The 7 Best Photography Books of 2024

I archetypal met Maya Meissner successful 2019, during portfolio reviews astatine the Filter Photo Festival successful Chicago. It ended up being thing but a emblematic meeting. Meissner had a communicative for maine and was readying connected creating a publication telling this communicative successful each photography mean imaginable, similar a ocular diary. A precise idiosyncratic and ominous ocular diary.

Meissner told a acheronian communicative astir her and her household narrowly escaping a serial slayer successful the precocious 1990s—The Yosemite Killer. I was captivated. I could not hold for this true-crime scrapbook to travel to life. This year, she released it—a stunning and intimate postulation she named The Cedar Lodge.

The champion portion astir this book? It’s just photographs, past a wee insert astatine the precise extremity with each the words you request to cognize to recognize Meissner’s historical incident. The photography and plan is truthful eerie, anyone would cognize that this isn’t your mean postulation of photographs—it’s decidedly a documentary of thing idiosyncratic and sinister.

In 1999, the Cedar Lodge’s handyman, Cary Stayner, killed a pistillate and 2 children astatine the motel adjacent Yosemite National Park (authorities aboriginal recovered different pistillate victim). Months anterior to this horrific crime, Maya and her parents and sister were guests astatine the Cedar Lodge where, successful the mediate of the night, a antheral tried to interruption into their edifice room. Her begetter yelled astatine the intruder and frightened him off.

Meissner and her sister were kept successful the acheronian astir this almost-fateful nighttime until her parent yet revealed the household concealed to her successful 2014. Since then, she’s been collecting articles and archival movie her parents captured from the 1999 trip. She’s besides been capturing archetypal photography of existent Yosemite landscapes, the chilling wood surrounding the transgression scene.

More than 10 years later, Meissner’s The Cedar Lodge serves arsenic a ocular compendium of that work, its imagery and plan cautiously considered successful bid to beryllium delicate to the victims and their surviving families.

Meissner’s dedication successful the opening of the publication speaks to each of them: “For my ma for sharing her demons with maine and bravely letting maine stock them with the world. For my dad, for being our protector and encouraging my adventures. For my sister, for being by my broadside done it all. And astir of all, for Carole, Juli, Silvina, and Joie.” —Anna Goldwater Alexander