A good source for standalone photo essays to publish in a magazine is the upcoming books lists from photo book publishers. A few of the big publishers like Chronicle or W.W. Norton will do photography books but generally the good stuff is with the specialty publishers. It’s interesting to note that the literary publishers are extremely proactive about shopping the first serial rights around to magazines for publicity but it’s rare for a photography book publisher to do that so you’ve got to go look at the upcoming lists yourself and see if there’s something worth pitching to the editor. I’m working on a project now that needs a couple photo essays so I thought I’d share my list:
21ST Editions
Aperture
Arena Editions
Chris Boot
D.A.P.
Dewi Lewis
Farewell
Foil Web
Hassla
J and L
Kehrer Verlag
Lodima
Loosestrife Editions
Monacelli
Nazraeli
Phaidon
Pond Press
Power House pH
Prestel
Quantuck Lane
Radius
Sasquatch
Scalo
Steidl
Taschen
teNeues
Trolley
TV Books
Twin Palms
Umbrage Editions
Watson-Guptill
Photo Eye publishes a newsletter with upcoming releases. Always a good resource.
More in Europe:
Apeiron
Edition Braus
Hatje Catz
Lunwerg
Mets & Schlit
Peliti Associati
Comments 24
Thank you for that, presented in a most helpful way.
I can think of Dewi Lewis Publishing as well.
[Reply]
Posted 21 May 2008 at 10:27 am ¶Photoeye.com has a Publisher’s Showcase section which I think will be a great resource for your research:
http://photoeye.com/templates/PubShowCase_home.cfm
[Reply]
Posted 21 May 2008 at 10:55 am ¶Sadly, Arena Editions has been gone for a number of years.
[Reply]
Posted 21 May 2008 at 11:22 am ¶Where do university presses fit into this equation? Aren’t they always looking for a fitting, appropriate printing project for their own learning, and to enhance their professor’s resumes? I’ve seen several photo books by “University of _____ Press”. Always seemed like a great fit to me; win/win.
[Reply]
Posted 21 May 2008 at 11:28 am ¶…as has scalo. from the uk, chris boot and trolley should be there too, and it would great to have some non-Anglo suggestions too
[Reply]
Posted 21 May 2008 at 7:52 pm ¶Schaden.com in germany
[Reply]
Posted 22 May 2008 at 1:52 am ¶Ive taken these from the 2008 Leica European Publishers Awards For Photography:
Apeiron, Greece
Lunwerg Editores, Spain
Pelite Associati, Italy
Mets & Schilt, The Netherlands
Editions Braus, Germany
[Reply]
Posted 22 May 2008 at 4:52 am ¶May I suggest “Hatje Cantz” ? I think they are phenomenal.
http://www.hatjecantz.de/en_index.php
Best regards,
Ken Ponzio
[Reply]
Posted 22 May 2008 at 10:57 am ¶Also Jason Fulford publishes small-run artists’ books that are very good: http://www.jandlbooks.org/
[Reply]
Posted 22 May 2008 at 5:36 pm ¶(steidl all the way)
now what I would be REALLY looking forward to se is a list of self-publishing, self-made-photobook resources.
[Reply]
Posted 22 May 2008 at 8:25 pm ¶Just another suggestion: Foil in Tokyo publishes some very interesting stuff.
http://www.foiltokyo.com/english/indexeg.html
[Reply]
Posted 23 May 2008 at 5:46 am ¶[Reply]
Posted 23 May 2008 at 10:07 am ¶There’s also Viggo Montensen’s company Perceval Press. http://www.percevalpress.com/
[Reply]
Posted 23 May 2008 at 2:52 pm ¶My own first book, the result of a long term photo documentary about a stilt walking school in Trinidad titled ‘MOKO JUMBIES: The Dancing Spirit of Trinidad’, was published by the small New York based publisher Pointed Leaf Press.
http://www.pointedleafpress.com/
http://www.stefanfalke.com/2008/05/11/the-moko-jumbies-book/
[Reply]
Posted 29 May 2008 at 3:58 pm ¶I’d always suggest looking at http://www.thamesandhudson.com as they specialise in visual arts publishing, and always have a really strong selection of photographic and art books
[Reply]
Posted 10 Jun 2008 at 9:58 am ¶Thank you so much for this information. I can’t even tell you how helpful it is.
Allison
[Reply]
Posted 07 Jul 2008 at 7:30 pm ¶This was incredibly helpful. Through your post, I’ve found Power House Books and just received something that looks like a favourable reply to my portfolio submission.
Many many thanks.
Balazs
[Reply]
Posted 01 Oct 2008 at 7:23 am ¶For photo books relating to Asia, here are a few respectable publishing houses located in Hong Kong and Mainland China:
Blacksmith Books in Hong Kong (who recently published the phenomenal 640-page photobook CHINA: Portrait of a People):
http://www.blacksmithbooks.com/9789889979942.htm
FLP (Foreign Languages Press) in Beijing is China’s largest state-run press, and have an English division, including photobooks:
http://www.flp.com.cn/main/
Timezone 8 in Beijing have a massive catalogue of photography and illustrated art books:
http://www.timezone8.com/osc/
[Reply]
Posted 20 Oct 2008 at 8:20 pm ¶You might want to include a couple of print on demand facilities too as this is a great new way for photographers to put out quality books.
I’m thinking of http://www.blurb.com and http://www.lulu.com as two fine examples.
Here’s my latest at Lulu which I think is a gem,
lulu.com/content/5162138
Unfortunately, I have to take care of all the distribution myself.
I’ve had some interest from publishers with this material but chose to try and do it myself to maintain complete control over edit and layout design. If you prep your files rights the results can be astonishingly good.
Thanks for your time.
Paul Treacy
photohumourist
[Reply]
Posted 05 Dec 2008 at 6:02 am ¶My link above is broken. Please see,
http://www.lulu.com/content/5162138
Thank you.
Paul Treacy.
http://photohumourist.com
[Reply]
Posted 05 Dec 2008 at 6:06 am ¶How clever of Mr Power, to entitle his lecture ‘The Death of the Photo Book’ on Thursday May 14 at the NY Photo Festival, that he created. In front of his bemused staff and a resentful audience he pontificated for a very short time on the subject and announced his intention to make authors pay him to produce their books in ’boutique’ editions of 50, which if they sell he would then perhaps publish in a larger number.
It is ironic that Mr Power,CEO of PowerHouse Books and the creator of the beast: a publishing company that rarely pays it’s authors’ royalties (most do not even bother to ask for them) would publicly stab the same beast, perhaps to finish it off before he declares bankruptcy? thereby avoiding any avenging authors’s future audits of the books, legal demands for advances not paid and royalty statements never produced.
Afterwards at the well attended festival opening party the overworked PowerHouse staff, many of whom are now taking a pay cut and working less hours, mingled with disgruntled authors. Fans of their wonderful books made purchases while the authors gamely mingled and signed books knowing they will never see their share of the sales.
[Reply]
Posted 16 May 2009 at 7:28 pm ¶ovrer the years i have taken a lots of flowers photos and animeals and i might add rather unusual flowers. i would like to make a calender year of flowers. place mats, costers, cards, magazins and the list go on. i don’t have a clue how to get started. i would like to find a publisher who deals with this sort of things. i don’t think i can do it alon. i would appreciat very much if you can give me some direction.
thank you
with positive thougts
[Reply]
Posted 19 Jun 2009 at 8:51 am ¶thanks so much all of you for the powerful info, I’ve self published a fine art book on blurb but not so happy with the results; now, I’ve no idea what to do with another project,namely, erotica: shot in europe during the past 10 years and thinking about putting it together.
Does anyone have a list of erotica publishers handy? European and outside the USA would also be helpful, thanks in advance!
johnny
[Reply]
Posted 12 Jul 2009 at 1:03 pm ¶Power House has a $250 submission fee??? Sounds like they need the money as much as or more than the photographer.
[Reply]
Posted 13 Oct 2009 at 6:57 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 2
[...] Photo Book Publishers: A List [...]
[...] Get Visual, Buy a Book: Here’s a good list of photo book publishers compiled by A Photo Editor. The cover on the left is from Once Upon a Time in Wales by photographer [...]
Post a Comment