Next Saturday (14th), as part of the Straybooks festival organised by Akina books, I will be heading in to London to host a wee event with Emilie Hallard of the Photobook Club Paris. The event will start at 4pm and will be a relaxed affair in which we try to better understand the state of photobook culture by picking examples for discussion direct from the exhibition (though you can feel free to bring your own books too).
The Photobook Club London launched last Wednesday at Ti Pi Tin book store, this event was co-organized by Tom Wade and Sean McDonnell with the support of other members of the PBC London and Katja Chernova of Ti Pi Tin.
A summary from Tom Wade can be found below this extraction from a longer piece by Sean McDonnell and found on his blog:
Hosted at the marvellous Ti Pi Tin space in East London we were able to spend time perusing the photobooks on display and pick one, or more, off the shelf that took our fancy to discuss with everyone else. The choice is intriguingly diverse. Japanese miniatures bound by silken threads, idiosyncratic self-published pamphlets, heavyweight tomes from the major publishers all vied for my attention. – Sean McDonnell
The Photobook Club London
We kicked things off around the table, Sean and I said a few words before we dived straight into browsing the books on Katja’s shelves , spending time mixing and mingling. The chosen books were brought back to the table and the conversation was concentrated on sharing ideas and thoughts about the chosen books – from themes to the pacing, rhythm and production quality – not to mention the smells and types of binding.
The conversation and atmosphere of everyone browsing different parts of the shop was great and very loose, for example Naresh and I spoke about photography & his film background and his thoughts and views on the photobook. I found myself then in a discussion with Marco about digital photobooks and the difference between ibook & and app format. I spoke with Lewis about his opinions on photobook covers.
All in all a great night, next event will be announced soon…
– Tom Wade
PBC Valencia
Meanwhile… Another branch of the book club is launching in Spain; the Photobook Club Valencia is run by Jorge Alamar and will meet for the first time on the 1st June at an outdoor venue. More information from Jorge below or head to their Facebook page here.
The 1st session is Saturday, June 1 at noon of 12 open air, in the bed of the Turia River near the bridge of the exhibition as indicated on the map.
For this first date bring a photobook that you like to share with others and add a comment. In this way, we will start debate on the different books that arise.
To do this, only thing you need to do is send an e-mail to photobookclubvalencia@gmail.com to let us know what book you would like to take.
La 1ª Sesión la realizaremos el sábado 1 de junio a las 12 del mediodía al aire libre, en el cauce del río Turia cerca del Puente de la Exposición tal y como se indica en el mapa.
Para esta primera cita no habrá todavía una temática concreta, es decir, cada uno podrá llevarse el libro de fotografía que más le gusta para compartirlo con los demás y comentarlo. De esta forma, podremos iniciar el debate en torno a los diferentes libros que se presenten.
Para ello, lo único que hay que hacer es enviar un e-mail a photobookclubvalencia@gmail.com para informar de qué libro se va a llevar.
The Photobook Club returns to it’s roots and the city in which it was born – LONDON!
The Photobook Club London’s first event is this coming Wednesday 1st May at the fantastic Ti Pi Tin in the Dalston area. There is no need to bring a book along as discussions will be centered around the huge range of books on Katja’s shelves – so pick one and let’s discuss first thoughts – unprepared, unrehearsed, unpretentious!
I have been away for a week and as well as a post coming up about a few new book arrivals I thought I would share some updates about various book club branches…
The Photobook Club Gothenburg
Tommy Arvidson has set up the Photobook Club Gothenburg who held their first meetup this last week. see below or a brief report from Tommy:
“Just like to report that we had a nice evening with the Photobook club Gothenburg yesterday. We where a small group of ten and one dog! Discussing the books that everyone had brought ( the dog seemed more interested in one of the participants bag that containd a half-eaten hamburger) It seemed as though everybody had a good time and we are planning to have at least on more meeting this spring….”
This Thursday 4th April at 6.00pm at the Photographers Gallery Cafe in London I will meet with those interested in helping set up the Photobook Club London. It is not a real meetup as such but an opportunity to meet face to face and discuss ideas for this branch. If you want to head down then please do!
The Photobook Club Sydney
Looks like things are moving along swiftly with he Photobook Club Sydney and should have more news along with dates very shortly! Keep watching. ..
The ‘Box of Books’
The box of books continues it’s long journey around the world with stops at Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra in the past few weeks. The box has been a part of 5 events to date but has another 15 before it can rest! Keep track of the box on the Facebook page here.
Hugo Costa Marques hand delivers to the box of books!
Below is a report from the awesome Yoshikatsu Fujii who organizes the Photobook Club Tokyo. But before hitting the jump, there are movements towards new Photobook Club branches in both London and Berlin. If you haven’t already, please pop me a quick email if you are interested.
Thanks – Matt
Hi Matt,
We held second Meetup in Tokyo yesterday!
It was a great success.
This one is still available at a reasonable price and so this video is in no way a replacement for seeing the real thing, instead it is shown here to give a feel for the layout, design and sequencing of the book, for a selection of high quality images from this book, head over here.
From the publisher:
In this new Photoworks publication, British photographer Mark Power returns to the dialogue between real and imaginary space that characterised his most successful book to date, “The Shipping Forecast” (1996). Once again the premise for this work has been a map and a sense of those invisible boundaries that help to form a strong and durable idea of place. In this case that place is the great sprawl of London, whose outer limits are, for most of us, defined by the extent of the A to Z road atlas. It is these outer zones – where, as the map suggests, the city thins out and then falls away into nothingness – that are the subject of Power’s photographs.
Taking each page of the atlas as his guide Power has embarked on an epic quest into a kind of local unknown, a voyage into a form of melancholic emptiness where the energies of the city evaporate into a strange kind of inertia.Like “The Shipping Forecast” before it, “26 Different Endings” is a project still deeply concerned with the weather, with the everyday drabness of places resigned to their climate of indistinction, where a condition of greyness has become the condition of life.”26 Different Endings” is a report about what appears to be a deeply traumatised place. It is also about a state of mind that Power has become entranced by, one conditioned by flat white skies and a generous expanse of pebble dash, an overbuilt environment where all buildings, new and old, look something like ruins. David Chandler’s autobiographical short story, written in response to Power’s pictures, delves deeper into this state of mind, drawing on a vivid picture of both the emotional and physical landscape of his childhood. Mark Power is Professor of Photography at the University of Brighton, and joined Magnum Photos in 2002. This large-scale, landscape format book is published in a limited edition of 1000.
From the publisher: In this new Photoworks publication, British photographer Mark Power returns to the dialogue between real and imaginary space that characterised his most successful book to date, “The Shipping Forecast” (1996). Once again the premise for this work has been a map and a sense of those invisible boundaries that help to form a strong and durable idea of place. In this case that place is the great sprawl of London, whose outer limits are, for most of us, defined by the extent of the A to Z road atlas. It is these outer zones – where, as the map suggests, the city thins out and then falls away into nothingness – that are the subject of Power’s photographs.
Taking each page of the atlas as his guide Power has embarked on an epic quest into a kind of local unknown, a voyage into a form of melancholic emptiness where the energies of the city evaporate into a strange kind of inertia.Like “The Shipping Forecast” before it, “26 Different Endings” is a project still deeply concerned with the weather, with the everyday drabness of places resigned to their climate of indistinction, where a condition of greyness has become the condition of life.”26 Different Endings” is a report about what appears to be a deeply traumatised place. It is also about a state of mind that Power has become entranced by, one conditioned by flat white skies and a generous expanse of pebble dash, an overbuilt environment where all buildings, new and old, look something like ruins. David Chandler’s autobiographical short story, written in response to Power’s pictures, delves deeper into this state of mind, drawing on a vivid picture of both the emotional and physical landscape of his childhood. Mark Power is Professor of Photography at the University of Brighton, and joined Magnum Photos in 2002. This large-scale, landscape format book is published in a limited edition of 1000.
A huge thanks to all who came down last night to the Hotshoe Gallery in London for an evening with the Photo Book Club, a bunch of great books and beer as part of ‘Photobook London‘.
It seems that all who came down really enjoyed the event and we are already working to arrange the next meeting. If you would like to be notified of the next meeting, pop your email into the box below the image.
The Photo Book Club at Photobook London
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We had some great books brought along to the meet-up including Tim Hetherington’s ‘Infidel’, Watabe Yukichi’s ‘A Criminal Investigation’ and Nobuyoshi Araki’s ‘A Sentimental Journey’ . We were also lucky enough to be joined by Maxwell Anderson of Bemojake publishing to give us an insight into the production of Kenji Hirasawa’s ‘Celebrity’ which raised interesting questions on sequence, design, colour and the notion of celebrity.
– Matt
Maxwell Anderson, Harry Hardie and Matt Johnston (L to R)
We will be holding our inaugural meet-up at Photobook London in the evening with an informal event of books, discussion and beer.
As well as the Photo Book Club bringing a selection of the books they have looked at over the past 6 months, those who wish to attend are asked to bring along a photobook to share and discuss. After the event, one of these books will be chosen to be January’s book on the Photo Book Club. This event has a limited number of spaces, please email info@photobookclub.org to reserve a space.
Date: Monday 5th September
Time: 18:00
Location: PhotoBook London 29-31 Saffron Hill London EC1N 8SW
I will be looking closely at the photography book in particular and ways in which I see it developing, as well as the huge support we have had for the Photo Book Club, and for the physical books and stores that we all love.
If you would like to attend, you can get your tickets from this website. The talk takes place on September 17th at the Department of Anthropology, University College London from 10.30am – 3.00pm.
