American Photography 21

For more than two decades, this annual review of the best of the year's photography has not only provided the most arresting, moving, and technically original images seen through a viewfinder but it has also been a valuable visual document of its time. Chosen by a jury of experienced design and editing professionals from book publishing, newspapers, magazines, advertising, and art, the winners' photographs, some 300 of them in almost 400 pages, are displayed in their best light in an elegantly designed hardcover volume. Ranging from events that shook the world to the captured moments that normally pass unnoticed to staged shots that prove the art involves more than just opening the shutter, the photographs show the infinite power of the medium to grab our attention and hold our gaze in an age of perpetual motion. You'll see some of the most famous names in the practice alongside other up-and-comers, all united by a masterly eye. As an essential source for the top talent in the field, this is a book that sits on--and is often taken off--the shelves of art directors everywhere.