This is the first in a series of reports on illustrated books for the holidays. My first stop was Dashwood Books, the only independent bookseller in New York solely devoted to photography. Opened in September 2005 by David Strettell, formerly Magnum Photo's Cultural Director, the shop at 33 Bond Street has become a drop-in spot for lively discussions about image making, books and life. Here you will find books and catalogs from around the world, with a strong focus on publishers in Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan.

When I visited the other day, David and his assistant Miwa Susuda were ear-deep in book cartons, 60 of which had been delivered that afternoon. I joined the feeding frenzy as we the picked four - no, seven - well, nineteen - volumes to feature in this issue of DART.

A unanimous vote went to Paul Graham's A Shimmer of Possibility (Steidl, 2007). This "book" consists of 12 slender volumes in a large trim size, with linen covered boards in an array of luscious hues from gray to ochre to scarlet. Each volume presents a visual narrative about everyday life in America. Each volume contains from one to 60 images (with a total of 164 plates) in an arresting layout scheme that will likely change the way we think about the possibilities that books have to offer in terms of image quality and emotional punch.

Photos: Peggy Roalf

In one volume, photographs of a suburban home and its garden, its mailbox and, presumably, its owner, photographed in the spooky light of a late afternoon, recalls the time-bending 1966 Antononi film, Blow Up. In another, a black woman eats fried chicken out of a styrene container or smokes a cigarette while seated at a bus stop. The trash-littered environment speaks for the inequities Graham observed on his road trips through America. Published in an edition of 1000, some copies of this series will soon be available signed by the photographer.

The next book I picked up was Archaeology in Reverse (Nobody, 2007) by British photographer Stephen Gill. This smallish, square volume continues where Gill left off in Hackney Wick, the East London neighborhood soon to be transformed as the city begins building for the 2012 Olympic Games. Here he evokes yet-to-be-seen changes, capturing a mood of uncertainty in the landscape itself as surveyor marks show up on trees and public parks are placed off limits.

Then I grabbed Los Angeles Photographs of:Waiting, Sitting, Fishing and Some Automobiles, a collection of black and white photographs made by Anthony Hernandez between 1979 and 1983 (Loosestrife Editions, 2007). The large-format volume with photos printed as an enormous gatefolds describes a working class poor enough to ride the bus in a city defined by cars. Shooting as a street photographer, but using a 5 x 7 view camera, Hernandez reveals a Los Angeles largely invisible to outsiders. The consistency with which he gives a majestic sense of scale to banal environments, and frames each shot to create vast, artfully described spaces, is unlike Hernandez's previous or subsequent work.

Michael Abrams: A Readiness to find Strange and Singular What Surrounds Us (Loosestrife Editions, 2007). Smallish in size to suit its content - found family snapshots and quotes from texts about photography, this book of appropriated content has as its title a fragment from a text by the French deconstructionist, Michel Foucault. The editing and sequencing of image and text result in a believable narrative spoken by a single voice.

Boris Mikhailov: Suzi et Cetera (Walther Konig, 2007). David says, "Undoubtedly one of my favorite books of the year. Boris Mikhailov is probably best known for Case History (Scalo, 1999), his shocking portrayal of Soviet Russia compiled of drunken, glue-sniffing vagrants. Here he takes a lighter tone in this small elegantly designed book combining portraits of old girlfriends/models with still lifes and street scenes shot in the early eighties in the Ukraine. It is pure eccentricity coupled with his original color aesthetic."

Another book that caught the attention of everyone in the store that evening was Roe Etheridge: Rockaway, NY (Steidl, 2007). The photographer's blend of landscapes, portraits and still lifes - images shot in diverse locales - combine to create a nostalgic evocation of New York's inimitable seaside neighborhood.

As well as new titles you're not likely to find elsewhere, Dashwood Books also carries a selection of rare and limited edition books. And two book signing events are scheduled for this month: tonight, December 6, Born in the Bronxby Joe Conzo (Rizzoli, 2007), with the author plus Buddy Esquire, Afrika Bambaataa and editor Johan Kegelberg on hand. On Wednesday December 19, Philip Lorca diCorcia will sign copies of Thousand (Steidl, 2007).