In 2014, photobook collecting continued to thrive with even more photographers than ever breaking traditional formats and leveling the hierarchy of traditional publishing platforms by taking on all aspects of controlling and presenting their own work via self publishing.

This was made even more evident when many of TIME’s editors selected the same books for this list, leading to the decision of highlighting, in addition to the 26 books presented here, one book that we felt stood out amongst the rest: Peter van Agtmael’s Disco Night September 11, which, not only, is an incisive and searing look at the state of America, still caught in maelstroms of war and its aftershocks, but also a distinctly original presentation of documentary work.

Van Agtmael self-published Disco Night September 11, like many of his contemporaries featured here, some of whom turned to crowd-funding platforms such as Kickstarter to set new records for…