The Photo-Eye best of 2011 photobook list

Crime pays. At least as far as photobook topics go. The following all made their way into the best of 2011 lists at Photo-eye bookstore. Last year, there were a lot of cars--especially smashed ones. Is this the year of CI photobooks?

Under House Arrest.
SEBASTIEN GIRARD
you'd think plants were criminals by the way we use them in domestic situations :)

Redheaded Peckerwood.
CHRISTIAN PATTERSON 
 a book about a teenage crime spree. 2nd most cited on best-of lists. A week ago you could buy it for $65, but now it's going for $300 on Amazon. How's that for criminal?


Gomorrah Girl.
VALERIO SPADA
 about a girl accidentally killed by mob violence in Italy.


A Criminal Investigation.
WATABE YUKICHI 
 crime scene photography


Believing Is Seeing.  
ERROL MORRIS 
conspiracy theories and a lot of Abu Ghraib.

Tooth for an Eye.  
DEBORAH LUSTER 
 Homicide New Orleans style


People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground.  
BROOMBERG & OLIVER CHANARIN 
 protests, acts of terrorism in Belfast, etc.


Sicarios.  
JAVIER ARCENILLAS 
 Latin American assassins 


Interrogations.  
DONALD WEBER 
"the hidden meaning of the bloody 20th century"
 
Looters.  
TIANE DOAN NA CHAMPASSAK
 Looters in the London riots

Another big trend this year: other people's photos. Whether from Google, police archives, newspaper clippings, or family albums, it seems that everyone is using other people's photos in their books. Will the trend continue in 2012 or will it be that's so 2011?

For the crime-weary, however, you'll be glad to know that the most-cited best-of 2011 book was:
Illuminance.
RINKO KAWAUCHI
What is Kawauchi's photography about? Well, the publisher quotes the following: "there is always some glimmer of hope and humanity, some sense of wonder at work in the rendering of the intimate and fragile."
Hope? Humanity? A sense of wonder? 
How nice to know that in the year of CI photobooks, hope is still alive.