There was a time when photographs seemed destined for permanence. They appeared in newspapers and magazines, settled into albums, and eventually found their way into books or archives. Images moved slowly through the world. A photograph made in one decade might resurface in another, carrying with it the faint residue of earlier contexts.
Today photographs travel differently. They circulate instantly across digital platforms, visible for a moment before dissolving into the next image. Billions of photographs are produced each day, yet very few remain in view long enough to acquire memory. The photograph has not lost its power, but its duration has shortened. It exists increasingly in the present tense.
Against this accelerating landscape, the photobook has taken on renewed significance. The book slows photography down. It gathers images into sequences that unfold across pages, allowing photographs to interact through rhythm, juxtaposition, and pause. A photobook does not simply present pictures; it constructs a visual narrative shaped by editing, pacing, and design.
This slower form of looking lies at the centre of the 2026 Australian & New Zealand Photobook Awards, organised by Photo Collective. The winners will be announced during the MEL Photobook Fair, held on 21–22 March 2026 at Balam Balam Place in Merri-bek, Naarm/Melbourne, where all shortlisted books will be exhibited. Visitors will encounter the works as physical objects—volumes to be opened, handled, and experienced through the deliberate act of turning pages.
In a culture of endless images, the photobook restores the photograph to time.
A Legacy Continued
The Australian & New Zealand Photobook Awards first appeared in 2011, when the Sydney-based print studio Momento Pro established the program to support photographers working in book form. At a moment when photobook culture was expanding internationally, the award helped draw attention to a growing community of photographers across Australia and New Zealand who were exploring the possibilities of the medium.
Over the following decade the awards became a focal point for the region’s photobook community. They recognised works that approached the book not simply as a container for images but as a medium capable of shaping meaning through editing, sequencing, typography, and material form.
When Momento Pro closed in 2024, the future of the award was uncertain. Rather than disappearing, it found a new custodian. Photo Collective, a Melbourne-based organisation devoted to photographic culture, assumed stewardship of the program, continuing the award while building new collaborations within the photobook community.
Each edition is now presented in partnership with another organisation. The 2026 awards are produced in collaboration with Tall Poppy Press, an independent publisher known for supporting artist-led photobook projects.
The arrangement reflects the way photobook culture often develops: through small networks of photographers, designers, printers, and publishers working together to sustain the form.
Stories in Sequence
The Photobook category recognises completed publications, and the 2026 shortlist brings together books by photographers working across Australia and New Zealand.
Among the shortlisted artists is Jesse Marlow, whose book Decompositions continues a practice that has made him one of Australia’s most recognisable contemporary photographers. Over several decades Marlow has developed a distinctive visual language grounded in observation of everyday life.
Another significant presence is Juno Gemes, whose book Until Justice Comes appears on the shortlist. Gemes is widely recognised for her long engagement with documentary photography in Australia and for her role in recording important social and cultural movements.
Michael Cook is represented with Conditioned. Cook’s work has been widely exhibited internationally and is known for its conceptual approach to photography.
The shortlist also includes Odette England with The Long Shadow. England’s work has received international attention through exhibitions and photobook projects that explore photography and memory.
Ying Ang appears on the shortlist with Fruiting Bodies. Ang’s photographic practice has been exhibited widely and reflects a sustained engagement with photographic storytelling.
Phuong Ngo’s book Inheritance is also among the shortlisted works. Ngo’s practice frequently explores questions of cultural identity and history through photography and installation.
The remaining shortlisted books reflect the breadth of approaches currently shaping photobook practice across the region. The selection includes Reproduction by Janina Green, Farmer Photographer by Leslie Adkin, Through My Child’s Eyes by Lisa Murray, Skimpies by m ellen burns, Real Football by Nick Bannehr, New Folk by Poppy Lekner, Small Museum by Simone Rosenbauer, and Scanning the Horizon by Yu Ying Chuang.
Taken together, the shortlist reflects the range of approaches photographers are bringing to the photobook today. Some projects emerge from documentary traditions, others from conceptual or personal practices, yet all treat the book itself as an essential part of the photographic work.
Shortlisted photobooks for the Pre-Press / Digital category
Books Before They Exist
Alongside completed publications, the awards also recognise projects still in development. The Pre-Press / Digital category honours photobook dummies—books that exist as prototypes before final publication.
Within photobook culture the dummy plays a crucial role. Photographers often construct provisional versions of their books in order to test sequencing, pacing, and visual relationships between images before committing to print.
The shortlisted projects include works by Clem McNabb, Cody Wood, Fletcher Aldous, Garrie Maguire, Jacob Canet-Gibson, Lauren Bessey, Sarah Pannell, Una Hunderi, and Zac Tomaszewski.
The winner of this category receives mentorship and production support from Tall Poppy Press, offering practical guidance on editing, printing, and publishing. In this way the award functions not only as recognition but also as a means of helping new photobooks come into existence.
Emerging Voices
The awards also recognise emerging photographers through a Student Photobook / Pre-Press category, which highlights projects produced within photography programs.
The shortlisted works include Infinite Wisdom by Matthew Lewis, Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself and me,us by Michaela Ottone, Rồi một ngày con sẽ mất — Someday I Will Lose You by Minh An Pham, and Unexperienced Memories by Tye Wilson.
These projects point toward the growing role of the photobook within photographic education. Many photography programs now encourage students to think in sequences rather than individual images, developing projects that unfold across pages.
The result is a generation of photographers who approach the medium through the structure of the book.
A Slower Way of Seeing
The 2026 awards are overseen by a committee composed of Kyle Archie Knight, Pia Johnson, Matt Dunne, Harriet Tarbuck, and Angus Scott, whose practices span publishing, curatorial work, and photographic education.
Yet beyond the mechanics of judging, the awards point toward something larger. At a moment when photography appears more abundant—and more fleeting—than ever before, the photobook offers a different experience of images.
A book cannot be scrolled past. It must be opened, held, and read. Images accumulate meaning through sequence, through proximity, through the quiet act of turning a page.
And at the MEL Photobook Fair this March, those books will gather once again—objects of paper and ink in a restless visual world, waiting to be opened.
