"A must-read for anyone interested in the future of the photobook."
There is a renewed interest in the relationship of photography and the artist’s book, both as a work of art and as an alternative means of exhibition and dissemination. There is also a notable expansion in the activities of self-publication by photographers and artists who use the photograph.
Furthermore, the theorising of the photographic essay, and notions of "conceptual documentary", have become important areas of discourse for practitioners and theorists alike who are interested in working with the photograph in book form. This important new publication provides a broad international perspective, bringing together writers from Australia, Germany, Ireland, the UK and the USA - both leading theorists and leading practitioners - to more fully explore the issues raised by the relationship of photography with the artist’s book.
Among the artists whose work is explored are Francesca Woodman, Fiona Tan, Tacita Dean, Adam Murray/Preston is my Paris, and many more. The work of many of the artists discussed is also illustrated.
Praise for Photography and the Artist's Book
"This volume offers a thorough critical engagement with the relationship between photography and the artist’s book. It involves a wide range of perspectives – from visual essay and practical art approaches to theoretical and historical
analyses – which enter into new and interesting
dialogues with each other."
Patricia Allmer, Senior Research Fellow in Art History and Theory,
Manchester School of Art (MMU),
and author of Rene Magritte: Beyond Painting.
"The book is the natural habitat of the photograph. It is where photographs want to live. It is where they feel at home. During the decades that photography struggled to gain respectability as an art, photographs had to endure the indignity of trying to fight for visibility on the gallery wall. But photographs by their nature are best seen and appreciated by a comfortably seated viewer looking unhurriedly at the pages of a book. Now that photography can come down from the wall and regain its natural footing, it is fitting that we should begin to re-examine the medium of the book as a repository for photography as art. Photography and the Artist’s Book is a welcome set of thoughtful meditations on the subject, and a must-read for anyone interested in the future of the photo book."
Frank Cost, James E. McGhee Distinguished Professor, School of Photographic Arts & Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology
Publication contents
1. Introduction
The Development of Photography and Artists’ Books: Exploring Manchester Metropolitan University’s Artist’s Book Collection
Jane Pendlebury, MMU Special Collections
Theresa Wilkie, University of Salford
2. The Photographic Essay, Photographic Novel and other Narrative Forms
Imaginary Shadows: Fictional Documentary Photography in Artists’ Books
Sarah Bodman
Book Arts, University of the West of England
Artists and Albums
Logan Sisley
Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane
Photographs, Notebooks, Interiority: Francesca Woodman's Artist's Books
Jane Simon
Macquarie University, Australia
Book, Exhibition, Lecture: Revisiting Catharsis: Images of Post-Conflict Belfast 2008-12
Angela Kelly
Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
Artist Photo Books: Photo Books — Artist Books
Sylvia Borda
3. Sequence, Seriality and Typology
Space-Time-Fragment: Conceptual Documentary Photography in the Artist's Book as a Tool of Analysis
Elizabeth Neudörfl
Folkwang University, Essen, Germany
Pictures of Things and Things that are Pictures: Artistic Research and its Document as Artist’s Book
David Penny
MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University
4. Audience: Zines, Multiples and Limited Editions
Reinstating Touch in the Documentary Photobook
Tim Daly
University of Chester
PPP: Preston, Paris, Process
Adam Murray, University of Central Lancashire & Preston is my Paris
Diane Smyth, British Journal of Photography
Print/Screen: Current and Future Dissemination of the Self-Published Artists’ Book
Adam Verity
University of Lincoln
A Memory of a Memory
Lawrence Giles
University of Salford
About the editors
Theresa Wilkie is Director of Design and Culture in the School of Arts & Media, Salford University, Manchester and has a strong interest in the practice and history of photography and community participation and engagement in the production and interpretation of heritage and the visual arts. Jonathan Carson is Associate Head (Academic) within the School and Rosie Miller is Critical & Contextual Studies Area Leader.
Publication details
Title: Photography and The Artist’s Book
Editors: Theresa Wilkie, Jonathan Carson, Rosie Miller
ISBN: 978-1-907697-50-0 [paperback] | 978-1-907697-51-7 [hardback]
Pages: 350
Price: £34.95 [paperback] | £64.95 [hardback]
Publisher: MuseumsEtc
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