The photobook, a boom that doesn't stop

Although the history of the photobook goes back practically to the birth of the photographic medium itself, to the time that Anna Atkins published

and its consolidation as a genre dates back to the time of the historical avant-gardes, it has been in the course of the last two decades when the format has experienced its great boom.

A boom that, for the moment, seems unstoppable and that, paradoxically, has taken place within a time frame in which the visionary Nicholas Negroponte, author of the

(1995) predicted many of the changes promoted by the digital revolution. and set a date for the death of the paper book: according to the predictions of the founder of the MIT Media Lab, it should have happened in 2015.

The death of the book did not imply for Negroponte that the printed publication would disappear completely, it would only be cornered by the digital format.

Even so, when it comes to the photobook, his predictions couldn't have been more misguided.

In the latest edition of

published in the fall of 2021, a graph illustrates how from 1999 to 2021 the number of publishers dedicated to this format multiplied by five: from 92 to 485. If, as Negroponte pointed out, “books are the province of the romantics and the humanists”, centralism is clearly weakened within the photography scene, where the photobook has become an interesting and coherent container, aimed at being recognized as an artistic discipline in itself.

Something that Gabriela Cendoya Bergareche (San Sebastián, 1958), one of the largest photobook collectors in Europe, must have sensed when she began to acquire volumes in the 1990s.

”I started buying books without the desire to collect.

I was living in Bordeaux then, ”she recalls on the other end of the phone.

”As a student of Art History, I used to compare many painting books.

I can't remember when, but there was a time when I realized I only bought photography books.

At that time they were not yet called photobooks.

I came to photography through them”, he affirms, ratifying the power of the printed publication to spread photography and strengthen its repercussion and influence.

Portrait of the collector Gabriela Cendoya.Reimi Gomez.

It was

(1984) —a compilation of photographic

made by the British artist David Hockney through which the author reflects on our way of seeing— the work that served the collector as a bridge between painting and photography.

“From then on I began to discover the possibilities of the photographic medium.

It opened up a world for me."

Thus, the collector highlights books such as

, by Paul Fusco —the mourning of a nation published thirty years after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy—, the photobooks published at the time by the radical Daido Moriyama, as well as

by Hiroshi Sugimoto, “the first book I bought online, where, silently, time, history, memory and light are captured through the delicate and exquisite gaze of the oriental author”.

Since 2017, Cendoya has managed the Documentation Center and Library of the San Telmo Museum, where it has deposited a large part of its collection, made up of more than 3,000 volumes, with the main objective of making it visible to the public and promoting study and knowledge of this type. of artistic expression.

As for his selection criteria, first and foremost he puts the emotion that the photobook produces in him.

“An emotion that can be aesthetic or of another type.

The role, the story it tells, how it does it, everything influences.

There are times when I meet the authors and then I repeat”, she explains,

"The narrative intention of the photobook is what distinguishes it from the rest," says Cendoya.

“It is not a catalog.

It is a work in itself in which the author poses a theme through images, following a sequence”.

“It stands out for its variety and richness.

The design, the typography, the text, the graphics, the sequencing of images, they all work together.”

The entry of the new century coincided with the return of the collector to Spain, where a new generation of authors intended to inject new blood by providing a new discourse within the photography scene in Spain, and made use of the photobook.

“There were Julián Barón and Óscar Monzón (who received the First Photobook Paris-Photo/ Aperture Foundation award with

among many others.

Through their attractive and innovative photobooks, they evidenced great ingenuity and inventiveness combined with design to give value to the object beyond what could have been seen on the wall of an exhibition”, recalls the collector.

“There was a richness in form and substance.

Young people broke all the rules and also the new media made it easier for them to print and edit.

While it is true that there are many books that will not remain, there are other very important ones that definitely brought new ways of seeing.

In Spain I have seen the birth of many independent publishers, which admirably overcome crisis after crisis, looking for new alternatives”.

"The change experienced in these last two decades in the photobook scenario has been radical," says the editor Sonia Berger, at the head of the Dalpine publishing house.

“It went from having absolutely nothing to an ever-increasing supply.

Between the fairs dedicated to the artist's book, the fanzine, those dedicated exclusively to the photobook and the specialized ones, a kind of ecosystem has been created.

The same thing happens with publishing houses and all this is very positive”, she assures.

“There are many authors who choose the photobook as a support to spread their work instead of the image on a wall.

In it they can show the complete development of a project.

It is the only format where you see it.

The photobook boom has been an international phenomenon.

The last edition of the ArtsLibris fair, held in Barcelona in 2021.

Cendoya has participated yesterday in one of the seminars organized by ArtsLibris, in collaboration with La Virreina.

The new edition of the international artist's book fair will open its doors on Friday in Barcelona, ​​the San Antoni market, until next Sunday.

This year with the participation of a hundred publishers.

"One of the issues that we consider in each edition is that the photobook is always locked in a separate box, when we all agree that it is an artist's publication", highlights the gallery owner Rocío Santa Cruz, director of the fair .

“Approximately 40% of the books that can be found at the fair are photobooks or have a photographic basis.

Thus, we will find publishers clearly specialized in this sector, and others partially linked to this format.

The percentage has grown a lot in recent years.

Since the pandemic, self-publishing has been accentuated and many artists do it in the form of a photobook.

In this edition we are gradually recovering international publishers, such as Galeria Écho 119 in Paris, which brings a selection of Japanese photobooks;

Black Box, from Buenos Aires or Heavy Metals, from Santiago de Chile.

The Spanish company Ojos de Buey has specialized in photojournalism.

Also noteworthy is the presence of peripheral Spanish projects such as Bartlebooth or Fabulario, which come from Galicia, Asturias or the Basque Country.

It is very interesting to see how it is published outside the big cities”.

After 13 editions, ArtsLibris has established itself as an alternative model to the Anglo-Saxon one.

“We claim the south of Europe,

Among the novelties of photobooks published this year, some of which can be found in ArtsLibris, Cendoya highlights

by Aleix Plademunt (Ca l'Isidret / Spector Books);

, by Antonio Guerra (Dalpine/ La Kursala);

by Luis González de Palma (Anómalas Editions);

the new photobook by Toni Amengual;

(Stanley/ Barker), by Thomas Bovin,

(Phree, Ediciones Imposibles, RM), by Ignacio Coló;

and

(MACK) by Justine Kurland.

This year, for the first time, ArtsLibris, together with the Foto Colectania Foundation and in collaboration with the Friends of Eloi Gimeno Association, will award the Eloi Gimeno Award for the best photobook in attendance at the fair.

The experience that a book offers when holding it in your hands, turning the pages while still smelling the ink, may be a reaction to the virtual world in which we spend a good part of our lives, but what is clear is that the fascination for the photobook endures.

ArtsLibris

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