London Art Fair Journal: Wednesday, January 21st
Photography Focus Day
After opening day, we had our first full day open to the public at the London Art Fair. Visitors came regularly to the stand, but we made time to meet the other exhibitors, and we were very interested in what they had on display.
The main aisles of the faire are mostly occupied by galleries featuring painting. Only 10% of the galleries exhibit photography, with big names like Ed Burtynsky at the Flowers Gallery.
But this was “Photography Focus Day” in the “Art Projects” space dedicate to curatorial projects, installations and solo shows. There are also many events and discussions about photography.
We attended a debate about the future of the photobook, organized by the magazine Photomonitor and hosted by its editor-in-chief, Christiane Monarchi.
Christiane was joined by Michael Mack, founder of Mack Books; Dewi Lewis, founder of Dewi Lewis Publishing; Bruno Ceschel, founder of Self Publish Be Happy; and Alex F. Webb, co-founder of Fourteen/Nineteen.
The speakers shared their passion for photography and the photobook in particular. Two major trends have appeared in the world of photo books: its dematerialization and the production of an increasing number of digital objects, and the existence of Amazon, which has become a major player in the world of online sales.
We were glad to see Dewi Lewis again, who kindly hosted a morning on photography publishing for us at the Festival Voies Off 2013.
In 1994, Dewis Lewis and his wife, Caroline, opened a publishing house dedicated to photobooks. Since then, they have released over 200 books, including some of the biggest names in contemporary photography, like Martin Parr, Simon Norfolk, William Klein and Sergio Larrain.
Voies Off: What do you think about the opening of England to the photography market?
Dewi Lewis: … This has always been mainly in art fair not like Photo Paris. The marketing for photobooks is not large in the UK. Unlike in France, it’s centered around the capital. Outside, in another part of the country, there are a lot of exhibitions, but the market is limited. People don’t buy as much photobooks as in France… The reality is that they buy more, but it’s not an enormous market as in France. Its growing.
Voies Off: Do you think the art market and the book market can intersect?
Dewi Lewis: No. They have very different base. They come together on occasion, but the basis of how they work is very different. One is about… you know, the real publishers want to get idea they had to pay for. The real gallerists just want to make as much money as they can from a particular print… They will reduce editions to 3 copies… we really want to get 50.000 of that! So there is a real difference in temperament and size of projects.
INFORMATIONS
London Art Fair
21-25 January 2015
58 White Lion Street
N1 9PP London
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7288 6736
[email protected]
http://www.londonartfair.co.uk/exhibiting
http://voies-off.com
