Cutting up works by male photographers, impressionistic visions and tributes to lives spent chasing art through a lens, this year’s photobooks were unmissable

They were hailed as the great documentarians of their age for their intimate portraits of the north-east of England in the 70s and 80s. Now, almost 40 years after a groundbreaking exhibition, their work is being shown together again

This stark image of a family outing has an untamed quality that matches the North Yorkshire coastal village setting

A new documentary follows the 30-year cosmic quest by US space enthusiast John Shepherd. What drove him to beam messages and music, from Can to Coltrane, into space?

The photographer’s collection The Last Ships records the decline of heavy industry on the Tyne in the 1970s

Chris Killip’s landmark 1988 book, now reissued, is a moving depiction of the hopelessness of life in the north-east in the Thatcher years

The Deutsche Börse Photography prize show draws on Google, space travel and Bertolt Brecht – but one artist stands head and shoulders above the rest, writes Adrian Searle