Photo book! Photo-book! Photobook! is the first sustained study of the South African photobook, tracing its difficult cosmopolitan emergence during the decades of apartheid (1945–90) and remarkable currency in photographic and artistic practices of the democratic era. It explores how the photobook entered the marketplace as a self-conscious, edited and designed object aimed at an urban readership. Introduced with an expansive essay on Ernest Cole’s House of Bondage (1967) and David Goldblatt’s In Boksburg (1982), two important photobooks with enduring significance, this book further profiles 43 significant photobooks published between 1956 and 2024. These book biographies explore the overlapping histories of censorship, propaganda, activism and creative experiment that characterised their production. Drawing on two decades of research, this richly textured account celebrates the dynamic role of the photobook in South African history and visual culture.