Beautiful black and white photographs of contemporary Cuba – most shot at a level that really gets at the timeless quality of life in the nation after the US and west have left it behind! The images are from both urban and rural locations, and do a great job of getting past some of the overdone shots we always see from Havana – in part because the black and white is a nice change from the oversaturated color that's usually used to portray Cuba, and also because the mix of non-Havana locations really opens the book up with a good sense of variety. The handsome art book is hardcover, with dozens of fantastic photographs, and a small bit of text. Book

We're not normally the biggest fans of hip hop photo books, but this one really does a great job of breaking the mold – by featuring excellent photographs of live performers and their audiences by David Scheinbaum – and interspersing the images with writings by Michael Eric Dyson, Brian Hardgroove, Gaye Theresa Johnson, and others! The book's got a nicely poetic feel – and although contemporary, some of the images almost have a timeless feel that recalls the Back In The Day book by Jamel Shabazz – while others are abstractions that really change up a conventional mode of hip hop portraiture. Photos are both color and black and white, and the book is 160 pages, hardcover, and done in a very nice style by Damiani Press. Book

Photographer John Williams has a great way of capturing people in space – a quality that comes through again and again in this beautiful book of street photography from the late 60s and early 70s – partly shot in his native Sydney, but also featuring images from around the world! Williams has a style that's a bit like Garry Winogrand, although maybe slightly less whimsical – a similar eye for that right moment when a person traveling through space interacts with the environment in a special way – a moment that would have been missed by the ordinary eye, captured by a snap of the camera and preserved here in a set of stunning black and white images with a really timeless eye, and a nice degree of wit. Book is hardcover, 175 pages, and filled with black and white images. Book