An archive of dozens of possible combinations of images with words. A toolkit for critically rethinking the history of photography. A repository of ideas under constant configuration. A mapping of contemporary artistic quests in constant interaction with local communities.

The Nomadic Library, an initiative of the MedPhoto international photography festival, is the first traveling collection of photobooks in Greece. From 2018 until today, it is granted successively to universities, cultural centers, public libraries, photography schools and groups, constituting a foundation for educational activities and for the initiation of a public dialogue on visual culture.

The study of the photobook as a work of art and its connection with photography as a framework of observation was the springboard for the formation of the collection. What arises is the dimension of the photobook as a product of collective work by creators from different fields and the shift that this marks from the individual image to the construction of meaning through broader narratives, either within each book of the Nomadic Library separately or from the correlations between the different books. Although, as David Campany observes, the photobook has been a creative practice since the days of Henry Fox Talbot and Julia Margaret Cameron, and although during the 20th century this practice featured memorable works by August Sander, Eugene Atget, Walker Evans and Robert Frank, it is the explosion of the internet at the beginning of the 21st century that made the photobook accessible to mass audiences and sparked the need for the systematic examination of its historical routes.

These routes continue to this day’s Nomadic Library and their exploration is one of the goals for further understanding the photographic phenomenon. Passing through the formalism of Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus to the deconstruction of dominant visual codes by Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall in the context of postmodern practices, the examination of social problems sometimes through a personal prism as in the case of Nan Goldin and sometimes through an orderly political stance such as that of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, the exploration of the boundaries between still and moving images in works such as Chris Marker’s, the extensive use of language in search of a critical realism by artists such as Allan Sekula, as well as the relationship of photography with the visual arts in John Baldessari, Taryn Simon or Robert Rauschenberg are just some of the aspects of this ever-growing project.

The Nomadic Library is finally an attempt to enrich the discourse around photography accompanied by translations of theoretical texts, a gesture aimed at expanding the space of the Commons and of sharing knowledge. After all, the Nomadic Library is an open invitation to approaching photography not as an aestheticized and extrahistorical object, but as a process that offers possibilities for combining cognitive elements, visual qualities and references to social reality.

1. Adams, Robert | The new west | Steidl

2. Arbus D, Friedlander L, Winogrand G | New Documents | MoMA

3. Arthur, Olivia | Stranger | Fishbar

4. Baboussis, Manolis | Possessions | Futura

5. Baldessari, John | Pure Beauty | Lacma. Delmonico, Prestel

6. Baltz, Lewis | The Prototype Works | Steidl

7. Bellocq, E.J | Storyville Portraits | MoMA

8. Becher, Bernd & Hilla | Basic Forms Grundformen | Schirmer Mosel

9. Billingham, Richard | Ray’s a Laugh | Scalo

10. Braeckmann, Dirk | Dirk Braeckmann | Koenig Books

11. Brodie, Mike | A period of juvenile prosperity | Twins Palms Publishers

12. Brohm, Joachim | Typology | MackBooks

13. Broomberg, Adam & Chanarin, Oliver | Ghetto | Trolley

14. Campany, David | The Open Road | Aperture

15. Clark, Larry | Tulsa | Grove Press books

16. Clavarino, Federico | Italia o Italia | Akina

17. Curtis Posever, Verna | Photographic Memory, The Album on the Age of Photography | Aperture

18. D’ Agata, Antoine | Antibodies | Prestel

19. D’Αgata, Antoine | Cidade de Pedra | VOID

20. Davidson, Bruce | East 100th Street | St Ann’s Press

21. Del Sarto, Giovanna | A Polaroid for a Refugee | MedPhoto

22. Di Corcia, Philip-Lorca | Hustlers | Steidl Dangin

23. Dijkstra, Rineke | Portraits | Schirmer/Mosel and D.A.P.

24. Divola, John | As far as I could get | Delmonico / Prestel

25. Eggleston, William | Los Alamos, Revisited | Steidl

26. Elkoury, Fouad | Be…Longing | Steidl

27. Engstrom, JH | Haunts | Steidl

28. Epstein, Mitch | Family Business | Steidl

29. Evans, Walker | Lyric Documentary | Hill Steidl

30. Felzmann, Lukas | Waters In Between | Lars Muller

31. Fotografie | Stadel Museum

32. Frank, Robert | The Americans | Steidl

33. Fukase, Masahisa | Ravens | MackBooks

34. Gaudlitz, Frank | A Mazo. Die Amazonen des Amazonas | Hatje Cantz

35. Ghirri, Luigi | Kodachrome | MackBooks

36. Goldblatt, David | Regarding Intersections | Steidl

37. Goldin, Nan | The ballad of sexual dependency | Aperture

38. Gossage, John | The Pond | Aperture

39. Hare, Chauncey | Protest Photographs | StedlKasher

40. Imbriaco, Alessandro | Le Jardin | Actes Sud

41. Israel, Iaakov | Legitimacy of Landscape |Kettler

42. Jude, Ron | Lago | Mack

43. Kakulya, Alban & Mingrand, Yann | East of a new Eden | Lars Muller Publishers

44. Kawauchi, Rinko | Illuminance | Aperture

45. Kertész, André | Mirror of a Life | Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

46. Killip, Chris | In flagrante 2 | Steidl

47. Koudelka, Josef | Wall | Aperture

48. Letsios, Dimitris | Journey in the Light and Shade of Greece | Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

49. Lutz, Christian | Protokoll | Lars Muller Publishers

50. Lyons, Robert and Straus, Scott | Intimate Enemy | Zone Books

51. Majoli, Alex | Libera Me | Trolley

52. Mandel, Mike & Sultan, Larry | Evidence | DAP

53. Mann, Sally |  Immediate Family | Aperture

54. Mater, Ahmed | Desert of Pharan | Lars Muller Publishers

55. Marker, Chris | La Jetée – ciné-roman | Zone Books

56. Marker, Chris | Staring Back | MIT Press

57. Meatyard, Ralph Eugene | The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater And Other Figurative Photographs | DAP

58. Meiselas, Susan | Nicaragua | Aperture

59. Mikhailov, Boris | Case History | Scalo

60. Minda, Beatrice | Iran Interrupted | Hatje Cantz

61. Mingrand, Yann | Deposit | Steidl

62. Mofokeng, Santu | The black photo album | Steidl

63. Mollica, Mimi | Terra nostra | Dewi Lewis Publishing

64. Moraki, Elisavet | Lilium | Futura

65. Mosse, Richard | Incoming | MackBooks

66. Nozolino, Paolo | Far Cry | Steidl

67. Paci, Adrian | Identity Flows: Visual Routes Across the Mediterranean Sea | Silvana

68. Papageorge, Tod | Passing through Eden | Steidl

69. Papageorge, Tod | Evans, Walker & Frank, Robert: An essay on Influence | YALE University Art Gallery

70. Parr, Martin | The non-conformists | Aperture

71. Patterson, Christian | Redheaded Peckerwood | mack

72. Petersen, Anders | Frenchkiss |Images En Manoeuvres

73. Pilos, Nikos | Trapped | MedPhoto

74. Power, Mark | The Shipping Forecast | Zelda Cheatle Press

75. Provoke | Steidl, LeBal, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Albertina, The Art Institute of Chicago

76. Rauschenberg, Christopher | Paris Changing: Revisiting Eugène Atget’s Paris | Princeton Architectural Press

77. Riley, Chris & Niven, Douglas (ed) | The Killing Fields | Twin Palms Publishers

78. Ruscha, Ed | Photographer | Steidl

79. Sander, August 1876-1964 | Taschen

80. Sanguinetti, Alessandra | The adventures o Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their dreams | Nazraeli Press

81. Schles, Ken | Invisible City | Steidl

82. Schmidt, Michael | Berlin Nach 45 | Steidl u esklidsen

83. Schorr, Collier | Neighbors | Steidl/Mack

84. Seawright, Paul | Hidden | The Imperial War Museum

85. Sejersen, Casper | Belongs to Joe | Mack

86. Sekula, Allan | Photography Against the Grain | MackBooks

87. Sherman, Cindy | Complete Untitled Film Stills | MoMA

88. Shore, Stephen | Uncommon Places | Thames & Hudson

89. Simon, Taryn | Birds of the West Indies | Hatje Cantz

90. Soulas, Dimitris | Snapshots. Photographs 1967–1974 | Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

91. Staveris, Spyros | A World without Margins | Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

92. Sternfeld, Joel | On the site | Steidl

93. Struth, Thomas | Unconscious Places | Schirmer/Mosel

94. Stylianou, Yiannis | Lucid Vision, Noble Paradox | Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

95. Tsiaras, Philip | The Supereal, 1971 – 2009 | Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

96. Wall, Jeff | The Complete Edition | Phaidon

97. Wessel, Henry | Traffic / Sunset Park / Continental Divide | Steidl

98. Van Denderen, Ad | Go No Go | Edition Braus

99. Van Der Meer, Hans | European Fields, the landscape of lower league football | Steidl

100. Van Manen, Bertien | Moonshine | MackBooks

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