Although 1999 saw no letup in the boom of exceptional photography books, this year's list of the chosen few has been scaled back to a neater, more manageable top 10 from 1998's generous top 20. (The two William Eggleston titles in the number five slot push the limit a bit, but Eggleston's deceptively simple, sublimely beautiful color pictures demand an exception.) Half of the listed books have already been reviewed in these pages, most in the course of the December 14 holiday roundup, but the criteria weren't quite so rigorous or so personal there. Gathered here side by side, however, they acquire a collective heft and meaning. Like any critical selection, they reflect one person's idiosyncratic taste, involving in this case a weakness for outsider narratives and... More >>>