I have increasingly shifted to making photo books as a way of presenting photography that moves beyond the narrow boundaries of an exhibition in an art gallery, a website or blog.The emerging interest in photobooks is driven by digital technology and the rise of self-publishing. A photo book is a book — with or without text — where the work’s primary message is carried by photographs.
Doug Spowart wrote a Phd on the photobook entitled Self-publishing in the Digital Age: the hybrid photobook. He says that photo books provide an alternative view of the history and the practice of photography.
The photo book has become a publishing phenomenon with a rich and diverse community of practice. The term ‘photo book’ has came to prominence as a result of three tomes published in 2004, 2006 & 2013 by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger The Photobook: A History. Alex Soth’s blog Little Brown Mushroom is a a meeting place and clearing house for discussion around all kinds of contemporary photoimaging.
If photo books are still an underestimated asset in the cultural history of photography, there has been a strong revival of interest in the photo book including those published by Australian photographers.
Published
My contributions to the culture of photo books is minor and low key. The following are the limited edition photo books that I have published:
1. Edgelands
A catalogue essay from an exhibition in 2014 at Manning Clarke House in Canberra. Sold out
2. Abstract Photography
This collaborative project with Adam Dutkiewicz uncovers a tradition of modernist abstract photography in Adelaide. It includes work from my own series of abstractions and two essays by me that contextualize the subject and interpret its reception in Adelaide and elsewhere.
More details of the book can be found at Moon Arrow Press. Sold out.
3. Mallee Routes: Photographing the Mallee 2018
This was part of a Mallee Routes exhibition at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Sold out.
4. Mallee Routes: Photographing the Mallee 2019
Part of an exhibition at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery in 2019/2020.
Copies are still available from the shop/store.
5. Adelaide Art Photographers c1970-2000
This collaborative project with Adam Jan Dutkiewicz presents a cross-section of some of the Art Photographers of the late 20th century who worked with film in Adelaide. I have a 6 page portolio of work from this period. I have also written an essay on aesthetics.
More details about the book Canberra found on the website of Moon Arrow Press. Copies are still available from the shop/store.
Forthcoming.
These are ones that are currently in various stage of production :
The Bowden Archives and Other Marginalia. See here
Tasmanian Elegies. See here
Reconnections: Walking Wellington. See here.