From the solitude experienced in busy metropolises and the experience of moving within a crowd, to the pioneering works of Sanlé Sory and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, these news books consider the figures and questions that define contemporary art. Mesmerising scenes meet street photography and fashion shoots, revealing the scope of the camera to tell meaningful stories. These five photobooks, each set to be released this autumn, each tell their own narrative about our current moment. 

Crowds brings together Wolfgang Zurborn’s photographic archive from the 1980s and 1990s. At the heart of this book is the human figure – embedded in social structures, shaped by collective dynamics and permeated by media influence. Zurborn’s gaze resists straightforward interpretation: his subjects neither dissolve into anonymity nor stand apart as isolated individuals. Instead, Crowds reveals a dense web of relationships, affiliations, and tensions. These nuanced colour photographs reveal complex constellations of people in diverse groupings, inviting reflection on what it means to live a self-determined life.

“A fashion designer can be a mirror or a prophet,” explains fashion critic and writer Rachel Tashjian in the introduction to Jean-Charles de Castelbajac aka JC/DC. “They can show reality or imagine the future. Castelbajac is one of the few designers who can do both: here is the best of how the world is, and, if we believe in ourselves, the world that is to come.” This book is the definitive monograph of the pioneering French designer, who rewrote the rulebook in the 1970s. From teddy-bear coats to two-person ponchos and leather modelled after tree bark, he always explored fashion’s playful and experimental possibilities. 

As global cities grapple with rising urban isolation, London-based photographer Mark Fearnley offers a profound visual commentary in his new monograph, The Art of Solitude. A former painter, Fearnley uses geometry, light and shadow to explores a striking paradox: the more densely populated a city becomes, the higher the rates of loneliness. The artist captures this by framing solitary, anonymous figures against vast architectural landscapes. Yet rather than simply documenting melancholy, the project transforms everyday spaces into narratives that invite us to rediscover connection and hope within the built environment. 

Volta Colour explores the shift from black and white to colour photography through the work of one of West Africa’s most prolific photographers. Over many years, Sanlé Sory took more than a million pictures showing how his community changed. When asked why he switched to colour in the 1980s, he said: “When you are in a place where everybody dances, you have to try to dance like everybody else!“ In Sory’s studio, clients chose their clothes, hairstyles and poses with care. These photographs are about more than fashion. They show pride, confidence and hope. They capture people building new lives in a changing country.  

Nicolas Rachline, a French-born, Belgium-based artist shifted away from a career in advertising and editing to focus on his photography just over 10 years ago and this is the first monograph dedicated to his practice. Elsebound is full of visually striking imagery, recalling classic film noir style with chiaroscuro effects and deep shadows. His dreamlike and mysterious scenes in cities like Paris and New York are eerily familiar yet uncanny. Deserted streets glow with pale light, anonymous isolated shadowy figures linger at crossroads, and landscapes shimmer somewhere between the ordinary and the surreal.

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Words: Emma Jacob

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Image Credits:

1. Photo: Mark Fearnley, The Art Of Solitude, teNeues 2026.
2. Paris, 1989 © Wolfgang Zurborn.
3. First concept store, 31 Place du Marché Saint Honoré, Paris (France), 1976 – Photo Jean-Claude Sauer, Paris Match via Getty Images.
4. Photo: Mark Fearnley, The Art Of Solitude, teNeues 2026.
5. © Sanlé Sory
6. Elsebound by Nicolas Rachline, Rizzoli New York, 2026.