Why Print Matters
Melissa DeWitt on the pleasures of photography books
Many of you know that I love photography books. A few months ago I caught up with Hotshoe publisher Wendy Ehst and editor-in-chief Melissa DeWitt to shoot the breeze and hear about what they were up to with the magazine. I like to promote books and the people who make them and I love sharing bookwork with my readers. Today, I’m spotlighting some FlakPhoto friends doing exceptional work in the print space.
I want more people to hear about Hotshoe so I invited Melissa to write a piece about what printing a photography magazine means to her. She graciously took me up on my offer and drafted an essay that really gets to the heart of why books are still essential in our always-on digital culture. They’re portable and precious and wonderful in myriad ways. Above all, they last. If you’re a book person, you know what I mean. I could go on (and I may someday!). I’ll let Melissa take it from here.
By the way, we’re giving away three copies of Hotshoe’s Todd Hido issue below. Read on to learn how you can get a copy for your library. Enjoy!
I’ve always loved books, something I shared with my best friend growing up, who, being a faster reader with a broader vocabulary, won all our reading competitions and most of our arguments. Summers were spent lounging around with a book from the third grade until I was old enough to drink legally; when I wasn’t working, I was reading. The inside of a library still feels like hope, a whiff of vanilla whispering to me that anything is possible. The choice of a bookmark. Each thing its own satisfaction. For me, nothing is more nostalgic than the smell of ink on a page, and nothing more exciting than choosing a book by its cover in anticipation of the secrets revealed inside.
Photobooks are the natural home of photography.
Combine that with an obsession with photography and you have the inspiration behind Hotshoe. More of a book than a magazine, Hotshoe is published twice a year in the United Kingdom as an independent photographic journal focused on a movement, person, or moment in the photographic canon. But I also think of Hotshoe as a curated space where you find not only artists’ voices but also new perspectives on their work, with portfolios juxtaposed in unexpected ways. Gregory Barker, who sequences the images, is a terrific storyteller. The photographers enjoy it, too, because it brings another interpretation to their work, which is, after all, the point of art. The artist’s intention is just a starting point. Art needs to be out in the world so it can grow and become bigger than itself.
Hotshoe’s dichotomous characteristics also make it both high and low. Something not too precious to be carried around with you but also collectible enough to handle with white gloves, like the Chris Killip issues bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum for their print archive.
Photobooks are the natural home of photography. Exhibitions are lovely, but books showcase the most exciting work. Photography is democratic by nature, and books are the easiest and cheapest way of getting a photographer’s work out there to a broader audience. If you visit any of the big photo fairs, the most vibrant area is always the photobook section because sharing and collecting photobooks is a passion for many people. They are art objects in and of themselves.
There are no accidents in the design of a photobook. Every detail is carefully considered and rendered in physical and visual metaphors. I feel the same sense of excitement every time I unwrap a new title, whether I feel the cloth of a cover embossed and inset with foil under my fingertips, the cool smoothness of a shiny hardcover, or the powdery fragility of a hand-sewn paper binding tied with a bow. The weight, the choice of paper, coarse or smooth, cool or warm; the size, the shape, the scale — these details matter. I am not a designer, so I won’t pretend to understand the language of fonts and paper and ink; our designer, Duncan Whyte, is fluent in that language and responsible for designing some of the best award-winning photobooks in recent publication.
The physicality of a printed object also invites intimacy and connection. I feel that there is a community of readers who recognize the words and the work in the pages of Hotshoe. Digital media is excellent for mass information gathering. Still, print slows us down and allows us to concentrate without distractions, inviting us to experience what is being showcased with more of our senses. It’s easier to understand and remember things you see in print and find them again when you want to reference something. Maybe its tangibility makes it more real? We believe in it more. We trust it.
I think people regard print more seriously because the costs involved in printing are too high not to be taken seriously. People involved in publishing aren’t doing it for the money or the prestige. You must be passionate about making books and appreciate that the process and collaborating with people you respect are the true joy.
Perhaps collecting is akin to building a crypt for when we die, filled with all the titles of all the things that made us who we are, because that is what I think books do — they mold us into who we are. Why see a therapist when all the answers to all the questions can be found between the pages of a good book?
About the author
Melissa DeWitt is editor-in-chief of Hotshoe, the UK’s leading independent magazine focusing on photography. She has 25 years of experience in the art world, including the past 20 years as director of Hotshoe. She studied at Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois.
Win a copy of Hotshoe Issue 210: Todd Hido!
I want to hear from you, dear readers. Submission is FREE and easy.
Tell me why books matter to you in the comments for a chance to win. Be creative and have fun with this — I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
I'll draw three random winners from the comments on July 4, 2024.
This FlakPhoto giveaway is open to free and paid subscribers. The winning books will be shipped internationally from the UK. Good luck!
A friend of mine who is a book publisher says that books are the main technology for ideas and emotions to endure. This is more eloquent when the book it’s about photographs.
Books give a realness to the photographic process. It gives us a chance to appreciate the entire process that the photographer took to make the book. From the photo, editing, paper and layout. It’s offers mystery and a learning experience.