A new era for "Out of print"

Eugène Atget's Photographe de Paris. Photograph: Errata Editions

From The Guardian
By Liz Jobey

......a new series of photography books about photography books. If this sounds a bit like trainspotting, it probably is. But one of the main growth areas in photography over the past decade has been the interest in photographic books – not so much in new titles (though there has been a definite expansion there), but in second-hand books, the ones that are increasingly rare, out of print, and out of the range of most pockets.

Errata Editions, a small American press, has just launched its first four titles, based on the idea – which, as far as I know, has never been tried before – of presenting rare and out-of-print books in their original formats: not as facsimile editions or reprints, but as page-by-page reproductions, scanned from the original, displayed in their original sequences, with their original texts (translated into English where necessary), title pages, colophons and even errata slips.

Each book has a new essay by a contemporary photo historian, a short biography of the photographer, data about the original publication – where it was printed, how many copies, etc – and a list of other titles by the same photographer. In other words, each Errata book acts as a kind of host to its original title.

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Deutsche Börse Award

Paul Graham ©

Paul Graham (b. 1956, UK), has been awarded the 2009 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.The Award was presented at a special evening ceremony on Wednesday 25 March 2009. Jefferson Hack, co-founder of Dazed & Confused, presented the £30,000 award.The Prize is presented by The Photographers’ Gallery and sponsored by Deutsche Börse group.Paul Graham was selected by the Jury for his publication, a shimmer of possibility
Now in its thirteenth year, this annual Prize rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution to photography in Europe, through either an exhibition or publication, over the past year.
The other shortlisted artists in this year’s Prize, each awarded £3,000, are:

Emily Jacir (b.1970, Palestine) nominated for her installation, Material for a Film, presented at the 2007 Venice Biennale (7 June – 21 November 2007).

Tod Papageorge (b.1940, USA) nominated for the exhibition Passing Through Eden - Photographs of Central Park at Michael Hoppen Gallery, London (7 March - 12 April 2008).

Taryn Simon (b.1975, USA) nominated for her exhibition An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar at The Photographers' Gallery, London (13 September -11 November 2007).

The Jury this year: David Campany (writer/lecturer, University of Westminster, UK); David Goldblatt (photographer, South Africa); Chus Martínez (Chief Curator, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain); and Anne-Marie Beckmann (Curator, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany). The Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, Brett Rogers is the non-voting Chair.

In Focus with Ghirri

Lucerne,” 1971-72, from Paesaggi di cartone. Luigi Ghirri ©

Few weeks ago on the In Focus section of the New York Times i found the work of Luigi Ghirri. Being one of my favorite italian photographer it was worth mentioning. I believe there is also a show at the Aperture Foundation in NY.

Earlier this year, the Aperture Foundation published “It’s Beautiful Here, Isn’t
It…,” the first U.S. monograph of the Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri (1943-1992). Hardly known outside Italy, Ghirri’s work will now be the focus of an exhibition at the Aperture Gallery opening Nov. 7. His strange and whimsical photographs center on mundane Italian society and recall, in some ways, the snapshot approach of Stephen Shore, Lee Friedlander and William Eggleston, who wrote the book’s preface. However, unlike his American counterparts, Ghirri’s visual style is painterly and often more absurdly surreal.

Rimimi,” 1985, from Paesaggio Italiano. Luigi Ghirri ©