Five New Photobooks Explore Communities, Trauma, and Identity Through Intimate Portraits

Five recently published photobooks offer urgent perspectives on overlooked communities and personal narratives. Greg Gulbransen's 'Say Less' documents three years with Malik, a paralyzed Crips gang leader in the Bronx, New York, following a 2018 shooting. Kyler Zeleny's 'Bury Me in the Back Forty' concludes his trilogy on his 915-person Canadian Prairies hometown, blending photos and archives to revise a 1980 history book. 'I'm So Happy You Are Here' features over 500 images by 25 Japanese women photographers from the 1950s onward, including Hara Mikiko and Katayama Mari. Adam Ferguson spent a decade surveying the Australian outback, depicting Aboriginal connections and climate impacts across 2 million square miles. Joseph Michael Lopez's 'JML NYC 02-23' compiles two decades of New York City street photography capturing transient moments. These works, highlighted by Aesthetica Magazine on August 17, 2024, use photobooks to present complex social realities through personal and community-focused lenses.