Thinking About Photography
Dedicated to expanding our ideas about photography
Photography and the PhotoBook
July 1st - September 22nd
Summer 2025
Robert Frank gave several gifts to the photography community: the love of a good road trip, and of course, the resulting photo book (The Americans). This pairing really seeped into our hearts and changed the practice of photography. Assembling a group of photographs, then sequencing and binding them into a book has become one of our most persistent forms of expression in contemporary photography. Starting in the mid 1800s with Anna Atkins’ self-printed / published Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions and Henry Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature, photo books have created a sense of intimacy with the viewer and become a unique creative force in, and of, themselves.
L. A. Zine Fest, 2025
Printed Matter's 2025 LA Art Book Fair
This past March, I went to the L.A. Zine Fest at the Broad Museum - a zine is usually a non-commercial, small-batch, handmade publication. It was so energizing to see publishing percolating energetically from the ground up. That was followed by Printed Matter's 2025 LA Art Book Fair - which as you can see was enormous and overwhelming! There’s a wonderful democracy in the explosion of both traditional and self-published photo books.
Print is not dead. It’s thriving. Analog persists because there’s a relationship we have with the physical world that just doesn’t fully translate — or satisfy — in digital spaces. During the months of COVID lockdown, when all the galleries and museums were closed, I’d shop my own bookcase and have a weekly art date with a photo book—spending time on each page and finally reading all the essays that had been there all along, just waiting for me.
What is it about photo books that makes them so enticing? Whether the book is small and intimate—something you can curl up with on the couch—or monumental like the seventy-two pound Genesis by Sebastião Salgado, the photo book is a companion piece to how the photographer sees the world.
When I found Sarah Moon's book Souvenirs Improbables it was a lifeline for me as I slogged through my undergrad photo courses, completely out of step with what was happening around me. Like all good books, a photo book gives us hope and a sense of connection with a mentor at their best…and this sustains us, letting us know we’re not alone, that our “peeps” are out there. I also like the idea that our connection to photo books echos back to childhood - with our first picture books.
This showcase starts with three independent small presses that have made the discovery of new talent an essential part of their missions - even helping to grow regional publishing. Then we have a hybrid - a partnership between a photographer and a designer, connected by their love of Polaroid and bold graphics. Next, a photographer shares their journey from project inception through running a successful Kickstarter campaign. Finally, we peek behind the curtain at PhotoBook Journal to highlight their editors and team of contributors, sharing their approach to reviewing, with links to their own work and a recent review.
Finally, you’ll find even more publishing stories and resources in this month’s Notables and my Substack newsletter—definitely worth a look.
