Bound for Glory

April 2008 Focus On

Photo Booths

Man Ray Edward Ruscha Edward Weston Larry Clark Andre Kertesz Edward Steichen Paul Graham Brassai

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Photography books are almost as old as photography itself—as demonstrated by Talbot’s mid-19th-century Pencil of Nature—and production has never slacked. Editioning varies widely, from a handful to a truckful, with rarity boosting value. The tide of new fine-art titles from publishers in Europe, the U.S. and Asia has reached such heights that the quarterly magazine Photoeye, in Santa Fe, a chief reviewing source, can no longer keep up. Even if Web sites are essential for the careers of artists, most photographers still feel the need to showcase their works in a three-dimensional object.

A number of acclaimed contemporary photographic artists, including Paul Graham and John Gossage, owe their high profiles in the art market as much to their books as to their gallery shows. A deluxe edition of Graham’s A-1: The Great North Road, 1981, part of a printing of 75, sold with a signed print for $24,000 (est. $12–18,000) at Swann Galleries in December. Graham is pushing the boundaries of bookmaking and book pricing.

Last year Steidl published 1,000 copies of his brilliant A Shimmer of Possibility, 12 slim hardcovers containing open-ended narratives about anonymous American lives. The set comes in a plain white box and retails for $250. Graham is not alone. Richard Misrach’s On the Beach—so enormous, at 20 by 15 inches and 7 pounds, that most bookshelves can’t accommodate it—was published only last fall by Aperture, and the first edition of 4,500 has already sold out at a list price of $85 a copy.

David Strettell, who opened Dashwood Books, in New York, in 2005, has seen his photographic-book business grow “exponentially” since, he says, adding that his clients are collectors of contemporary titles as well as art directors and “people just looking for cool photographs.” Specializing in small-edition artist books from Japan and Europe, some of which can’t be found elsewhere in New York, he has noticed that prices even for recent and once commonly available books have shot up. Alec Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississippi, a collection, published in 2004, of pictures of oddball people and sites Soth encountered during his Midwest wanderings, now sells for more than $500. Tokyo Suburbia, 1998, by Takashi Homma, goes for $1,000.

Strettell is currently building a collection for a European banker who wants it to represent photography’s history from the 1970s to the present. Photographic books’ relatively low cost, when measured against the prices of other collectibles, is attractive for many. “If you have half a million to spend, you can have a pretty serious and complete collection of photography books,” says Strettell. “Whereas, for the same money you could only buy maybe half a dozen important photographs.”

How far a half or even a whole million dollars will go in this hot market five years from now is hard to say. Book dealers such as David Bauman and Andrew Roth, in New York; Harper Levine, in East Hampton; Jeff Hirsch, in Chicago; and Simon Finch, in London, are pushing up prices—and creating demand—for unusual items. “It’s easier to sell a $10,000 book than a $300 book,” says Daiter.

This market has its quirks, and the future of photography itself may be dematerializing into digital pixels and cyberspace. But for the moment, the inked image on the page has never been more prized.

"Bound for Glory" originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2008 Table of Contents.