Anywhere but here by Alex McTigue. www.alexmctigue.com.
25 Jun 2010
Self Publish, Be Smart
DIY photobooks are the way to go...
Simon Bainbridge
Tags:
Publishers, Art, BusinessThere's a lot of interest around self-published photobooks right now.
In last month's issue (June) we brought you news of a new inititaive, Self Publish Be Happy, and it's first event at The Photographers' Gallery, featuring more than 60 photobooks, including works by well knowns such as Stephen Gill, and less knowns like Alex McTigue (whose Anywhere but here is pictured above).
And in July's issue we have a small story on British photographer Nick Turpin's new venture as a publisher.
He's one of a number of photographers who have gone beyond merely putting out their own work and have now set up mini publishing companies to promote the wotk of others.
Perhaps the best known example is Alec Soth and his Little Brown Musroom imprint. And the success of his first major venture with LBM, publishing the work of fellow Magnum photographer Trent Parke – Bedknobs & Broomsticks – goes to show that if you have the name, and you're web-savy, you really don't need traditional publishers any more.
The book went on sale earlier this week, and it's sold out already, according to Soth.
Not that Soth is abandoning traditional publishers altogether – and they don't come much more traditional that Gerhard Steidl. And I mean that in the best possible sense.
(You can read a profile of the publisher from our March issue here.)
If you look down a few posts on Soth's blog, you'll see a few pictures he took at Steidlville recently, where he's been overseeing the production on his latest book. To the first person to comment here with the correct name of his "roommate", I'll send out a copy of Steidl's Fall/Winter catalogue – a thing of beauty in itself, and usually only available to people in the book trade.
Meanwhile, Rome's Fotografia photofestival will be celebrating self-published books and dummies in September. And, we hear, Martin Parr and Gerry Badger are hoping to put out a third volume of their series, The Photobook: A History, including a chapter on self-published books.
You can also see three short video interviews with photograophers about their self-publiushed books, courtesy of SPBH, here, here and here.
We'll be taking a closer look at the whole subject in a forthcoming issue, and we'd be very keen to see your own self-published books.
Comments
Andy got the answer right. If you email me at bjp.editor@bjphoto.co.uk, I'll send you out the Steidl catalogue.
Simon,
Yes, it’s great that many photographers are confidently self publishing their work in the current atmosphere of austerity!
These are the links to my own two self published books:
http://www.thePICTURE.co.uk/title/gb/CUBA
http://www.thePICTURE.co.uk/title/gb/ATAD
www.thePICTURE.co.uk is a new website being developed to try to encourage the idea of a global community of photographers, designers, printers etc. etc. who all share an interest in self publishing photobooks and to provide a common shopwindow/bookshop to promote and sell their titles. There can be great ‘cross-pollination’ benefit derived from having different photobooks shown on the same online list.
Any comments on the site from self publishers and other BJP readers would be very welcome.
Many thanks,
Clive
Gold Printing Group (JinHaoYi Color Printing Co., Ltd ) is a professional printing factory since 1990, it has has been growing up to be a leading printer in Shenzhen by our continuous efforts to offer customer high quality HardCover Book Printing, SoftCover Books Printing, pop up book, cook book
Gold Printing Group (JinHaoYi Color Printing Co., Ltd ) is a professional printing factory since 1990, it has has been growing up to be a leading printer in Shenzhen by our continuous efforts to offer customer high quality HardCover Book Printing, SoftCover Books Printing, pop up book, cook book
Gold Printing Group (JinHaoYi Color Printing Co., Ltd ) is a professional printing factory since 1990, it has has been growing up to be a leading printer in Shenzhen by our continuous efforts to offer customer high quality HardCover Book Printing, SoftCover Books Printing, pop up book, cook book
-
Luminous Books in East London is an artist curated bookshop specializing in second hand fiction, philosophy, art and curiosities.
-
When The Photographer's Gallery closed to begin construction on a brand new space in Autumn 2011, many thought the bookshop would have closed with it. But in the spirit of keeping aspects of the gallery alive, talks and courses have continued to run in other locations and the Bookshop has been running from a temporary space.
-
The Claire de Rouen Bookshop is not so much a place dealing with passing trade, but rather a destination people seek out, building its reputation based on word of mouth and those in the know
-
Pastor Marrion P'Udongo has been called the "Oskar Schindler" of Congo, a man who's dedicated himself to saving and nurturing the lives of others. He's also been one of the most reliable fixers for photographers and journalists in the war-torn country, and he now needs your help
-
Last month, CNN quietly announced it was laying off "a dozen" photojournalists across its US bureaus as, it says, the network can now rely on user-generated content thanks to new consumer technologies
-
Earlier this month, Alec Soth took to eBay to raise funds for a charitable cause - the prize? A portrait commission with the Magnum photographer
-
Rocco Rorandelli has been documenting the tobacco industry for the last three years, ever since he asked himself what lay behind a cigarette.
-
When photographer Peter DiCampo decided to seek funds for his project Life Without Lights, he chose the Kickstarter platform instead of the more commonly used - at least in the photojournalism community - Emphas.is. But he had good reasons, he tells BJP
-
Laura El-Tantawy has been working, for the past five years, on a long-term project about her homeland: Egypt. Now, as the country is undergoing massive political and social changes, she's appealing for help to continue her work
-
Photographer Neil Osborne is raising funds on Emphas.is to document a success story - how one man has helped save the Black Turtle from extinction
Blog roll
- 5b4
- 1000 Words Photography
- A Photo Editor
- A Visual Society
- BagNews
- BagNews (on Tumblr)
- Boston Globe's The Big Picture
- Conscientious
- Conscientious Redux (on Tumblr)
- Duckrabbit
- Foto8
- Food For Your Eyes
- Gawker
- Getty Images' Blog
- Here
- Hotshoe
- Institute for Artist Management
- Invisible Ph t grapher Asia
- Journalism.co.uk
- Lens at The New York Times
- Lens Culture
- Lightstalkers
- Los Angeles Times Photography
- Mastering Multimedia
- Mostly True
- No Caption Needed
- PDN Pulse
- Photo Magazine (France)
- Photojournalismlinks
- Prison Photography
- Prison Photography (on Tumblr)
- Resolve - The liveBooks Photo Blog
- Romenesko
- Rob Galbraith DPI
- Saatchi Online
- StockPhotoTalk
- Telephoto
- The 37th Frame
- The Big Picture
- The Daily Nice
- The Click
- The Online Photographer
- The Russian Photos Blog
- The Travel Photographer
- Vice Magazine
- Wall Street Journal's Photo Blog
- WarShooter
- What's the jackanory?
