As 2013 is coming to a close, I would like to wish you a very happy new year and share with you a dozen of the top photography books I have come across during the past year.

It is not so surprising, because of the colorful style of New Yorkers, that 2 of the books I have chosen are also on the subject of New York City.

You may find my selection of books to be a bit less mainstream, and off the beaten path, but I assure you they are all gems.

Some I chose purely on the merits of their photographic beauty. Others were chosen because of the moving stories told through their photographs.

So without further adieu here they are in not any particular order. You can click on the title of each book if you like for more info.

1- Orchard Beach – The Bronx Riviera – By Wayne Lawrence. This collection of engaging and beautiful portraits by Wayne Lawrence celebrates the diversity and community of one of New York City’s most popular beaches. Orchard Beach might not be the most elegant place to sunbathe, but if you live in the Bronx, it’s the closest place to swim, relax on the sand, and escape the city’s oppressive summer heat.

2- Genesis by Sebastio Salgado. A photographic homage to our planet in its natural state “In Genesis, my camera allowed nature to speak to me. And it was my privilege to listen.” —Sebastião Salgado.

3- Before They Pass Away by Jimmy Nelson. Photographer Jimmy Nelson found the last tribesmen of the world’s most threatened communities and photographed them. Whether in Papua New Guinea or in Kazakhstan, in Ethiopia or in Siberia, these tribes are the last resorts of natural authenticity. This book forces us to watch, to understand, and to remember.

4- The Pigs by Carlos Spottorno. PIGS is a term coined by the business and financial press as a way to refer to Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain during their current financial plight. PIGS attempts to illustrate the stereotypes brought up by the term PIGS. In other words, what we would see if we were to translate into images the articles we read in the financial press. The result is a collection of clichés, both true and incomplete. In the end, what stands out the most is the glaring absence in these images of all that is positive, beautiful and promising in our countries – and that still endures.

5- Dark Knees by Mark Cohen. Mark Cohen (born 1943) is a protagonist of the street photography idiom that dominated American photography in the early 1970s. Dark Knees is a catalogue of Cohen’s photos taken in his hometown over the past 40 years. The images captured by Cohen, who rejects the use of his viewfinder in favor of holding the camera away from his body, constitute a poetical documentation of the small mining town in which he was raised, in blurry night scenes with fragments of torsos and the backs of legs.

6- Vagabond Photographer by Sergio Larrain. It was an urge to wander that led Chilean-born Sergio Larrain to become a photographer, as well as a belief that photographs could capture moments of enlightenment. Roaming from the bustling cityscapes of London and Paris to the tranquil landscapes of Machu Picchu, he left behind a brilliant body of work but spent much of his life in seclusion, practicing meditation and yoga, writing and drawing. Sergio Larrain published only four books during his lifetime, and a complete monograph of his work has never previously been put together. This book fills that space with a selection of more than 200 photographs from throughout his career, alongside a selection of letters, drawings and handwritten texts that reflect Larrain’s compassionate vision of the world.

7- Bright Nights: Photographs of Another New York by Tod Seelie. Tod Seelie loves New York, but not the version depicted in postcards. His city is an underground haven for people at society’s edges, people who come alive at night, who make music and art and noise and mess. This startlingly beautiful collection of images captures a gritty culture that belies the city’s glamorous persona. Here are punk bands and bike parades, abandoned spaces and skeezy clubs, junk-filled lots and sketchy streets. Interspersed throughout the book are texts from Seelie’s friends and fellow artists, along with an introduction by Jeff Stark, editor of the iconic alternative events e-mail list Nonsense NYC. The photographs in the book create a love poem to the city that not only doesn’t sleep—it cavorts around at 3:00 am looking for the next adventure.

8- The Grey Line by Jo Metson Scott. Portrait of a pacifist: Jo Metson Scott’s images of dissenting soldiers in Iraq. The photojournalist’s book about former soldiers – which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the invasion – shows the consequences of laying down your weapons and speaking out. The Grey Line is a thought-provoking and timely book. It is comprised mainly of colour portraits of the ex-soldiers accompanied by their own handwritten testimonies – journals, emails, letters home to loved ones. Many of the soldiers are what used to be called “conscientious objectors”, though, as Metson Scott noted at a recent talk at the Frontline Club in London, that term has all but fallen out of usage.

9- A Period of Juvenile Prosperity by Mike Brodie. Mike Brodie’s compelling body of work sprang from his journeys walking, hitchhiking and train-hopping across the United States. In 2003, Brodie was a bored 18-year-old living in Pensacola, Florida and working part time in a grocery store when he hopped the wrong train to visit a friend in Mobile – and landed several hundred miles away in Jacksonville. The journey sparked something in Brodie and, with a Polaroid SX-70 camera given to him by a friend (or found behind the seat of an abandoned car, depending which story you prefer), he began an anarchic photographic adventure, documenting the hobos, vagabonds and fellow travelers he met along the way. Later, Brodie switched to an old 1980s 35mm camera, producing thousands of snaps of his adopted itinerant family as he clocked up 50,000 miles of unticketed travel. The resulting images are raw yet beautiful, intimate and honest, the danger and the joy of the road (and the railroad) resonating throughout. To keep in touch with those who shared his journeys and experiences, Brodie uploaded the images to the internet – which earned him the nickname the ‘Polaroid Kidd’.

10- Zimbabwe — Your Wounds Will be Named Silence by Robin Hammond. The recent history of Zimbabwe has made life for many barely livable. Oppressive rule has resulted in a people living in fear and dying in silence. For four months Robin Hammond documented life under the tyrannical rule of President Robert Mugabe. He experienced the oppression firsthand when he was imprisoned for 26 days for trying to expose the extent of the Zimbabweans’ suffering. Robin had to stay one step ahead of security agents in Zimbabwe. Eventually though they caught up with him and he was imprisoned for trying to expose what the ruling party would rather keep hidden. Some of the worst days of his life followed, but they were just a small taste of what many Zimbabweans have had to live through for the last 30 years.

11 – I Only Want You To Love Me by Miles Aldridge. A major retrospective of photographer Miles Aldridge’s work that coincided with the publication of the book by the same name, published by Rizzoli. This was the largest exhibition of his work to date and included large-scale photographic prints from throughout his career including previously unpublished material as well as hand-drawn story-boards, drawings, polaroids and magazines, offering an intimate insight into Aldridge’s point of view and process. Women and colour are Aldridge’s twin obsessions. His work is filled with glamorous, beautiful women from dazed housewives and decadent beauties to sunbathing sexpots and ecstatic Virgins. Luscious colours dazzle from every image – blood red ketchup splashes against a black and white floor; a mouth drips with gold; egg yolk oozes across a plate. But the technicolour dream world of seemingly perfect women with blank expressions belies a deeper sense of disturbance and neurosis. Look more closely and there is silent screaming, a head pushed down on a bed, a face covered in polythene, a woman pushing an empty swing.

12 – Belonging by Munem Wasif. Munem Wasif is a young photographer from Bangladesh. His book Belonging is about Old Dhaka, the historic part of the country’s capital, Bangladesh. Wasif lived for some time in this area and photographed the district’s daily life. His work allows us to see the city from a personal perspective rather than through the lens of the news photographer, whose focus is often limited to the latest devastating flood or earthquake.

On a final note, I also came across an interesting site out of Belgium called Photo Digest where you can to delve into photography book reviews on an ongoing basis. They often add as many as 4-5 new photography book reviews every month.