THE FOUNDATION LIBRARY

Our collection of over 5000 photobooks has been carefully curated by Martin Parr. While the library is primarily dedicated to works from Britain and Ireland, it also contains some of the best photobooks from around the world. Our tailor-made electronic catalogue of the collection makes searching the stacks simple.

The library is open one day a week, with priority booking available to members of the Foundation. Contact us at [email protected] to book either an early (10-1pm) or late (2-5pm) session:

Thu 21 Mar
Thu 28 Mar

Fri 5th Apr
Tue 9th Apr
Fri 19th Apr
Tue 23rd Apr
Mon 29th Apr

NEW ARRIVALS…

HANDBAGS

Juergen Teller’s ode to our ‘nice, silent companions’.

AJAMU: ARCHIVE

A celebration of love, sex, intimacy and kink by Ajamu X.

THIS TRAIN

Justine Kurland and her son chasing trains across America.

MODE

Iconic album covers and their stories, by Brian Griffin.

A LENS ON GENDER AND ECOLOGY

This companion to the Barbican exhibition explores the connections between environmental and gender justice.

SHINING LIGHTS (ED. JOY GREGORY)

An anthology of groundbreaking Black Women photographers working in the UK during the 80-90s.

WIDE ANGLE VIEW (ED. VALERIA CARULLO)

Collected photography from the iconic Manplan Series which explored architecture as social space, 1969-70.

WOMEN IN REVOLT! 1970-90

A celebration of over 100 women artists engaged with second wave feminism.

The UK Miners' Strike

A visual record of the strike in 1984-85, curated by design guru Craig Oldham.

Seven Hills

Our very own Chris Hoare, with a golden-lit meditation on Bristol + short story by Moses McKenzie.

Mountain of Salt

A dizzying cascade of public declarations (on lockdown, BLM & Brexit) interspersed with found images, by Bindi Vora.

Coming and Going

Jim Goldberg’s masterwork, a personal record of two decades, spanning birth, death, divorce and new love.

Monument

Trent Parke bears witness to Sydney streets, extinguished moths, and (ultimately) the disintegration of the universe.

Kiss it!

Abbie Trayler-Smith’s 12 year collaboration with Shannon, a young woman living with obesity.

Japanese Photography Magazines

Ivan Vartanian’s 100-year history, running up to the 1980s.

The Artist's Books

A collection including every page of all eight of Francesca Woodman’s unique books.

As It Was Give(n) To Me

A twelve year opus to Appalachia by Stacy Kranitz.

Flags For Countries That Don't Exist...

A ‘love letter’, subverting the traditional markers of an exclusionary nationhood, by Rene Matić.

Folly

Jamie Murray’s debut, inspired by conversations with the previously incarcerated.

Sorry I Gave Birth...

Andi Galdi Vinko ‘hoping the years I’ve lost mothering can be written into my CV without guilt or shame.’

Glad Tidings of Benevolence

Moises Saman’s photographs taken in Iraq during and after the US-led invasion.

The Dynamic

A celebration of the most distinctive local newspaper in Wales – by Sébastian Bruno.

The Island

A beautifully melancholic response to Brexit by Robert Darch.

American Mirror

Philip Montgomery’s dramatic chronicle of the past decade.

Subida Al Cielo

‘Ascent to Heaven’ features five bodies of work by Bristol-based Galician, Lúa Ribeira.

House of Bondage

A reissue of Ernest Cole’s iconic work, including previously unseen images.

Delegation

Wendy Red Star’s photography recasts historical narratives from a feminist, Indigenous perspective.

Koudelka Ikonar

A survey of the great photographer, exploring his personal archive of 30,000 contact sheets.

Snatch Out of Time

Originally conceived a decade ago as a companion volume to Men and Women. Now published by Super Labo.

Overpass

Sam Contis photographs stiles, with an essay by Daisy Hildyard.

Louder Than Words

Jill Posener’s second book on protest grafitti, originally published in 1986.

The Alec Gill Hessle Road photo archive

A celebration of a fishing community in Kingston upon Hull.

Don't Call Me Urban!

Simon Wheatley’s 2010 publication on the history of the Grime scene in noughties London.

Battered

Photographer Harri Pälviranta shows the banality of street violence in Finland.

Girl Pictures

Portraits of teenage girls at play in bucolic landscapes, by Justine Kurland.

Utatane

Rinko Kawauchi’s debut photobook is still as powerful over two decades later.

HAFIZ

Sabiha Çimen won the Paris Photo First Book Award with this depiction of students at several girls-only Qur’an schools throughout Turkey.

M/E On this sphere Endlessly interlinking

The exhibition catalogue accompanying Rinko Kawauchi’s 2022 show at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery.

Year 3

A snapshot of a generation, a cross-section of a particular time and place – but also, according to Steve McQueen, a Trogan horse.

Acid House as it Happened

Dave Swindells’ appropriately kaleidoscopic record of one nation under a groove.

Looking for Signs

Peter Finnemore’s ‘meditation on the universal conventions, democratic versatility and proliferation of the photographic medium itself’.

Home is Not a Place

Poet Roger Robinson and photographer Johny Pitts’ road trip in search of Black Britain.

Beauty Papers

Harley Weir’s new book about the allure of plastic surgery and changing beauty standards.

The Book of Everything

Over 600 career-spanning images by the late photographer Mary Ellen Mark – edited by her partner.

Twin Lens Reflex

The Portrait Photographs of Bandele “Tex” Ajetunmobi and Harry Jacobs – depicting post-war Black Britain.

Auto fictions

A definitive record of 20 years of photography and film by Trish Morrissey.

Scumb Manifesto

Justine Kurland cut up 150 books by old white men and made something beautiful.

The Arnolfini Works 1984

A previously unpublished selection of stunning photographs from Peter Fraser’s exhibition (alongside William Eggleston) in Bristol.

Big Fence / Pitcairn Island

The result of Rhiannon Adam’s 96 day stay on the island; a tome on the dangers of romanticism.

White Shoes

Nona Faustine’s confrontational / hopeful self portraits, taken on sites of historic slave trade activity.

Years of Iron

Yan Morvan’s record of London 1979 / 1981, taking in punks, mods, a royal wedding and much more.

Passport

Shortlisted for the Arles Author Book Award 2017, Alexander Chekmenev’s photographs of Luhansk elders.

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