Recent Photobook auction results

For those who enjoy photobooks and have acquired a few of them over the years, one benefit is that they may also increase in value. A potentially nice counterpoint to the argument that you are spending too much for these wonderful books. Ah, yes, a mighty fine investment, indeed!

Thus of potential interest was the recent October Swann Galleries auction of Photographs and Photobooks. So here are a few of the photobook highlights:

MAN RAY. Photographs 1920-1934 Paris.
With a portrait by Picasso.  Texts by André Breton, Paul Eluard, Rrose Sélavy, and Tristan Tzara.  Illustrated with gravures of Man Ray’s photographs, rayographs, and portraits.  4to, spiral-bound photo-pictorial wrappers, rear cover lightly soiled, diagonal crease lower left corner of front wrapper; ex-libris.  Roth 80; Auer 210.
Hartford, Connecticut & New York City: James Thrall Soby & Random House, (1934)
ESTIMATE: $2500/3500 > Sold for $3,840

NEWTON, HELMUT. SUMO.
Edited by June Newton.  Illustrated with over 400 full-page reproductions of Newton’s striking photographs.  Oversize folio, photo-pictorial boards, photo-pictorial dust jacket; with the original custom chrome stand.  First edition, boldly signed by Newton. Taschen, 1999
ESTIMATE: $5000/7500 > sold for $6,480

Camera Work Nos. 13 and 15.  Sold for $6,960
Camera Work #27.  Sold for $$4,560

So something to keep in mind, eh? FYI, the next Swann Galleries Photobook auction is scheduled for Dec. 8, and it will have a much larger number of books available.

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Gerhard Steidl inteview – Photography Now

Joerg Coberg, publisher of the blog Conscientious,  is now providing English translations of the original German articles that have been published in the German photography magazine Photography Now.  One of the first translations is an interview of Gerhard Steidl, who is the publisher of the well-known Steidl photobooks, and this delightful interview can be found here.

I found this to be an interesting interview; if you enjoy the photobooks that Steidl publishes, interested in the background on high quality photobooks or an interest in having your photographs published by his publishing house.

Thanks Joerg!

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Verso Limited Editions : Book Publisher of the Year

Bruce Davidson: Central Park in Platinum

Verso Limited Editions, an imprint of Santa Barbara-based  Serbin Communications, Inc. has been awarded the prestigious 2009 Lucie Award for Book Publisher of the year for their publication of Bruce Davidson: Central Park in Platinum, which I had earlier reviewed here.

From the press release: Renowned portrait photographer Joyce Tenneson presented the award to Glen Serbin, President of Verso Limited Editions on October 19th at the 7th Annual Lucie Awards, a gala black-tie ceremony held at New York’s Lincoln Center. Ms. Tenneson, the author of 13 photography books herself, introduced the nominees with a moving statement about the impact that books have on all of us.

The worldwide photography community pays tribute to the year’s most outstanding photographic achievements at the annual Lucie Awards ceremony. This year, 1100 people attended the event from 25 countries around the globe. The Lucies recognize men and women whose life’s work in photography merits the highest acclaim by their peers.

Other 2009 Lucie awards were presented in categories ranging from Lifetime Achievement to Ara Guler, for Achievement in Fashion to Jean-Paul Goude, Photojournalism to Gilles Peres, Portraiture to Mark Seliger, Sports to Marvin Newman, Documentary to Reza and Humanitarian to Fazal Sheikh. Achievements in support categories from fashion to advertising included Harper’s Bazaar for Fashion Layout of the Year and Steve Fine, Director of Photography for Sports Illustrated for Picture Editor of the Year. Nadav Kander won the 2009 IPA competition for International Photographer of the Year.

Congradualtions to them all!

By Douglas Stockdale

Frankfurt Book Fair – Oct 14-18

Just a quick note that the Frankfurt Book Fair will be starting in a couple of weeks, which runs from October 14th – 18th, in Frankfurt Germany.

This year, China is the guest of honor, and more information can be found here. There is a Hall dedicated for photography, Hall 4 which I know some publishers who specialize in photobooks will have their booths.

I have recently received a swarm of press releases from various publishers, so it appears that there will be plenty of photobooks to evaluate.

Regrefully, I will not be heading back to Europe until later this Fall, so I will not be able to attend. Bummer!

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Some Blurb News for those who self publish

Copyright Dan Nelken, 2009 & Blurb P.B.N Editorial Honorable Mention

Blurb just announced some new stuff for their self publishing services, an software upgrade to v2.5 for BookSmart and some better shipping rates for your books. The details will follow shortly.

Also recevied news that Dan Nelken, a photobook author whom I reviewed here earlier in the year, received recognition for his Blurb book Smash ‘em Crash ‘em, gardening an Editorial Honorable Mention.

Interesting to note regarding Blurb’s self publishing photobook contest that Dan, like the Grand Prize Winner, used a designer to help him develop his final book. Some folks are taking this book competition very seriously.

INTRODUCING BLURB BOOKSMART 2.5

Blurb BookSmart® 2.5 is available for download, and includes
many new features that give you even more control in the
customization of your book layouts; how images are accessed,
viewed, and filtered; integrated help options within BookSmart;
and increased stability of the application itself. You can
grab it here:

http://links.mkt2330.com/ctt?kn=4&m=4247623&r=NDg1MTI2NTc0NAS2&b=2&j=MTM4NjY2MDYyS0&mt=1&rt=0.

Regarding their flat rate shipping, this is what they had to say:

We also wanted to make sure you’re aware of our new flat-rate
shipping option, which significantly reduces the shipping
costs when you order between 1 to 5 books – using U.S. Ground
or International Economy options – as follows:

- US: 1 to 5 books = $6.99
- Canada: 1 to 5 books = $7.99 (USD)
- Europe: 1 to 5 books = 5.99 Euro
- UK: 1 to 5 books = £3.99
- Rest of world: 1 to 5 books = varies per order

BTW, I hope to acquire a copy of the Grand Prize Winner of the P.B.N. for review later this year, stay tuned;- )

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Update: Oops, I forgot to add the Blurb link to Dan’s winning photobook (okay, embedded above), because I figure you would at least like to look at his book tease, eh?

New York Art Book Fair

I should probably mention that the New York Art Book Fair is quickly coming upon us. Here are some details:

2009 NY Art Book Fair

Presented by Printed Matter, the Fair hosts over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, and independent artist/publishers presenting a diverse range of the best in contemporary art publications

The Fair opens for preview October 1, 6-8 PM at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

FAIR HOURS

Friday/Saturday, October 2 & 3, 2009, 11am – 7pm

Sunday, October 4, 2009, 11am – 5pm

LOCATION

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

22-25 Jackson Ave at the intersection of 46th Ave

Long Island City, NY 11101 (map)

The NY Art Book Fair is FREE and open to the public.

I wish I was in the vicinity for this event, perhaps another time, eh?

Best regards, Douglas

Noorderlicht publishing – Stichting Aurora Borelais

A collection of PhotoBooks from Noorderlicht 16 Photofestival 2009 in Groningen, NL

It was a nice opportunity to attend Noorderlicht 16 Photofestival in Groningen yesterday with Martin Doonan, a fellow photo/blogger from The Hauge, who took the train up to join me. We did the whole thing in a day, as well as meet with Djana Eminovic who is with Noorderlicht’s publishing group, Stichting Aurora Borelais.

And might be expected, I acquired a small folder of photobooks, with an emphasis on a group that could still be lugged around with me for the rest of my assignment and eventually back to California. nice.

Two were from local bookstores, as I had not seen the Sebastiano Salgado from Thames & Hudson, a nice reference book from their Photofile series. And finally acquired a copy of Rob Hornstra’s 101 Billonaires at the Boekhandel Godert Walter which had a small exhibition of Hornstra’s photographs.

From the Nooderlicht publishing group, probably best described a photobook publishing boutique, I acquired four titles that encompass the last eight years. The photographers are mostly Goningen-ecentric, probably due to their financial support from Gemeente Groningen, with the amazing exception of the wonderful exhibition catalog Kiyoshi Suzuki; Sight and Soul 1969-1999.

Most of the four Nooderlicht text’s are English & Dutch or entirely Dutch as it is for Harry Cock’s Omstreken, Foto’s 1980-2006. Martin come to my aid to provide a quick overview interpretation, to understand that the title (Omstreken) refers to the area around you, or a little broader to mean Environment.

Well this provides ample reading material for me over the duration of this assignment and I expect to provide my photobook reviews later in the Fall.

Best regards, Douglas

Photography.Book.Now winners announced

Black Sea of Concrete by Rafal Milach, Photograhy.Book.Now grand prize winner

Blurb has just announced the winners of their 2009 Photography.Book.Now book competetion, with all of the winners and honorable mentions found here. The grand prize winner is a professional photographer from Warsaw,  Rafa Milach and his book Black Sea of Concrete.  Milach edited the work and worked with graphic and book designer Ania Nalecka, with whom he has collaborated on two other book projects.

Darius Himes, the lead judge had this to say about Milach’s book;

“Rafal Milach’s ‘Black Sea of Concrete’ stood apart as this year’s Grand Prize winner, his work is a wonderful embodiment of the judges’ criteria: strong photography, important subject matter, vigorous edit and intelligent sequencing, combined with a thoughtful attention to those elements that are specifically book-centric, including type treatment, page-layout and cover design. By enlisting the assistance of a designer and an editor, Mr. Milach exhibited care and attention to the book as a whole; it was truly teamwork that led to a better end result. As lead judge, I’m proud to award the Grand Prize to a relatively young photographer and book artist, and I look forward to seeing more from Mr. Milach in the future.”

The other catagory winners include

 Category Winner, Fine Art:  Joshua Deaner, I Sell Fish, Category Winner, Editorial: Kurt Tong, People’s Park, Category Winner, Commercial: Dennis Kleiman, Volume One, First Runner-up, Fine Art: Susan Worsham, Some Fox Trails in Virginia, First Runner-up, Editorial: Andrea Stultiens, Pose, First Runner-up, Commercial: Michael Creagh, Editorial Stories,  Second Runner-up, Fine Art: Hermann Zschiegner, +walker evans +sherrie levine, Second Runner-up, Editorial: Kurt Tong, In Case it Rains in Heaven, Second Runner-up, Commercial: Sara Lando, Portfolio, People’s Choice, Fine Art: Lewis Kemper, Capturing the Light, People’s Choice, Editorial: Duwayno Robertson, F Ampersand, People’s Choice, Commercial: Jason Joseph Cappozalo, Jason Joseph Photography.

Congratulations to all, and be sure to check out the many Honorable Mentions as well.

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Linda Connors – Odyssey – update

  

Copyright of Linda Connors 2008 courtesy Chronicle Books

I just acquired the September issue of B&W magazine, mostly on the basis of them featuring the Linda Connor’s photobook Odyssey, published last year by Chronicle Books, which I reviewed earlier this year. And perhaps I was very interested in reading Stephen Vincent’s review of her work. Because as a photobook reviewer, I appreciate reading what others have to say about the same body of work, especially for photobook that I have enjoyed.

Bottom line, I think that Vincent’s review is excellent and provides some different insights for reflecting on Conner’s photographs.

That alone may have been a good reason to post this, but what disappointed me were the quality of the images that B&W magazine printed. Where as her images in the book are rich and with a long full tonality, the B&W images are thin, washed out with the contast too high. Her images deserve better than that, so hopefully you will not judge her photographs based on these poor quality images.

The second quibble is with the way her images were shown. I think one of the strengths of her book is the careful pairing of the photographs. The pairing is complementary and provides more opportunities for interputation and mental places to wander.  There is only one pairing in this article on pages 28-29 from the book that illustrates the greater potential.

This may be a quibble, because the editors can interpret the work as well and change the order of presentation. Likewise, I find that I do this as well with my reviews, I edit my choices to make a point, and where I do pair images, such as my recent review of Mark Klett’s Time Studies, I did alter the pairing to what I thought provided additional insights. My point is that Linda did careful chose her pairings and to not use more of them did might be a weakness in the review. My opinion, eh?

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

  

Recent International Book Awards – June 2009

I am getting caught up on other book publishing news and I want to pass along two recent international book awards. 

The Europena Publishers Award went to Klavdij Sluban, a French photographer, and the Award guarantees that his project ‘East to East’ will now be published in book form. So we look forward to seeing it probably sometime next year.

The second set of book awards occured at the FotoGrafia- Fotofestival Internazionale di Roma in May 2009. The Premio FotoGrafia Libro Award went to the best Italian book and the best International book, as reported by Melanie McWhorter, one of the book judges and staff at photo-eye. These two Premio FotoGrafia Libro Awards were for books that have been published.

Best Italian book: Ed Templeton’s Deformer, published by Damiani book

Best International book: Jim Goldberg’s  Open See published by Steidl

Second place: Mariken Wessels Elisabeth – I want to eat which is self-published by Wessels

by Douglas Stockdale