Emmanuel Rudnitzky, aka Man Ray, has consistently been the frontrunner in terms of the number of books using his images on their covers. This may be due, in part, to the wide range of types of photography he produced. Portraits, for example; Ray was about as well-connected as anyone could be with the important artists and cultural figures of his time, and he photographed most of them. Then there are the Rayographs; his
photograms have been used for the covers of several titles. Combine that with the fashion work, negative prints, nudes, multiple exposures and still-lifes and you have enough work to cover every book in a small library. And that's not even considering his painting, sculpture, film...the list goes on. KB

Covering Photography is a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design. Read more about the project.