Do you take care of all the photography books published by Actes Sud? How are the various roles shared between you and Jean-Paul Capitani?
At the same time as being part of the Actes Sud senior management team, Jean-Paul Capitani heads up the Beaux-Livres (coffee table books) department, which includes photography books and covers areas from architecture to nature with, for each area, an editor in charge of the catalogue and program. I am in charge of the photography department and it is split into two sections: publication of the Photo Poche (pocket photo books) collection, managed by its founder Robert Delpire, with whom I have worked closely since 1983, and the publication of albums or monographs which are more specifically rooted in the authorial creativity of photographers. Roles and titles are shared according to our various enthusiasms, areas of interest and affinities. Jean-Paul Capitani and I consult each other constantly on various publication opportunities and, when it comes to works for which I don’t have editorial responsibility, my role is as a sort of photography advisor. In reality, there’s a great deal of fluidity when it comes to our daily activities at Actes Sud, which bears out our spirit of openness.
Photo Poche is an essential part of Actes Sud publications. How many titles does the section bring out each year and what sort of turnover does it have? How does it compare to other titles?
When we decided to buy the Photo Poche collection in 2004 and pursue its development, we did so with the aim of entering the photography book market wholeheartedly and making our mark. The objective has now been mainly achieved but we had to make a substantial investment for this to happen, notably internationally, with the collection now appearing in five languages. Given the deliberately moderate retail price (€13), the choice of titles and the quality standards (printing, paper, photo-engraving), it’s a constant challenge to make the collection profitable and its contribution in terms of turnover to the Beaux-livres department may be qualified as modest.
What proportion of titles published are created in-house and what proportion signed from foreign publishers?
It varies but is around 70% in-house and 30% French versions of foreign editions.
Is it possible today to maintain acceptable price levels and publish without resorting to co-editions and pre-selling options?
It is still possible, though such books are no longer in the majority. Big editorial projects, monographs, themed or historical works and retrospectives necessarily come out as co-editions or receive outside funding for them to be affordable to the general public. We spend a lot of time looking for publishers we can work with internationally. The recent publication of the first Pentti Sammallahti monograph (‘Here Far Away’), which was very successful, wouldn’t have been possible outside the framework of the group of European photography publishers, of which Actes Sud is the French member.
The bookshop sector is struggling financially and yet bookshops are essential when it comes to photography books. How do you see things going in the future?
Thanks to the Lang law in 1982, which fixed book prices, France still has a network of bookshops that is the envy of Europe and the world. The senior management of Actes Sud spend a lot of time thinking about how to protect this network, its diversity and regionality. Nevertheless, the question of whether bookshops remain open or not is in the hands of readers themselves. Buying a photography book on the Internet not only contributes to the disappearance of these spaces for cultural exchange but also changes the sensual, tactile aspect of buying books. In photography more than other disciplines, bookshops remain temples to discovery and initiation without compare …
Read the full interview in the French version of Le Journal.
