The volume deals in detail with thirty photobooks, illustrated with numerous photographs, and offers an overview of some one hundred others in the in- troductory text. It constitutes a new and surprising chapter in the new history of photography being written in recent years through the rediscovery of the photobook.
One of the subjects addressed in Photobooks: Spain 1905-1997 is propagan- da, especially in the photobooks produced on both sides during the Spanish Civil War. Also of special interest are some of the books published in the 1970s, toward the end of the Franco years.
Finally, several of the photobooks studied here reflect the social transforma- tions that took place in Spain during the twentieth century, including subjects such as traditional trades, métiers, and rituals, the role of women, and the re- lations between rural and urban Spain.
Horacio Fernández is also the author of FotografÃa pública (1999) and The Latin American Photobook (2011).
