Having just entered the world of publishing with my first photography magazine PUBLICATION, I view with interest the debate about the future of photography books and publishing initiated by Livebooks in conjunction with Andy Adams at Flak Foto. They are asking the general photography and publishing community “What will photobooks be like in the year 2019?" and asking us all to contribute to a 'crowd sourced' answer. The more interesting ideas and predictions will be gathered and linked to here. This is in its early stages by all accounts but already taking part is Adam Westbrook, Eyecurious and there are related posts by Ocular Octopus and Jorg Colberg.
So here is my modest, fairly uninformed, contribution to the discussion: My choosing this year to publish PUBLICATION was not random, I felt that we have all spent a lot of time over the last ten years seeing the massive expansion of the web as a tool for photographers to share their work, promote their practices and produce new multimedia and socialmedia ways of disseminating their photographs, Magnum in Motion and Mediastorm are good examples of organisations using this but individuals like Andrew Hetherington , Brian Ulrich and Amy Stein have all used the web very effectively as a gallery/folio and tool to communicate and promote themselves.
So why would we ever want paper books again? The publication of a book or even a magazine is an event, it can be time stamped by its publication date, registered globally by its ISBN and its essays and articles can be referenced by future writers and commentators. The edit and order of a books photographs are literally bound and they represent decisions made by the photographer or editor at the time...the published photographic book is a landmark in the cultural and historical development of photography. Take a random example like Joel Sternfeld's American Prospects, the pictures and essay by Andy Grundberg now represent a snapshot, not only of America at the time but photography at the time. A great deal has changed in America and photography since 1987 when American Prospects was first published but the book itself is a reference point, a cultural way marker.
1980's America is encapsulated in Sternfelds 'American Prospects'
This was brought home to me when I received a letter from the British Library in London requesting a copy of the first edition of PUBLICATION magazine for their archives, the first dedicated street photography magazine has now, already, two weeks after its launch, become part of that cultural history, its contributors essays and photographs have become part of the 'bound' record.
The smell of the ink This brings me inevitably on to the photographic book as object, the weight, the size, the texture, the smell of the ink, the style of the binding and the fact that its a self contained whole which you can own and keep and develop a relationship with over the years...It is a coveted artefact. “A photobook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things ‘in themselves’ and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book.” –Dutch Historian Ralph Prins Darius Himes agrees... "Books, as physical objects, are indispensable to our collective history—no electricity is required to access them—and they are indelibly printed onto our consciousness from early on. If you can show me just one five-year-old who has, instead of a favorite bedtime book, a favorite PDF, then I’ll believe that books, made of paper and ink, will disappear." "The market for the book-as-object is getting more firmly established every passing auction season. And more and more artists, not just photographers, are seeing the book as a central means of expression. Concurrently, more and more curators and galleries are seeing books as a central means of expression." Although internet blogs are extraordinary tools for sharing opinions, commentating, criticising and developing ideas like us all here, now, trying to decide 'What will photobooks be like in the year 2019?', they cannot replace the photographic book as a loved object...I read aphotoeditor.com most days but I wouldn't swap it for my copy of 'The Americans'. I think the future will see two things, a greater experimentation with the traditional printed format of photographic publishing and the development of a symbiotic relationship between the paper and digital product.
Innovating with the photo book format I can see photographers presenting their work like artists books, more limited editions, more accompanying prints or print boxes, less of an adherence to the format of the bound book with two end covers. This is something that I have tried to do with PUBLICATION magazine, producing a box that contains 22 unbound prints, like a small exhibition, and an accompanying booklet of related essays...a simillar format is used by Shane Lavalette's wonderful Lay Flat.
Lay Flat comes in 21 parts
At Paris Photo last month I bought Hans Eijkelbooms Paris-New York-Shanghai published by Aperture which is in the format of three small books, one for each city, each with hard covers, joined together to make a single large book. Whilst I found Eijkelbooms vernacular photography a bit monotonous, the format of the book was refreshingly engaging.
3 into 1, Hans Eijkelbooms Paris-New York-Shanghai
The 'Printernet' model We published PUBLICATION in a numbered edition of 2000 which means that when they are shortly all sold out the images and texts will no longer be publicly available. We plan to publish the essays on the magazines web site at some point after the edition is sold, perhaps when we publish edition #2 in May 2010. I can see the printed and digital elements of PUBLICATION complimenting each other in this way as we go forward, the printed magazine on sale for six months whilst the essays from previous editions are archived and made available online. We are also using the web site to invite submissions from street photographers around the world and if the standard is high enough we will regularly publish an edition of images contributed in this way...PUBLICATION will become a product of the interaction between its editor, its contributors, the printed product, its web presence and the people who buy, read and submit their work to it. I would suggest that photographic publishing in the future, particularly in the magazine arena, will involve this sort of two way relationship between the product and the community it serves. I look forward to reading the conclusions of other bloggers on the future of photo publishing and thank Andy Adams at Flak for inviting sevensevennine to participate. My apologies for mentioning my own magazine so frequently but the issues involved are obviously fresh in our minds at the PUBLICATION London office. One of the joys of financing and publishing your own magazine is that you don't have to adhere to any rules and you can innovate and experiment in ways that large publishers are not so free to do.
Update 14th Dec: Darius Himes, Amy Stein and Alec Soth join the discussion.
This is a function that it is difficult for a slideshow or blog on a website that is held on a server somewhere, to perform, the binary code is intangible and vanishes with the failing of a hard drive, it is not archived or easily referenced and struggles to stand as a solid cultural artifact.
Darius Himes from 'Who Cares About Books' on Words Without Pictures
Darius Himes of Radius Books interviewed on aphotoeditor
The Future of Photo books?
December 11th, 2009
6 Responses to “The Future of Photo books?”
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December 11th, 2009 - 1:43 pm
An interisting exercise, looking to the future of photobook publishing. My feeling is that photobooks are going the way of The Long Tail, and have been for a number of years already with the logistical ease of print on demand publishing.
“I would suggest that photographic publishing in the future, particularly in the magazine arena, will involve this sort of two way relationship between the product and the community it serves.”
This is absolutely not a new idea as I see it. Smaller-run magazines have nearly always had a two-way relationship between product and community – from zines to trade and arts magazines, the readers/buyers have played an enormous role in supplying content for years.
December 12th, 2009 - 1:56 am
Nick, I have recently received the first issue of Publications and I was pleasantly surprised by the format and the quality of the final product. Not only you have managed to put together one of the most interesting group of contemporary street photographers, but have produced a beautiful final product, well edited and carefully designed.
Your publication has inspired me to contribute with a few word on the Green Tea Gallery Magazine (http://greenteagallery.net/magazine/2009/12/11/the-future-of-photobooks/) to the interesting discussion about the future of photobooks. Just like you I believe in using the Internet and the variety of collaborative free tools that it offers to work on worldwide collaborations that can have beautiful printed work as final outcome.
Thank you for the interesting read.
Francesco
December 13th, 2009 - 6:32 pm
Although the web is now a total part of modern life, I feel that as more work and leisure is done ‘on screen’, so people will increasingly look for an ‘off-screen’ life. The novelty of the web will fade. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the novelty of colour TV, and VCRs! Now who cares?
So books will become, or should I say stay, as relevant as ever. Digital printing will result in photo books being of higher repro’ quality, produced more cheaply, and photographers who have published only onto the web will seek the physical presence and satisfaction of their work in a printed book.
Nick’s ‘Publication’ is a fine example of this, and also introduces a new style of ‘book’ with the printed word accompanied by small ‘exhibition’ prints. I’m sure some major publishers are already keenly looking into the Publication format to produce monographs of work.
Whilst I believe in the future of books, I also believe that Publication is an innovator which will breath some new life into photo books.
December 14th, 2009 - 6:33 pm
This is a great post, Nick. I 100% agree that we need to start recognizing the creative (and financial) power of books (or any creative endeavor) being a collaboration between author, editor, audience, and even subject. Ed Kashi wrote a great piece for RESOLVE about this: http://blog.livebooks.com/2009/09/ed-kashi-beyond-multimedia-to-create-change-storytellers-must-conquer-multiple-media-platforms/
His images are being used in college classes, then he incorporates essays written by the students into the project online, and eventually hopes to have additional letters and essays from students in the countries he documents (in this case, the Niger Delta).
One of the things that excites me most about this “revolution” we’re living through, is that it’s pushing people to rethink the idea of the lone “auteur” and instead to re-evaluate the creative power of collaboration.
December 14th, 2009 - 7:21 pm
A related debate to this appeared some time ago in one of the Parr groups on flickr.
Which has more value – a beautifully cratfed print, or a book?
For my own part, I cherish my copy of Publication. Call me old skool, but I just don’t get the same buzz from looking at pixels as I do from holding a tangible print or book.
December 16th, 2009 - 12:43 pm
I just tried to access the ‘Publication’ website with a view to ordering a copy and the whole site is down – maybe the server has run out of bandwidth after the BBC coverage?
I’m an occasional ’street’ photographer myself, although strictly an amateur – and having recently returned to B&W film after using digital I have to agree with what people have said about the buzz of holding a proper print rather than viewing mere pixels on a screen… it’s seriously addictive!