More than ballast for a coffee table
The results of photobook collecting usually lands on the collector’s coffee table.
Most photographers use them as references for their craft.
Whether the viewpoint is landscape or humanist, or both, there is a lot to say about this medium.
Photobooks have many uses besides ballast for a coffee table.
These collections of art, when bound together, become art unto themselves on many levels.
Their value as craft, philosophy, fine art, social commentary, or capitalistic investment are all so interesting.
First, let’s look at the magical world of photobook as social commentary.
Photographers are working, specifically, “in the moment,” which is an amazing situation to be in for an artist.
They are able to make a “flash-freeze” reflection of that second of time.
The photographer has a chance to present their photobook as a cultural documentary.
Here are three books, among others recommended by photographers, themselves, that point out this amazing feature: Case History by Boris Mikhailov reflects the social break-up of the Soviet Union in 2002.
The focus is on the common people of the time.
Volker Heinze’s Ahnung (Foreboding) shows Berlin in the 1980’s before the Wall came down.
The photos feature strange close shots of things symbolic of the thinking, feeling, and the sense of time. There were only a thousand printed and this book is no longer available.
Finally, the photobook by William Klein titled New York 1954–1955 was a pivotal book for the craft of photography.
It shows the grainy, gritty, fast-moving world of the street. It makes Google Earth street-shots look like cardboard.
Humanist photographers around the world took note of this style and captured it for their own.
Secondly, let’s look at capitalistic investment.
The story I am about to tell is the high-high end of the market, but with some more research, moderate investment could also be possible with the right choices.
Photobook collecting broke through to its zenith in 1999 when the German publisher, Benedikt Taschen, produced a book titled Sumo.
This hulking book captured the life work of Helmut Newton, in such a way, that it needed its own display stand, designed by Philippe Starck.
It is 50 cm by 70 cm and is the largest book produced in the 20th Century.
It was so big that the publisher had to call upon the Vatican’s Bible binder to help make it.
The book was considered an investment and the 10,000 copies sold at 6,000 pounds each.
These photobooks are called “special investment books” which, over the next years will make it to the “rare books” category.
In 2009, a copy of “Sumo” came up on eBay and sold for 15,000 dollars almost doubling the value in less than ten years.
Another Benedikt Taschen masterpiece, is a photobook of art, artistically done, is GOAT (Greatest of All Time), a book on the boxer, Muhammad Ali, signed by Ali himself and featuring Neil Leifer’s iconic 1966 photo, Ali vs Williams.
The novel titles of these photobooks are usually a collaboration between the artist, designer, the subject, and staff. Again, the more fine art in the art the better.
The Champ’s Edition of the book was crafted with additional pictures, a silk-covered box, and a promotional limited-edition poster-extra by Jeff Koons which was eye-catching.
The entire package sold for 7,500 pounds. By 2009, a copy was sold at Abebooks for 12,000 pounds, again almost double.
Spending £1,000 or more on a book is an investment. A number of people are looking for a safe place to put their money, and the success of our limited editions have shown time and again that prices are often doubled, tripled or, in the case of Sumo, multiplied by 10.
And while you’re waiting for your money to grow, you get to own something beautiful and rare. That’s what I call a good investment — Benedikt Taschen
Photos by Sophia Baboolal, Boris Mikhailov, William Klein, Neil Leifer
