Her name: Celine Ravier.
She has just written a remarkable book, entitled:
[AUTO]ÉDITION PHOTOGRAPHIQUE. Enquête sur une mutation.
([AUTO] PHOTOGRAPHIC EDITION. Investigation of a mutation.)
The book is published by the publisher Arnaud Bizalion.
We will publish the main themes of the book in four installments!
Today, in the era of technological and digital advances, in just a few decades and despite the “death of the book” repeatedly announced, many photographers consider the photography book as the most essential support to convey their vision to a large audience. These technological developments which threatened the book object in fact give them the possibility of editing and having a control, not only on the reproduction of their images, but also on the way of associating and presenting them. The photography book remains a special case and maintains its paper support despite or thanks to digital advances.
This study stems from this observation: more and more photographers are editing or wanting to edit their own books. Backed by recent technological solutions, in parallel with the niche market of photographic publishing, a new world of self-publishing, known mainly by the “small world of photography”, evolves and develops almost autonomously.
Beyond the rare press articles existing on this universe, it seemed to me interesting here to have an overview on the evolutions and revolutions of the market of contemporary photography books. How is this book evolving with technological and digital advances, what are the impacts of this transformation on the work of photographers and on the landscape of the current photographic publishing market in France? The answers to these issues are based on the one hand on literary and scientific research work, on the other hand on a series of interviews carried out with those who are at the heart of the photographic book production chain: publishers, photographers, printers, booksellers, photo critics and more generally self-published photographers.
The photography book: history and developments
Since the beginnings of the photographic process, editing and photography have gone hand in hand. It was in 1844 in England that the first book, “The Pencil of Nature”, by William Henry Fox Talbot, a pioneer of photography, appeared. The first image of Nicéphore Niépce, the inventor of photography, dated around 1822, confirms that the adoption of the book as a photographic medium was very rapid.
“Travel” photography in the 19th century was essentially linked to the book. It found its place in libraries or archives which housed original proofs and not reproductions. During much of the 20th century, most photographs, such as those of Henri Cartier-Bresson, were for the press or for publishing.
In the interwar period, dadaism and surrealism combined photography and art in new ways such as photomontage, documentary or illustrative photography and experiments of all kinds (solarizations, overprints, distortions …). The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of the documentary and representation of everyday life.
It was only after the Second World War, and particularly from the 1960s, that the history and theory of photography became the object of more sustained attention. In “An average art. Essay on the social uses of photography ”published in 1965, the philosopher and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu describes the immense popularity of photography as a cultural practice and addresses the role of a second technical object that is the photographic album in as circulation of ways of doing, of uses or of know-how. However, according to him, the possibility of the unlimited reproduction of photography intimately linked to the concept of originality cannot distinguish photography as an artistic practice as such.
In the early 1990s, the advent of digital photography was described as both a revolution and a disaster. However, despite a considerable technological leap, we were able to observe a continuity of forms and uses. According to André Gunthert, specialist in the history of photography, “for twenty years, the digital transition has only affected visual practices at the margins. Contrary to the darkest predictions, the newspapers continued to publish illustrated reportages, and parents keep taking pictures of their children.
Céline Ravier
.
