It’s that time of year again when the hammock and pool lounger beckon. Unsurprisingly, summer is the season when many of us find ourselves with our noses constantly in a book. If you’re longing for something particularly immersive through the long, hot days, photo books are an ideal way of entering new worlds and letting time and obligations slip away. We’ve rounded up ten lip-smacking titles that will keep you hooked all sun-soaked summer long.

LIN ZHIPENG (AKA NO.223), LA LIBERTÉ OU L’AMOUR

If you’re after something filled with both lust and wanderlust, Lin Zhipeng’s latest will tick your boxes. La Liberté ou L’Amour contains everything we have come to love about the Chinese photographer (who also goes by No.223), yet also offers a wholly new and exciting way of experiencing his work. Published to mark Zhipeng’s 20th year as a photographer, it consists of ten booklets, each loosely exploring a different theme or aspect, inviting the reader to rearrange and, in turn, rediscover Zhipeng’s candy-hued world, which often crosses over to magical realism. Together, they amount to a powerful expression of love in all its colours and freedom in all its forms. 

Published by Kinakaal Forlag, and available here.

MASAHISA FUKASE, YOKO

Republished for the first time in nearly half a century, this elegantly reimagined edition of Masahisa Fukase’s classic book will have you hitting the heart button. It collects photographs the Japanese photographer took of his great love, Yoko, through their turbulent 13-year relationship. The design is fresh and contemporary, drawing out new resonances in the photographs, even years after Fukase pressed the shutter on them. Here’s to one of the greatest love stories in photography, heart-lifting and ultimately heart-breaking.

Published by Akaaka, and available here.

SOFIA COPPOLA, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

Cracking open Sofia Coppola’s first book from her imprint Important Flowers is like entering a dream of a dream. The film director has edited the on-set shots British fashion photographer Corrine Day took during the filming of her film The Virgin Suicides in the summer of ‘99, and the result is every bit as beautiful and lyrical as on screen. Day’s takes lend precious insights into the dynamics between the actresses and the film’s costume designs, not to mention its complex atmosphere of adolescence and girlhood. Kitted out with texts by Coppola and Jeffrey Eugenides, the author of the novel from which the film was adapted, this book is a must-have for any Coppola fan and contains enough aesthetics to fuel you for the rest of the summer.

Published by MACK, and available here.

MALICK SIDIBÉ, PAINTED FRAMES

Publisher Loose Joints has knocked it out of the park with this Malick Sidibé book. The textured softcover contains many never-before-seen images by the late Malian star, for which he joined forces with local framers and artisans using the West African tradition of reverse-glass painting. Pictured in Sidibé’s studio, dance clubs and wedding halls, these subjects come together to form a new look, post-independence Bamako, with a diasporic identity that is exuberant and joyful. Sidibé’s spirit of improvisation, collaboration and liberation is a cause of celebration.

Published by Loose Joints, and available here.

YUSUKE YAMATANI, REVUE DIAPO #4

If there’s one book that will make you want to get up and go this summer, it’s this one. Yusuke Yamatani has spent years documenting the wild hot springs of Japan, conveying a community spirit that is akin to that of the skate and punk subcultures he has previously photographed. Cleverly designed by Paris-based studio Rimasùu, the third book in the photographer’s ongoing Onsen work features 35 images and nine positive film slides, concocting an unbelievably immersive, trance-like viewing experience. Yamatani’s vision is somewhere between science and fiction, ancient and today. He reminds us there’s a wildness to life.

Published by Revue Diapo, and available here.

DAIDO MORIYAMA, QUARTET

It goes without saying, but any summer stack wouldn’t feel complete without a Daido Moriyama. Although this Thames & Hudson-published tome is not beach appropriate, it’s damn fine and will certainly up your coffee table game this season. Contained within a sexy green slipcase, Quartet anthologises four foundational books that demonstrate the evolution of Moriyama’s visual language through the early stages of his career – from Japan, A Photo Theatre to Light and Shadow – alongside excerpts from his diaries and journals. It’s riveting stuff as you’d expect. A true avant-garde, radical then, radical now.

Published by Thames & Hudson, and available in September.

ROE ETHRIDGE, SHELLS

Seemingly washed up straight off the Atlantic coast is Roe Ethridge’s love letter to seashells. It spans the American photographer’s art-slash-commercial ventures, turning his boyhood memories into a collective experience of unexplainable strangeness, which is also weirdly seductive. It’s indeed hard to pinpoint exactly what’s bubbling beneath these images, but that’s also why they will keep your eyes more glued to the page than the lifeguard on duty. All in all, it’s fun company, and one of those books you’ll want to carry around with you and get all sandy, wet and dog-eared.

Published by Note Note Editions, and available here.

ANTONIS THEODORIDIS, LOST THINGS FOUND

Admittedly, there are few greater pleasures than a flea market trawl on holiday, and this entertaining, spiral-bound title by Antonis Theodoridis really gets you in the mood to rummage. Out via Greek bookshop and publisher Hyper Hypo, it’s jam-packed with super-saturated, sun-drenched phone pictures documenting the crazy Eleonas market in Athens. You truly have no idea what awaits you on the next page, from junk to treasure (literally!). Talk about a feast for the senses!

Published by Hyper Hypo, and available here.

PHYLLIS MA, MUSHROOMS & FRIENDS #4

Just launched is Phyllis Ma’s fourth issue in her Mushrooms and Friends zine series, which takes us into the magical land of fungi and pictures them in stunning still life. This issue is specifically dedicated to the kidney-shaped Ganoderma life form, which has a long history in Chinese art and medicine, as explained in the accompanying text (what can’t mushrooms do?!). Ma’s vibrant use of colour shows us that encounters with the unknown can be fun and even transformative, be it in the forest or on the page. 

Self-published by Phyllis Ma, and available here.

RINKO KAWAUCHI, M/E

A quest for beauty in a book from beginning to end, Rinko Kawauchi’s latest is a personal meditation on Mother Earth. It interweaves shots of Iceland’s volcanic landscapes with small, nothing-special scenes at home in Japan, resulting in a mesmerising dialogue between “now” and the artist’s memories. There are no bells and whistles here, just great photographs, which seem to slow the passage of time. Taking us to the very edge of the everyday, Kawauchi weaves a vision that is unfathomably dreamy, and a reality that is always out of reach. But we wouldn’t have it any other way. Kawauchi: please make books forever.

Published by Torch Press and Delpire & Co, and available here.