A Spectrum: Photobook To Artists' Book - Wotwedid
A Spectrum: Photobook To Artists' Book - Wotwedid
About 4 years ago during post doctoral research I was involved with at the State
Library of Queensland as a Siganto Foundation Research Fellow. I submitted a
paper concept to a call-out for contributions to a major book on photobooks
being prepared by a significant contributor to the international photobook
discipline at that time. Unfortunately the publishing project was never realised Recent Posts
and the essay did not enter the critical discourse on photobooks.
70 YEARS of the BENALLA
CAMERA CLUB – An Exhibition
Recently there has been much discussion about terminologies in photobooks and
COOPER+SPOWART “BEING
some aspects of the artists’ book are beginning to blur. I passed the paper on to
PRESENT” and Perform
a UK PhD candidate who found interest in the discussion that I raised and Eight Acts
suggested that I self-publish the essay. VISITING GRAFTON REGIONAL
GALLERY: June 2024
So here it is…
A Poem for Dad on ANZAC
DAY – Victoria Cooper
.
JULIE MILLOWICK’s
‘Surrounding’–
Intrinsically Local
A GALAXY OF ART: Visiting 10
Victorian Regional Art
Galleries in December 2023
DOUG GOES WHERE THE
SURFERS HAVE NO WAVES –
Again…!
The contemporary popularization of the ‘photobook’ is arguably attributed to the three published MAGGIE HOLLINS: An artist in
the Winton Wetlands
commentaries that have become seminal texts on the subject, the first of which: The Photobook: A History
IN THE WETLANDS: 3 Artists –
Volume I was released in 2004 by photographer and photobook maker Martin Parr, and photo historian Gerry
Cooper + Hollins + Spowart
Badger. Commentator and photographer Tim McLaughlin observes: ‘The term “photobook” which never really collaborate, drawing
existed before Parr and Badger (most dictionaries still do not recognize it), would, within a few years, come to inspiration from
identify a growing industry…’(McLaughlin 2013). Interest in the photobook has never been greater. Digital Winton Wetlands
technologies have emancipated photography and book publishing and now anyone can take photos and make CONCEPTUAL PHOTOGRAPHY
PRIZE: The Mullins Conceptual
their own photobooks. Accompanying this publishing revolution are awards, ‘books of the year’ lists,
Photography Prize –
catalogues, and an auction market. Specialist online and bricks-and-mortar bookshops now service an ever- Muswellbrook Art Centre
increasing buying and collector market. THE EXPO 88 PHOTO SHOW –
35 years on
Although photobook publications have aesthetic definitions for what a photobook is, the term has a lot of NICHOLAS WALTON-HEALEY –
ground to cover. Photography writer and teacher David Campany recently noted in Aperture’s Photobook SALT FRAMES
Review that: ‘The compound noun ‘photobook’ is a nifty little invention, designed to turn an infinite field RE–BRAND: The NEW ‘MUSEUM
(books with photographs in them) into something much more definable’(Campany 2014). But while the OF AUSTRALIAN
PHOTOGRAPHY’ – Formerly
‘infinite field’ may be ‘easily defined’ the term photobook can only serve as a generalised umbrella for the
the MGA
plethora of photobook products that shelter under it.
The NGA’s CEREMONY: An Art
Educators workshop at
The definition of photobook today could include a roughly printed or photocopied zine-like object created by Shepparton Art Museum
a child, to a blatantly over-designed limited edition book. In between these bookends lies a range of products:
BENALLA ART GALLERY – Our
Print-on-demand and hand-made unique state, small editions, self-published or bespoke books, ephemeral visits over 12 months
items, newspapers, pamphlets and zines. Although many of these published forms may not have the universal HOME: Our exhibition at
distribution and commercial opportunities afforded a trade published book, they are, none the less, part of GALLERY ON OVENS
the broad practice of the contemporary photobook. Additionally many of these books occupy much of the ARTISTS BOOK BRISBANE: Print
emergent contemporary scene and tend to be overlooked as the critical discussion is usually focussed on the Culture Fiesta – Our Presence
photobook exemplars from the past. WORLD CYANOTYPE DAY
2022: ANZ – Online Exhibition
The boundaries of the photobook discipline are blurred by their intersection with a variety of other book MGA POSTCARDS EXHIBITION
genres including the expansive mediums of artists’ books and zines. As independent publishers of books, – Our images
artists have for over 100 years communicated their ideas and stories using their chosen media in book form. EULOGY: GRAHAM BURSTOW –
A personal view
Artists have embraced photography and the various forms of photography from found collaged photos, to
2022 WORLDWIDE PINHOLE
screen-printing, photo etching and gravure, as well as actual silver gelatin, type C, inkjet or laser prints in
DAY – Our images
their artists’ book works. Anne Thurmann-Jayes commented in the catalogue for ars photographica, an
A MOVING EXPERIENCE …
exhibition about artists and photographers and their photobooks, that: ‘In very general terms, it is possible to
2021 WORLD CYANOTYPE DAY
say that half of all artists’ books produced to date have been based on photographs’ (Thurmann-Jajes – IN AUSTRALIA
2002:19). For that reason any discussion of the photobook needs to consider a broader range of contributors
Essay for BEN KOPILOW’s
to the discipline as well as other forms of the book where photographs act as carrier of the visual “BLACK SUMMER – THE
communiqué. AFTERMATH” Exhibition at
PhotoAccess Canberra
In her essay Thurmann-Jajes also comments on the differences that she felt existed between the artist and the 2021 WORLDWIDE PINHOLE
photographer in conceptual aspects of making a photobook. She states that: DAY – Our images
JADA 2020: DRAWING on the
The authors of photo books followed photographic tradition, according to which the photograph as such was PHYSICAL & VIRTUAL
Exhibition Space
decisive, becoming the bearer of meaning… By contrast to the photo book, the artists’ book is not the bearer,
ARTISTS FACING STUDIO
but the medium of the artistic message. (Thurmann-Jajes 2002:20)
CLOSURE: QCA vs
Griffith University
In highlighting the differences in the way the photograph is used and considered by these two groups,
QUEENSTOWN’s
Thurman-Jajes has identified a division may have always existed between the photographer and the artist UNCONFORMITY 2018 – From
using photography. Yet making books with the photograph as a ‘bearer of meaning’ or ‘message’ should not the Archive
belong to any particular practitioner. If the photograph is therefore a universal and an open medium for all COOPER+SPOWART books win
book makers then any questioning on what is and what can be a photobook requires consideration that ‘works on paper’ Awards
embraces this diversity. CYANOTYPE IN AUSTRALIA
Celebrates World Cyanotype
To ensure that the photobook remains vibrant and relevant, a flexible space for discourse and critique needs Day 2020
to be created that is inclusive of the broad range of authors and book forms in this medium. In 1998 artists’ Father’s Day: A remembrance
in an art project
book librarian, collector and curator Clive Phillpot suggested a metaphor for the artists’ book discipline as
A Poem for Dad on Father’s
being ‘white light’ and the individual colors that made up white light as being the ‘many categories of the
Day – Victoria Cooper
spectrum’ representing the broad nature of the practice. In this essay Phillpot’s ‘white light’ metaphor is now
applied to the range of published forms that employ or contain photographs beyond that of the artists’ book.
(Phillpot 1998:38)
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Through an extension of Phillpot’s prism, this essay will propose a grouping of the various forms of the book
from photobook through zines to artists’ books and their salient characteristics using individual colors Archive-Wotwedone
(wavelengths of light). As the visible light spectrum has a rainbow of seven visible colors this proposition has November 2024 (1)
seven as well. Although two additional ‘colors’, familiar to photographers, that of infrared and ultra-violet, September 2024 (1)
have been added to recognise specific aspects of photography publishing at the extreme ends of the range. June 2024 (1)
Each color and book form has specific characteristics and identifiers associated with it – it is recognized that April 2024 (2)
many books may challenge attempts to place them within just one color in this spectrum. January 2024 (1)
December 2023 (3)
The transition from the infrared to ultra-violet intentionally locates those books conceived and produced by
November 2023 (1)
photographers at the warmer end of the spectrum. Book forms in the cooler end of the spectrum would be
August 2023 (3)
principally books made by artists using photography. Placement within this spectral framework may create
some interesting challenges including the divisions of ‘artist’ and ‘photographer’, and how practitioners April 2023 (1)
Usually is a collaboration between the photographer and a designer so as to transform the photographs April 2011 (12)
into a strident work of visual communication;
The presentation of photographs over double pages, or being montaged, or printed full-bleed as well as Categories
being scaled variably; Select Category
Exhibitions
Imagery Gallery Leap of
Faith 2013 Mail art
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People PhD Study
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photography
Projects Post-
Doctoral research
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Reviews Social Media
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Uncategorized Victoria
Cooper WINTON
Wot
WETLANDS
happened
Gold Coast, photography by Ying Ang, co-designed with Teun Van Der Heijden
on this day
Gold Coast, photography by Ying Ang, co-designed with Teun Van Der Heijden wotwethink
Self-Published, 2014. 132 pp., 72 color illustrations, 9½x11¼”.
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63 pages plus insert, 6.75 x 9.5 in. Heavy softcover with wraps & slipcase,
http://www.littlebrownmushroom.com/products/iris-garden/
http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?Catalog=ze462
http://www.smogranch.com/2012/09/26/cleveland-musuem-of-art-diy-photobooks/
Promised land by M Bruce Hall, Blue Sky Books/MagCloud. Standard 8.25″ x 10.75″. 56 pages, perfect-bound.
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/815317
This aspect of photobook publishing is occupied by a large number of DIY practitioners accessing a range of
print technologies from desktop inkjet and laser printers to affordable digital press printing and binding
technologies. Content of these books could be considered a visual form of imagist or concrete poetry – they
exhibit and subject and assembly sensibility that could match ‘stream of consciousness’ approaches to art.
Other aspects include:
Exemplar:
Conflict Resolution by Louis Porter, published by Twenty Shelves (Melbourne/Australia), 164 Pages full color,
Design by Pierre Hourquet, Section sewn paperback with de-bossed cover, 20 x 27 cm, Edition of 1000.
http://louisporter.com/twenty-shelves/
These emergent photobooks take their physical form and production values from conventional print media.
Other aspects include:
Exemplars: Photopaper
LBM Dispatch #7: Georgia photography by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar, designed by Meredith Oberg
LBM Dispatch #7: Georgia photography by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar, designed by Meredith Oberg
Little Brown Mushroom, Publication Date, November, 2014
48 pages 11.25 inches x 15 inches, 50 lb newsprint paper, Edition of 2000
http://www.littlebrownmushroom.com/products/lbm-dispatch-7-georgia/
Exemplar: Photomag
PIGS Photography by Carlos Spottorno, designed by Carlos Spottorno and Jaime Narváez
PIGS
Photography by Carlos Spottorno, designed by Carlos Spottorno and Jaime Narváez based on a replica of The
Economist magazine.
112 pages 27 x 19 cm
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This genre of the book is based around the idea of the artist as author, publisher and maker, and forms of the
book that represent innovation, creativity and exploration of the book form. Historically this book form has
been the domain of the artist and the way photography finds its way into the book can be more about the
photo as a record, a fact or a trace representing the world and society that created it. Rather than something
representing the passion that photographers have for the photograph as the product of their special visual
perception of the world. Characteristics of these books include;
Forms integral to the narrative expression and the artist will break rules and conventions to achieve their
expectations for the book;
Books engineered in ways that demand interaction, both through the visual senses but also through the
haptics of handling and reading – the turning of pages;
Books that may mix photographs and text or text over photographs, or text as photographs and
photographs as text;
Multi-media productions where the photograph becomes a part of a larger interplay of media; and
Bespoke unique state or a work that is published as a limited edition.
It should be noted that the artists’ book discipline might encompass an equally diverse range of book forms
Eleven, Marshall Weber 1960- ; Christopher Wilde; Sara Parkel; Alison E Williams; Isabelle Weber; Booklyn
Artists Alliance. New York : Booklyn :c2002
http://www.booklyn.org/artists/Marshall%20Weber.php
Related to books that utilize the conventional codex form and may explore the narrative form, conceptual art
ideas as well as artmaking techniques. These books may exhibit the following characteristics:
An exemplar:
http://scottmccarneyvisualbooks.com/Pages/google%20vanitas.html
Consistent with the production and aesthetic values of the ‘fine press’ with the following characteristics:
Texts are usually handset letterpress, photographs made by traditional photo etching or gravure
techniques and binding and presentation in cloth and leather often with ‘book arts’ embellishments;
The books are limited editions and utilize artisan practitioners and specialists in the production of the
work;
Often the book may be commissioned by an entrepreneurial publisher following the French tradition of
the latter 19th century; and
These works are expensive to buy and have limited markets that center on private collectors and
institutions.
An exemplar:
Idlewild Press, Cleveland, Ohio :2003. 61 p. : ill. ; 24 cm., in case 26 x 20 x 4 cm. Edition of fifty.
https://thedesignfiles.net/2011/03/interview-and-studio-visit-carolyn-fraser-of-idlewind-press/
http://www.carolynfraser.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Issue4_Uppercase_Fraser.pdf
In any attempt to define creative book publishing caution needs to be exercised. The artists’ book discipline
has for years been dogged by attempts to define ‘what is, and what isn’t an artists’ book’. In 2005 Johanna
Drucker put forward a proposal for classification of artists’ books. Even though she predicted that her
proposition would ‘… cause strife, competition, [and] set up a hierarchy, make people feel they are either
included or excluded’, (Drucker 2005:3) it inspired worldwide debate and furore from artists and librarians
and became known as ‘Druckergate’. Ultimately the angst cooled and the artists’ book field continued with
qualified debate, in both academic literature and everyday conversation, thus creating a basis for ongoing
questioning and commentary on the discipline.
More recently, in 2010, Sarah Bodman and Tom Sowden from the Centre for Fine Print Research at the
University of the West of England sought to define the canon for the artists’ book in the 21st century. They did
this by creating a survey of world practitioners of bookmaking by artists in every conceivable outcome,
including the emergent eBook. They found that the hierarchical form of a tree diagram was ‘too rigid and too
concerned with process’ (Bodman and Sowdon 2010:5). They discovered that their respondents wanted to
alter the diagram to satisfy the, ‘cross-pollination that is often required by artists’ and added in, ‘connectors
across, up and down to bring seemingly disparate disciplines together.’
Just as Bodman and Sowdon found from their research, this visual spectrum structure is open to challenge
where practitioners and commentators are encouraged to mix and augment new color palettes for the
presence of the photograph within the book. So what is proposed is not a rigid structure, deeply rooted and
immovable as in the tree trunk, branch and leaf, but rather one where books of similar characteristics can be
grouped, blended and mixed.
The intention for this nomenclature is to bring visibility to the diversity of creative publishing forms using the
photograph. It is offered as a potential tool that recognises this evolving and extended medium to: curators,
judges, cataloguers preparing ‘the best books of the year’ lists and books for sale or auction, and
commentators engaging in critical debate. Additionally the links with artists’ books and zines can also be
acknowledged thus extending and enriching the discipline of the photobook.
In the debate surrounding the evolving photobook this photo-specific spectrum analysis is offered, as a non-
hierarchical, flexible and creative nomenclature. The spectrum should be able to move with change and
developments within the photo in the book and the ideas and the motivations behind those who create these
communicative devices and their commentators and readers. Each constituent of the spectrum, although
emanating its own ‘wavelength’ or ‘color’, forms a part of the “white light” that is the continuum of the
photograph and its place in the book.
Dr Doug Spowart[1]
January 2015
Bodman, S. and T. Sowdon (2010). A Manifesto for the Book: What will be the canon for the artist’s book in the
21st Century? T. S. Sarah Bodman. Bristol, England, Impact Press, The Centre for Fine Print Research,
University of the West of England, Bristol.
Campany, D. (2014). “The ‘Photobook’: What’s in a name?” Aperture: The Photobook Review(#007).
Drucker, J. (2005). “Critical Issues / Exemplary Works.” The Bonefolder: An e-journal for the bookbinder and
book artist 1(2): 3-15.
McLaughlin, T. (2013). “Classic – The Photobook: A History Vol 1.” Retrieved 17 June 2014, 2014, from
http://imageonpaper.com/2013/05/17/131/.
Phillpot, C. (1998). Books by artists and books as art. Artist/Author: Contemporary Artists’ Books. C. Lauf and
C. Phillpot. New York, D.A.P./Distributed Art Publications Inc.
Thurmann-Jajes, A. (2002). ars photographica: Fotografie und Künstlerbücher. Weserburg, Bremen, Neues
Museum
[1] This essay is informed by an ongoing and long term personal interest which involved a practice of making,
observing and considering the position of photographs published in the creative book realm along with recent
research into the intersection of photobooks, zines and artists’ books.
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Written by Cooper+Spowart Posted in Artists Books, Doug Spowart, PhD Study, Photobooks, Post-Doctoral
April 13, 2018 at 10:37 pm research, Speaking on Photography
Tagged with photobook definitions, photobook terminology, Photobooks
« IAN POOLE photographer: eulogy 2018 WORLDWIDE PINHOLE DAY 29 April – Our images »
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Well Roger, Hmmm – we’ll have a chat over some red wine on Monday night…. Cooper+Spowart
April 14, 2018 at 7:41 pm
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