Every photo deserves a book: the rise of the photobook in contemporary self-publishing

Abstract

[Extract] As if to confirm Irving Penn’s quote we are now witnessing the emergence of a new kind of book produced by a new group of authors and publishers. As an indicator of this phenomenon, the Photo Marketing Association, an international organisation dedicated to the photographic retail industry, published in 2009 their third review of the trend.

They find that mainly amateur photographers access the newly established online book publishing service providers to produce print-on-demand books for their personal use. They cited an increase in business activity in the United States (PMA 2009a:5) from 80 in 2004 to 340 million dollars (anticipated) for 2009. The emergence of this new publishing form is heralding the democratisation of the book publishing industry - a new era for the author/publisher.