Great reads

2025 has been a bumper year for books. Peter Dench selects some highlights reviewed in AP

- Peter Dench

We've featured hundreds of photography books in AP this year in the review section and as features. Narrowing it down to just a few in our annual roundup is a tricky task but one I've relished. Books matter - they're a great reminder that the publishing industry is in demand and there are many ways to get books into print. In this curation, I've tried to be diverse and yes, a bit indulgent. I've included books across a range of genres and tastes, as well as those which include contemporary photography, and others which feature historic or archival work. This year the trend among some publishers not to have a photograph on the cover continues. I was particularly struck by long form books, Regula Tschumi's dazzling in-depth take on Ghanian funerary culture. And Don McCullin's quest to have everything on the shelves before a final squeeze from the clammy hand of mortality. Over the next few pages, the books are presented in no particular order. They won't be to everyone's taste but we can all celebrate being gloriously different.

Buried in Style: Artistic Coffins and Funerary Culture in Ghana by Regula Tschumi €49,90 / $60, Kehrer Verlag, Stiff softcover, 240 pages, ISBN: 9783969001899

Buried in Style is about more than cultural comparison. It is a book that fuses anthropology with photography, turning an academic interest into an intensely personal journey, and one that saw Regula Tschumi grow from a snapper with no clue to an image-maker of subtlety, structure and deep respect.

The book is structured around five main chapters: Christian funerals, traditional funerals, coffin dancers, laying out, and the coffins themselves.

Across the 240 pages, what emerges is not just a record of ritual, but of resilience, both of the people in front of the lens and the one behind it.

Tschumi's journey is visual, academic and emotional.