Photobook Conversations

A new book examining global contexts for photobook publishing, completing the trilogy of publications exploring photography and mediation.

Photobook Conversations foregrounds discussions on and around a range of positions, practices and politics that shape the landscape of contemporary photography and publishing today. With generosity and willingness to share personal histories, experience and knowledge, the contributors in this volume encompass artists such as Raymond Meeks and Sohrab Hura, as well as individuals and collectives responsible for the ‘afterlife’ of artists’ works – designers, editors, publishers, critics, and historians – including Bruno Ceschel, Yumi Goto, Hans Gremmen, and Valentina Abenavoli. Among the organisations whose activities and ambitions are represented within this volume are BLOWUP PRESS; Center for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne; Self Publish, Be Happy; Goliga; Nepal Picture Library; and Dikan Center and Photo Library, Accra.

Speaking with hope and humility, the concerns expressed by those who work with the photobook form vary from approaches to editing and sequencing images and building narrative structure to questions around the audience and market for photobooks and models for better ecosystems. Evident throughout are critical reflections on the significance of the shift of the book towards a design object, balancing choices between utilising specific materials or processes and the desire for access, the importance of books reaching other continents, and attempts to address sustainability in publishing. Exploring specific territories and different contexts for bookmaking, Photobook Conversations embraces and develops the ever-expanding space for the culture, study and appreciation of the photobook.

Featuring Valentina Abenavoli, Daniel Boetker-Smith, Miguel Del Castillo, Bruno Ceschel, Yumi Goto, Hans Gremmen, NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, Sohrab Hura, Andrea Josch, Luis Juárez, Sanjay Kak, Aneta Kowalczyk, Anastasiia Leonova, Buen Lugar, Raymond Meeks, Paul Ninson, Ivan Vartanian.

Editors Ana Casas Broda, Anshika Varma and Duncan Wooldridge
Series Editor Tim Clark

Copy Editor Alessandro Merola

Production Assistant Thomas King
Art Direction & Design Sarah Boris
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A

Ana Casas Broda is an artist, educator and editor based in Mexico City. She is Co-Director of Hydra + Fotografía, a platform for projects related to the medium of photography.

Anshika Varma is a photographer, curator and artist from New Delhi, India. She is the Founder and Publisher of Offset Projects, an artist initiative working with photography and bookmaking.

Duncan Wooldridge is an artist, writer and curator, and is Reader in Photography at the School of Digital Arts, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the author of John Hilliard: Not Black and White (Ridinghouse, 2014), To Be Determined: Photography and the Future (SPBH Editions, 2021) and Co-Editor of Writer Conversations (1000 Words, 2023).

Photobook Conversations is edited by Ana Casas Broda (Hydra + Fotografía), Anshika Varma (Offset Projects) and Duncan Wooldridge (Manchester Metropolitan University). Sitting alongside Writer Conversations (1000 Words, 2023), edited by Lucy Soutter (University of Westminster) and Duncan Wooldridge (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Curator Conversations (1000 Words, 2021), edited by Tim Clark, it completes the trilogy of publications that explores photography and mediation through examining exhibition making, critical writing and publishing practices.