Last Updated on 11/13/2025 by Chris Gampat
Take a Picture, It Will Last Longer by Brooke DiDonato is more than just a photo book. It’s an experience equivalent to receiving a Leica camera and realizing that the product was packaged to provide a similar experience to receiving a gift. Trust me, I’d know. I’ve unwrapped plenty of Leica cameras — and Brooke’s book is the closest experience I’ve ever had to owning a Leica camera in my life, and for a far more affordable price point. During the unwrapping process, I tell myself that it’s the only photo book that I’ll ever keep the box for. And after that, I need to take a break. At nearly 39 years old, I’ve realized through therapy that it’s because I’ve got kid-like excitement popping up, and that society has told me for years to just suppress it. My office has a signed Mark Seliger book, rare Todd Hido prints, and a Banksy, amongst many others. But nothing has given me this much excitement. In a world where I review many cameras, this book feels even more special than that.
Before I go on, I’m going to make a statement. I am biased in a different way than Aperture’s absolutely questionable photo book award choices are. First off, I lean more towards photography that can’t be easily duplicated by AI because I feel like this is strongly going to be the future of art photography. Next, I am very, very good friends with Brooke Didonato to the point where I have zero shame admitting that after not seeing her for years, I shed a tear when we finally embraced for a very long hug.
After getting through the box, I carefully place it to the side and choose a dull knife to get through the plastic cover on the outside. I’m breathing with excitement that’s quite heavy as I do this. I maneuver the book around to get the plastic off, only to realize that the actual book is about to slip out of a case of some sort. I react very quickly and stop it from coming out. This year, I’ve been teetering between being legally blind and having super-sensitive vision after the effects of eye surgery last year. If I had my special contact lenses in, I wouldn’t have been able to catch the book because my mind would be too slow to process what happened. But my glasses are on, and so I catch the book and my heart as I let out a gasp.
Inside the book, there are many of my favorite images as well as some that I’ve never seen before. A few are split between pages, and I’ll never understand why book publishers insist on doing this. Several images have their own, well-deserved page. And throughout the book, you’ll find various metaphors for life. This is an inherent part of Brooke’s incredibly playful persona.
Brooke is a surrealist photographer whom I’ve followed and kept in touch with for a good portion of my career. When we met, she was being nominated for a major PDN 30 Under 30 award, was training to run a marathon, and was enjoying spreading her wings. I, in contrast, had lost my fiancé, was leaving my day job, and was balancing a world where I ran the Phoblographer while freelancing as a photographer and a writer for both the men’s lifestyle and photography worlds. As friends, we came into each other’s lives at times when we were both learning to soar.
Stories like this are rare, as we’ve both established quite a bit of esteem in our photography careers.
I’ve always personally believed that surrealist photography will need to be our future. But I realized this a while ago because it had long occurred to me that if everyone has a camera in their pocket, then everyone can be a photographer. Being a photographic artist, rather than a Photoshop artist, is a different story. Brooke is the former.
I admit that I need to take a longer, slower look through this book, and that due to reviewing this before the holidays, I feel rushed. But I will absolutely do so at another time — especially because towards the end of the book is a real treat. You get to see the BTS of how Brooke actually pulled off many of the photos and realize that it’s really not all just Photoshop. She makes her own sets.
And in a world where I’m peppered by influencers and content creators who try to pass of being photographers and experts on the matter, Brooke’s book feels like I’m coming home to real photography again.
