Dirk Bakker first turned up at the Rencontres d’Arles with his cardboard boxes of rare, out of print and/or art photography books over twenty years ago. At the start, in the Nineties, he was part of a bookshop/gallery near Bastille in Paris and it was bookshop owner Philippe Chauveau and the Point de Vue Gallery who first got him to come to Arles. In 1996, the Rencontres invited him to organise a book market and last year he established himself in a converted supermarket that he set up with the Point de Vue Gallery, the Atelier Reflexe, and publisher, bookshop and photographer friends.
“I wanted to make it my last Arles”, Dirk Bakker told us, but this was without taking into account the enthusiasm of the group forged over the years around the markets and bookshops: one by one, his old colleagues started to get in touch, ready to keep things going. Publisher Eric Higgins and Dirk Bakker’s right hand, Stefanie Gattlen, began to look for new premises as of February… and here we are today at L’Hauture, an old pizzeria just behind the Arènes.
“Everyone was so enthusiastic that I allowed myself to be carried along on the wave”, summarised Dirk Bakker. This time, what we have is a sort of bookshop of bookshops: Florence Loewy Books by Artists and Plac’art Photo have come down from Paris, MiCamera and obiettivolibri from Milan, Tipi Bookshop from Brussels and then Dirk Bakker Books of course. Quite a mixture!
Florence Loewy holds the prize for longevity for her artists’ books store that has been open since 1989. The young newcomer is Andrea Copetti, whose Tipi Bookshop is just three months young. Savina Palmieri from obiettivolibri explains that before opening this online bookstore in 2005 she sold old, rare and out-of-print books on antiques and old books markets in Milan. MiCamera was set up by two photography enthusiasts, Flavio Franzoni and Giulia Zorzi, and dates from 2003, while Plac’Art Photo (as cramped as its name suggests) has been in business since 2008.
Florence Loewy’s father was a bookstore owner before her but the others took a bit longer to find their vocation. Savina Palmieri, for example, tells how she left her career as a maths teacher and gradually dedicated herself to vintage photography books out of love for Italian photography and the desire to publicise it.
Flavio Franzoni and Giulia Zorzi, are both from the world of music and decided to change direction so they could work together in a field they love. Their business has gradually grown and they now have a large store with thousands of new, old and second hand books.”We were enthusiasts,” says Zorzi, “but we didn’t know how much work it would be.”
As for Clément Kauter, when the opportunity presented itself to take up premises in a porte cochère in a very busy street, he brought in his private collection of books and reviews to fill the shelves. “To fill up the gaps, I bought the stock of my publisher neighbour Eric Higgins!”
What all these booksellers have in common is that they have all gradually become more than just booksellers. Not only do they organise signings but also exhibitions, debates and screenings. Some have become publishers or co-publishers (Florence Loewy, Dirk Bakker, MiCamera and Plac’art), MiCamera organises workshops and Dirk Bakker does auctions.
Giulia Zorzi of MiCamera recalls that while the bookshop has always been at the heart of the project, the creation of a cultural association quickly became crucial so as to be able to organise events. In 2006, they started the MiCamera photo workshops and these help finance other free activities, which have proved vital for many artists wanting to carry out projects. The second thing the bookstores all have in common, which comes out of the first and which goes against the received idea of the digital age, is the importance of real links, real social networks. Dirk Bakker is the first to recognise that the Internet has allowed him to do without a physical shop but only because he has created extensive contacts at shows, exhibitions and festivals. Indeed he still doesn’t have a website…
While the obiettivolibri site has been in existance since 2005, Savina Palmieri continues to go to the markets in Milan and trade shows in Italy and abroad. Giulia Zorzi explains that whle MiCamera was conceived of as an online store, its customers quickly started to frequent the physical premises too.
Plac’Art Photo’s site is literally a shop window, with photos of the shop, exhibition announcements and downloadable catalogues but the site doesn’t function as an online store and like L’Hauture at this year’s Arles festival, it is doing pretty well, thank you very much.
Miriam Rosen
Infos:
Dirk Bakker Books : [email protected]
