Training in the photobook discipline is an important component of contemporary photography education.
However the books created by students for assessment rarely get an opportunity to cross over into the public space. To help connect these photobooks to a wider audience we have once again invited institutions around Australia and New Zealand to nominate a student photobook from their 2022 cohort.
The authors of the nine books presented here have created innovative photobooks to act as vessels to contain and present their personal narratives. Though online it’s impossible to provide the same rich experience of the books we can still encounter the ideas and presentation of this work as images and texts.
This selection of books from 2022 are now outside the institution and available to you to read …
ENJOY…!
SEE an essay about the the photobook in education at the end of this post.
The participating colleges and universities:
The STUDENT PHOTOBOOKS
ALEXANDER TUXFORD – FLICKER
STUDENT OF the Bachelor of Art (PhotoGRAPHY) (Honours) – at RMIT University MELBOURNE
AN ARTIST’S STATEMENT FROM THE AUTHOR:
Flicker is an attempt to visualise the interiority and exteriority within the everyday world as an unfinished iteration in the form of a book.
The work is an exploration of how photography can be used as a tool to communicate a space between embodied inner thought, and the complex outer world. It’s my intention to speculate a link between documentary and the incoherent nature of affect through narrative, portraiture, walking and feeling in an on-going photography project. The work doesn’t attempt to speak about the world in any entirety or understand the complex present we’re in. Rather I aim to create a narrative that is open to interpretation yet still able to invoke a felt experience in the viewer, however minor or subjective that feeling may be.
This work is intended as a dummy rather than a finished book. My supervisor Kelly Hussey-Smith and I kept reworking the sequence and pairings over time, with the aim being to have a short but concise iteration as the result. Having her honesty with what works/doesn’t work based off feeling in the sequence couldn’t have been more helpful to me with this work.
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A COMMENT FROM Dr RAY COOK THE NOMINATOR:
In the flesh it’s tremendously subtle and poetic. It gave Kelly and I great pleasure to watch it develop …
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BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 23.5 x 30 cm, softcover, perfect bound with folded dust jacket
NUMBER OF PAGES: 50 pages
EDITION: A book ‘Dummy’
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY: Digitally printed
PRICE: Available on request
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SOURCES OF INSPIRATION FOR THE AUTHOR:
As far as influences go in the photobook form, nothing has been more influential for me than Michael Schmidt’s Waffenrühe. The subtle visual connections in the pairings, the balance between context, and contextless imagery amongst stark portraits in the strong sequence. I remember feeling this weight when I first flicked through. Not because I understood what it was about, but because I knew there was something else happening beyond the images themselves, and how they were presented.
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CONTACT: ALEXANDER
Email: alexandertuxford@gmail.com
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STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY AT RMIT: HERE
In the RMIT photo honours program we frame photography as an active, generative agent, central to cultural production, where technological and cultural energies intersect.
Nominated by Dr Ray Cook – Lecturer in Photography
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SHADAY MOORE – THE MISSING DEER
Year 3 Bachelor OF FINE ARTS (SPECIALISING IN Photo Media) – Whitecliffe, AUCKLAND NZ
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ABSTRACT from David Cowlard: Shaday Moore’s The Missing Dear combines a sense of absence with a narrative that is informed by science fiction, and an emotional charge, to trace the vision of an unidentified character in a post-human world.
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
The Missing Deer is an exploration of a world where humans are absent.
The missing deer in my book represents the small impact other living things have on their environments compared to humans, who are constantly progressing and developing their world and technology further. The Missing Deer is a suggestion of what the world might look like if all of humanity were to vanish and leave you behind. With the character as witness to this, and the missing deer as proof of it; this is what’s left behind.
Paula Morris and Haru Sameshima’s ‘Shining Land: Looking for Robin Hyde’ inspired the narrative for the character in my book.
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BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
DESIGN: Shaday Moore
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 21 x 27 cm, perfect bound, cover paper: Splendorgel 340gsm, inside pages printed on Splendorgel 160gsm
NUMBER OF PAGES: 64 pages
FIRST EDITION: 10
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY: Digital print by The Print Guys, Auckland, New Zealand.
PRICE: NZ$ 35 limited copies available
CONTACT: SHADAY MOORE
Website: shadaymoore.com
Email: umoo191@mywhitecliffe.com
Instagram: @shaday.psd
Photo Media students at Whitecliffe make a photobook in the first Semester of their third year of study. The project allows them to develop a substantial project of their own choosing and to resolve and publish it as a photobook. The project has now been part of the Photo Media programme since 2016 and is founded on an understanding of the importance of the photobook in the international photography scene.
Whitecliffe Photo Media were represented at Photobook NZ 2022 and made significant sales of student work at the photobook fair. Students have featured as finalists and have received highly commended places in the AUS / NZ Photobook of the Year awards.
STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY AT WHITECLIFFE: HERE
Nominated by David Cowlard – Program Leader, Photo Media
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CÉLINE SAYÉ – VISAGE MULTIPLES
POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN CREATIVE PRACTICE, UNITEC – TE PūENGA NZ.
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ABSTRACT: This book was a slow cook, the earliest ingredient being a series of poems made by the photographer’s father in the 1970’s when he was in his youth growing up in France. These poems were recorded typewritten in a notebook and a treasured part of the family archive that passed to his daughter on his death in 2015. She layered these early writings with family photograph from her childhood and a series of haunting landscape photographs she made at the time of his passing.
The book functions as a memorial piece in which she challenges the notion of an easy materiality by inserting the poems printed on a similar paper stock to the early notebook amongst the heavier image pages. This counterpointing in weight, scale and texture created not only an interesting tension but underscored the meaning of the work.
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BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
DESIGN & EDITING: Céline Sayé
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 24.6 x 21.7 cm
SPECIAL FEATURES: The book contains inserts of poems printed on small and thinner paper (19 x 14 cm 70gsm Advance Offset paper)
NUMBER OF PAGES: 44 pages of 24 x 20.6 cm on 120gsm Advance Offset paper, and 30 pages of 19 x 14 cm on 70gsm Advance Offset paper
EDITION: First edition 12
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY: Offset/digital press/inkjet/rizo/etc
PRINTING: Centurion Print, Auckland, New Zealand
BINDING: The Binding Studio, Auckland, New Zealand
TO ENQUIRE ABOUT THE BOOK: Email the photographer
CONTACT CÉLINE:
At UNITEC Photobooks are seen as a vital tool for the contemporary photographer to think about narrative structure for a potentially large number of images. They function quite differently from exhibition or web based platforms such as Instagram, and in many ways allow the photographer more control.
STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY @ UNITEC | TePükenga: LINK
Nominated by ALLAN MCDONALD – Lecturer in Photography, Unitec | TePükenga
PEARCE LEAL – SLOWLY THROUGH THE GRASS
FROM THE BACHELOR PHOTOGRAPHY, majoring IN PHOtoJOURNALISM – PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIES COLLEGE, MELBOURNE.
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
‘We and others are entangled in knots of species who are co-shaping each other in layers of reciprocating complexity.’ Slowly Through the Grass rests on this interpretation of species articulated by Donna Haraway and engages the complex interrelationships between humans and flying foxes. This work is made through an assemblage of photographs informed by childhood memories, found materials from ecological texts, and processes of making physical interventions on printed matter.
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NOMINATOR’S COMMENT:
Pearce’s publication looks at our complex relationship with the environment and animals act as both the protagonists and metaphor. Slowly Through the Grass is both complex and beautiful while making use of Pearce’s refined book design skills, visual signature and bespoke manipulations.
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BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
DESIGN & EDITING: Pearce Leal
THE PHYSICAL BOOK:
SIZE: 24.1 x 19.0 cm
SPECIAL FEATURES: Swiss bound (blue binding tape), cover papers: 325gsm Mohawk eggshell ultra white, inside pages: 118gsm Mohawk eggshell ultra white, tipped in pages: 100gsm Envirocare
NUMBER OF PAGES: 72 pages
EDITION: 10
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY: Digital Press
PRICE: n/a
CONTACT Pearce
Web: www.pearceleal.com
Instagram: @Learcepeal
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In second year at Photography Studies College the students produce both a traditional folio of prints and a handmade photobook where they learn about sequencing and construction. This sets them up with the skills to make a publication as part of their graduate outcomes. With the increasing interest in publications, this is a powerful tool for students to showcase their work in an easily accessible and sophisticated way to clients, the art industry and through awards.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PSC COURSES: HERE
Nominated by Dr Kristian Häggblom – Educator: Higher Education Course Director & MA Photography Course Convener, Photography Studies College, Melbourne
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CATRIONA FELTON – MilcząAcy/Omm
A BACHELOR OF ARTS DESIGN PHOTOMEDIA MAJOR – SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Melbourne
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
Milczący/Omm is the Polish and Maltese translations of Mother, respectively. This work is a collation of archival documents and images, intersected with current images and written words.
It portrays the story of adoption in the 1960s. Capturing the essence of disjointed connection. Acknowledging the feelings of burden and guilt associated with adoption and emigration, showing the fragility of memory without glorifying tragedy.
Photographed on: Wurundjeri Country.
THE NOMINATOR’S COMMENT:
Catey’s project Milczący/Omm is a deeply sensitive love letter to her mother that both honours and acknowledges her mother and grandparents story. Catey has formed a body of work that pays tribute to family whilst also exploring the similarities in the systems of beauraucry of migration and forced adoption. Explored through archival imagery and text, the project serves as an acknowledgement of the history of adoptions in Australia while gently touching on the affects of intergenerational trauma.
BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
DESIGN: Catriona Felton
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 17 x 21 cm, section sewn
NUMBER OF PAGES: 56 pages
SPECIAL FEATURES: Printed on uncoated stock 125 gsm paper for body pages and a 300 gsm printed red cover
EDITION: n/a
PRICE: n/a
CONTACT CATEY:
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Photomedia blends the two disciplines of Photography and Design allowing our students complete freedom as storytellers. The photobook represents this fusion of design, photography, narrative and storytelling.
STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY AT SWINBURNE: HERE
Nominated by Morganna Magee – Lecturer in Photography
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JANNETH GIL – DARKNESS INTO LIGHT 2021–2022
MASTER of Fine Arts, Photography – Ilam School of Fine Arts, Canterbury UNIVERSITY, Christchurch NZ
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THE NOMINATOR’S COMMENT – Tim Veling:
A compendium of projects of monumental undertaking by Christchurch photographer, Janneth Gil alongside people from Christchurch’s Muslem community. This book serves as the most inclusive, tender and authoritative account of this community in the wake of terrible events.
On invitation, Janneth accepted the role as artist-conduit and facilitator of creative practice workshops for friends who, for the most part, felt otherwise reduced to basic symbols of grief within the mainstream media. This book is testament to profound grief, but more importantly privileges stories of mental and spiritual resilience, love and strength in collective identity. A mixture of photo-reportage and social art practice, the heartbeat of this work is felt most profoundly in aspects of shared art-making experiences facilitated by Gil, represented is a way that undeniably carries the authority of each participant’s individual voice.
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
On March 15th, 2019, during Friday’s prayers, 51 people were killed and many more were wounded in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. This terrorist attack was described by our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”; an event the likes of which we have not seen in this country.
Then, from the darkness came light.
Millions of people came together in support of the martyrs, the Shuhada (Martyrs), their families, and all the people affected by the attacks. People donated money, gave flowers, wrote letters, and offered their time towards helping others. Many started genuine conversations; a dialogue to start learning from each other’s cultures.
Darkness into Light looks to honour the Shuhada, the taken, and the people they left behind. The photographed objects and places serve as witness to an act, carrying the tragedy that accompanied the Shuhada and other affected individuals. The artworks and the voices from those directly affected, addresses the emotional and psychological resonance of the acts of violence rather that the scenes of destruction and loss. They emphasise their intense feelings of grief, vulnerability, strength, healing process as well as the immense price paid to empower our society to start a serious conversation about some of the systemic problems we have.
Darkness into Light also came from a need to highlight the limitations of public media coverage of these events by filling out generalised, even stereotyped, narratives with the nuance and intimacy that exists in the lives of those personally affected. They have their own stories to tell and no one else should do that for them, though we may support and empower as our gifts allow – this is what I attempted to do throughout the process of facilitating this work.
Darkness into Light is a call to all of us, so our memory of this tragedy is not forgotten and does not fade away. It is an invitation to take action to create a more inclusive society and, most importantly, to keep listening in order to truly learn.
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BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
DESIGN & EDITING: Janneth Gil with design assistance by Gabriel van Schouten and editing by Irenie How
OTHER CREATIVE COLLABORATORS:
- Foreword by Irenie How
- Essays by Dr Warren Feeney, Yeison Gil, Anthony Green, Moana Lee, Melanie Oliver and Dr. Andrew Paul Wood
- Translation by Karen Toledo
- Conversations with Noraini Abbas Milne and Dr Barbara Garrie
- Texts by Ambreen Naeem and Dr. Hamimah Tuyan
- Logo: Helmer J. Blanco
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 22 x 24cm, perfect bound
NUMBER OF PAGES: 341 pages
EDITION: This book is currently in ‘dummy’ form, to be edited for wider distribution in the coming year.
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY: Printed and bound at UC Print, Christchurch, New Zealand
ISBN: 978-0-9941181-3-4
AVAILABILITY : This is a one-off, artist book. However, work is currently underway to publish in large-run mid-late 2023
CONTACT: JANNETH
Web: jannethgil.com / www.ourvoices.co.nz
Email: fineart@jannethgil.com /
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jannethgil.fineart
Instagram: @gil.janneth
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The Ilam School of Fine Arts photography program emphasises the photobook as a vital means of distributable output, as well as significant vessel for artistic expression within contemporary photographic practice. In an increasingly fast-paced digital world, the book form emphasises a tactile, intimate and durational experience, the antidote to ‘endless scroll’.
Each undergraduate course within the photography program at Ilam incorporates an aspect of photobook conceptualisation, design and production, encouraging students to think intelligently about ways their work may engage audiences’ and hold currency within extended fields of practice.
FOR INFORMATION ON ILAM SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS PROGRAMS: HERE
Nominated by Tim J. Veling – Senior Lecturer in Photography.
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BELINDA WHITTA – REACH INTO THE SOIL
MASTER of Fine Arts, Photography – WhiTI o Rehua School of Art, Toi Rauwharangi College of CreaTIve Arts, Massey Uni, Wellington NZ
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ABSTRACT from the Nominator David Cook:
Driven by a deep commitment to discovering the troubled histories of the land she calls home, Belinda Whitta creates poetry by immersing her practice in the soil and flora. The images are cyanotype prints, stained with tea and local mānuka dye, producing a spectrum of earthy and shifty tones. The sequence shimmers with creek scenes, landscapes seen from low angles and occasional self-portraits.
On the cover are the words: ‘settler colonial trauma and reciprocity with the land. Herein lies the tension – how do we reconcile this heavy phrase with the lightness of the images?’
This artist book is an object to be held and experienced.
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
reach into the soil: settler colonial trauma and reciprocity with the land, in a concertina artist book made up of 39 photographs. Completely hand-made, I printed each cyanotype (totalling about 17 hours labour!) then bleached and toned them all. I cut and folded the concertina book myself, then mounted the 200 prints into the five books! Laid out flat, the book is just over 6.5m.
The beauty of this, is that every single image is completely unique – despite it all beginning with the same negative! I’ve come to learn that no matter the amount of consistency and rigour I force upon the process, every image will be slightly different. This is what is so special about sustainable photography, especially in the context of landscape photography. It feels more genuine to represent or work with the landscape using sustainable photography, because of this uniqueness and complete disregard for visual consistency!
In sequencing the book, I focused on the forms in the photographs as well as the content. Trying to disperse the self-portraiture throughout the more documentary-landscape photographs. With all the photos laid out like this, you can see the different perspectives – a low angle, or a wider view.
The book opens with a creek-side scene, and ends with the same scene, but with me in the frame – softened in movement and stepping down onto the stones. I made this decision as I felt it illustrated my experience with this project. With the intention to investigate and understand a space, and instead, I realised that it was the landscape that understood me, and it was only through knowing myself, that I could know the landscape.
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BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
DESIGN & EDITING: Belinda Whitta
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 39 handmade prints, handbound in concertina form in clamshell box
SPECIAL FEATURES: Original photographs taken on film, and developed in homemade alternative/sustainable developer caffenol
NUMBER OF PAGES: 41 pages
EDITION: 5
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY: Hand printed cyanotype images, later toned using black tea and mānuka dye.
VIDEO: SEE A YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE
AVAILABILITY : Contact the author
CONTACT: BELINDA
WEBSITE: https://www.belindawhiBa.com/rits_
EMAIL: belinda.whitta@gmail.com
INSTAGRAM: @be.li.n.da
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Massey University continues to be a key partner in staging four international Photobook NZ festivals in Wellington. Photobooks are a key part of our culture – we have an extensive collection of photobooks in our library and specialised workshop spaces for making books and zines. All students go on the journey of making photobooks, as they provide formats for grappling with long-form narrative and developing your own voice as an author.
STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY @ MASSEY UNI: LINK
Nominated by David Cook – Senior lecturer, Whiti o Rehua School of Art and Ngā Pae Māhutonga – The School of Design, Massey University.
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ADRIAN J. SONG – WHISPERING A SECRET INTO A SEALED BAG
Student in the Bachelor of Photography, RMIT University.
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
When you’re raised in a house where no one speaks you start to listen to what isn’t said. The possibilities are endless and so you understand very quickly, not all whispers are meant for you. Whispering a Secret into a Sealed Bag’ presents itself as an indecipherable mystery. A labyrinth of clues centered around a family unit that leads readers down an indiscernible path.
By interacting with the various twists and turns throughout the book, participants are invited into a state of ‘not knowing’. In which there is a premise of a family secret, but no real sense of certainty or closure amidst the speculation. Drawing on family archives, as well as my own photographs, the project offers a simulation of my own childhood experiences, An environment shrouded in secrecy and whispers, centered around the feeling that everyone knows something, except for you.
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SEE A VIDEO OF THE BOOK: HERE
BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 14.7 x 9.8 cm
SPECIAL FEATURES: Coptic stitched
NUMBER OF PAGES: 192 pages
EDITION: A handmade copy
ENQUIRYS ABOUT THE BOOK: Available on request
CONTACT: Adrian
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/adrianjsong
EMAIL: adrianjingsong@gmail.com
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STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY AT RMIT: HERE
At RMIT University we frame photography as an active, generative agent, central to cultural production,
Nominated by Dr Alan Hill – Co-Program Manager BA (Photo)
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ASHLEY CHAU – THE IN BETWEEN
A BACHELOR OF ARTS DESIGN PHOTOMEDIA MAJOR Photomedia student – SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Melbourne
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
The In Between is a non-linear photographic series that explores the beauty and complexities of cross-cultural identity within Australia. It is a collection of portraits, still life, and landscape photographs, delicately crafted to represent the fusion of two different cultures.
The project was initially conceptualised from my own mixed feelings of my cultural identity as a second-generation Chinese-Australian. Throughout this project’s creative process, I’ve come to accept that being ‘in-between’ is where I belong. It is a place where I can blend both cultural aspects together in the most cohesive and harmonious way and create a ‘third culture’.
Photographed on: Wurundjeri Country.
THE NOMINATOR’S COMMENT:
The in-between is created as an object- a beautifully designed intricate piece in which the viewer weaves through the blended cultural identity of Ashley and her family. Ashley’s handcrafted book shows a sophisticated understanding of image making and design.
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SEE A VIDEO OF THE BOOK: HERE
DESIGN: Ashley Chau
THE PHYSICAL BOOK: 19.5 x 25.1cm, open spine stab binding
SPECIAL FEATURES: Colour printed on Via Felt 118 gsm
NUMBER OF PAGES: 72 pages
EDITION: 1
PRICE: n/a
CONTACT ASHLEY:
Email: ashley.chau.77@gmail.com
Instagram: @ac__illustrations
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-chau-957335218/
ashley.chau.77@gmail.com.
Photomedia blends the two disciplines of Photography and Design allowing our students complete freedom as storytellers. The photobook represents this fusion of design, photography, narrative and storytelling.
STUDY PHOTOGRAPHY AT SWINBURNE: HERE
Nominated by Morganna Magee – Lecturer in Photography
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MOANA LEE – GARDEN CITY / RETURN TO EDEN
BACHELOR of Fine Arts, Photography – Ilam School of Fine Arts, Canterbury UNIVERSITY, Christchurch NZ
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ABSTRACT from the Nominator Tim Veling:
As two beautifully constructed books presented within one slipcase, Garden City / Return to Eden give poetic account of a rich tapestry of life, love, motherhood, mortality and ecological concern.
Pieced together as a series of tangentially related observations and reflections that function much like the stars of a constellation, these handmade books consist of tipped-in anthotypes – their organic matter derived from Moana’s own and mother’s gardens – inkjet prints of scanned 4×5” negatives and handwritten, diaristic text.
An intensely personal body of work that hinge on the anticipation of Moana’s mother’s passing and appreciation of her surrounding support network, its strength lies in the subtle ways in which she is able to draw out the reader’s own narratives in relation to her own. This is especially true when considering the material form of the book; the smell of beetroot, artichoke, rose, geranium, elderberry and more; the soft, fibrous paper and distinctly hand-made feel of the bound objects carry the reader on a multi-sensory experience that transcends moments depicted or discussed.
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ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
When I think about my motivations for this work, two things stick in mind; things I clung to whenever the thought of losing mum popped into my head. Firstly, the way she reacted on one of my last visits to her home in Tauranga, when seeing I had packed only black clothes to wear during my stay. “God made so many beautiful colours, why not wear those?“ followed quickly by, “Please, do not wear black to my funeral!”
The story hinged off her words and during the last times I spent with her, when all I could do to ‘help’ was housework, walking through her garden to the clothes line felt like a short, meditative walk amongst plants she loved. Her garden was a place where ideas would spring to mind about how I could express the unfathomable.
I could not just sit and be with the concept of her passing, so I kept my hands busy by making many different colours from these plants to use in anthotype emulsions. The images in the book are mostly printed using this process, not only as a way of embedding mum’s love for her garden into the work itself, but also so I might carry a part of her with me, long after her passing.
This lead to the idea of making my own second skin, as a way of her love continuing to envelope me, by taking what she had taught me – especially garden lore and dressmaking – and hand making my own clothes, infusing them with the same dye baths so I could wear colour to her funeral.
BOOK DETAILS: Self-Published
DESIGN & EDITING: Moana Lee
THE PHYSICAL BOOKS: Two codex books both 26.5 x 21.0 cm in slipcase
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE BOOK: Two books, hand bound using Japanese binding methods, presented in slipcase. Cotton Rag, washi inkjet paper, anthotype prints and Indian ink.
NUMBER OF PAGES: not available
EDITION: This book is a unique state artists book
PRINTING TECHNOLOGY: no information available
CONTACT MOANA:
Instagram: @moanajlee
Email: moana.beedance@hotmail.com
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The Ilam School of Fine Arts photography program emphasises the photobook as a vital means of distributable output, as well as significant vessel for artistic expression within contemporary photographic practice. In an increasingly fast-paced digital world, the book form emphasises a tactile, intimate and durational experience, the antidote to ‘endless scroll’.
Each undergraduate course within the photography program at Ilam incorporates an aspect of photobook conceptualisation, design and production, encouraging students to think intelligently about ways their work may engage audiences’ and hold currency within extended fields of practice.
FOR INFORMATION ON ILAM SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS PROGRAMS: HERE
Nominated by Tim J. Veling – Senior Lecturer in Photography
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OBSERVATIONS: THE ROLE OF THE PHOTOBOOK IN ACADEMIA
In the contemporary world anyone is, or can be, a photographer. Digital technology has disrupted the film and the darkroom and the need for trained technicians to wrangle out of chemical technologies a high quality result. The camera has also been subjected to digital transformation that has turned every photograph made and printed into a masterly Zone System perfect result.
Now that anyone can master the technology where does this leave photographic education? While I must concede that digital technology demands that training must be undertaken to master the range of expected outcomes required for commerce, family and art. The true purpose of contemporary photographic education must be centered on the development of visually aware people capable of creating highly successful communication in the form of still images, sequences and video.
Today’s academically trained photographer will transcend the milieu of ‘photomakers’ by their ability to tell stories in their photographs through representing what is before them through unique, innovative and conceptually profound viewpoints.
For the teacher the challenge will not be about mastering technology but rather these aesthetic capabilities. The answer as to how the mind, eye and the image can be honed and developed could be found within the idea of the photobook. Rising from obscurity 20 years ago the photobook has become a behemoth in the world of both trade and personal publishing.
The making of a photobook requires the development of a concept, planning and coordinating the creation of images, photo editing – not only digitally but also the sequence of images that are being considered. The bookmaker will need to articulate their ideas and perhaps write components of the book or collaborate with others chosen for that task. Ancillary knowledge and skill in areas of typography and book design, capabilities for collaboration, understanding the prepress, binding industries and time management will also be required.
The photobook then becomes a holistic or capstone assessment task for any photographic training institution. And through this process the student will not only be able to provide evidence of skills and knowledge and but also their achievement in creating and presenting a significant body of work.
May many other institutions offering photography studies consider embebding photobooks in their training and assessment strategies.
.Dr Doug Spowart
BIOG: Doug Spowart has for over 50 years collected photographically illustrated books and in 2012 completed a PhD on the topic of self-publishing in the digital age. He has extensively researched, judged and commentated on the photobook in Australia and New Zealand including a presentation at the 2017 Vienna Photo Book Festival.
As publisher and content producer for the Antipodean Photobook Blog he promotes internationally activities, events and publications emerging from our local region.
Spowart curated a collection of Australian and New Zealand photobooks to extend the Martin Parr collection of Antipodean photobooks in Tate Britain. In 2019 he coordinated World Photobook Day events at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.
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Please let us know what you think about this post …
Feedback is always appreciated …!
UNTIL NEXT YEAR ……
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Photobooks in Australia + New Zealand 
Hi Doug & Vicki
This is fabulous. Thank You
Cheers Bill
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Thanks Bill – there are some Amazing books there – It’s GREAT to be able to see them …
Cheers Doug
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