from their commercial context, acquire a poetic and elusive character.
In the Bibliophilia category, the winning photobook was Arimotz, by Javier Landeras (self-published by Haru Asaki), an artistic interpretation of the "Arimotxes" forest reserve in Munain-Okariz (Álava). It transcends the classic concept of a photobook, becoming an aesthetically rich object connected to the anthropology and sociology of the landscape. Meanwhile, in the Research category, the award went to Del éxodo y del viento (Of Exodus and the Wind), by Juan Valbuena (published by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory). This work uses everyday objects, family albums, and institutional archives to rescue from oblivion the exile of thousands of people who, after the Spanish Civil War, were forced to seek refuge in the Maghreb.
In addition, this edition dedicates a Special Mention to Only Barely Still – On Woman and Wilderness, by Catherine Lemblé (published by The Eriskay Connection). Focusing on the Svalbard archipelago, the work raises a discreet but powerful counter-narrative to the Western imaginary that has historically portrayed the polar landscape from a masculinized perspective, placing the gaze of women at the center using contemporary material, archival images from the Norwegian Polar Institute, and an essay by Abi Andrews.
All information about the awards and the program can be found on the official PHotoESPAÑA website.