Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Jeffery Ladd on PhotoBook collecting

Interesting post, with a ton of comments by Jeffery Ladd for his two year anniversary reviewing photobooks on his Sb4, which is linked up here. And reserve some time before attempting to read all of the comments, there were over a 100 I think at last count. I could not make it though the entire list tonight.

Meanwhile, I have been a little conservative about my own personal background about providing these reviews, but if you are interested, I have provided some insight on my personal blog, Singular Images, here. In retrospect, I have been reluctant to write here about my reviewing process, but that is probably just a personal issue about how comfortable I am about the subject. That may change over time, eh?

So for transparency, I acquire some of books for review by outright purchasing them and some are provided by the publishers. And as a photographer, I creat my own books, so I tread lighthly here. Regardless, I don’t pull any punches as to what I think about the books I review, which is why I am pretty sure that I am on at least one publishers shit list at the moment, (if not two), as well as some photographers are not exactly enamoured with my reviews, while others state that they appreciate my feedback.

So it is interesting to read Jeffery’s post and the subsequent discussion about the fine art photography photobook market. And for the record, I do not purchase extra copies of any photobooks that I provide a favorable review, as I read them, use them and enjoy them and I am not a collector per se.

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

BTW with all of the talk about Martin Parr, did any see the brief piece about him on Ovation Sunday night, when he stated that when he decided to join a photo agency, he went for the best with Magnum? I think he is both a creative photographer as well as an astute business guy.

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