Winners of the Best Photography Book Award and the Best Moving Image Book Award were announced by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation at the Sony World Photography Awards at the Odeon Leicester Square on Wednesday, 27 April 2011. A new award for Outstanding Contribution to publishing was presented to German publisher Gerhard Steidl by last year’s Best Photography Book Award winner, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky.

• Best Moving Image Book
  Disappearing Tricks: Silent Film, Houdini, and the New Magic of the 20th Century, Matthew Solomon (University of Illinois Press)
• Best Photography Book TJ: Johannesburg Photographs 1948-2010, David Goldblatt / Double Negative: A Novel, Ivan Vladislaviċ (Contrasto)

• Outstanding Contribution to Publishing – Gerhard Steidl (Steidl)

Kraszna-Krausz Best Moving Image Book Award
Disappearing Tricks revisits the golden age of theatrical magic and silent film to reveal how professional magicians shaped the early history of cinema. While others have called upon magic as an evocative metaphor for the wonders of cinema, Matthew Solomon focuses on the work of the professional illusionists who actually made magic with moving pictures between 1895 and 1929, including Harry Houdini and Georges Méliès.

Judges Hugh Hudson (Chair), Peter Bradshaw and Sir Christopher Frayling commented: “A fascinating enquiry into the early history of film, especially as it involved magicians and magic tricks. Matthew Solomon explores spiritualism and suspension of disbelief in a compelling investigation of the integration of cinema into mainstream entertainment.”

Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards Exhibition, 26 April – 22 May
An exhibition of highly recommended books from each award, curated by the judging panels, is on display at Somerset House for the duration of the World Photography Festival and Exhibition from 26 April – 22 May.

For further details, visit: www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk/andor-book-awards/