language with which one spoke about photography, with
which one was able to assist the understanding of photography and photographer’s intentions.
Do you think a lot of people read that now?
Yes, actually. People are selective about what they read.
There’s a lot of good stuff out there, but there’s a lot of bad
stuff out there too. It’s not a magazine for people who are
just starting out in the medium. We also are going to do an
app, it will be a digest of some of the things we’re doing in
the magazine. The app is more for attracting the enthusiast
and building their knowledge, rather than our magazine,
which is really for people who are already in the field and
serious about dealing with the issues professionally and artistically in a period of rapid change in the medium. I think
Aperture is an essential read for anyone with a serious interest in photography. We are working with the best writers on
photography in the world, in a very smart way.
I just want to say, visually you’ve turned the magazine
around. You’ve made it more appealing to read. I found it
to be very academic.
ever did before and they’ve got more confidence, and more
knowledge about the process of putting a book together.
To go back to your original question: how does it all begin?
Sometimes photographers come with a body of work and
we as editors or designers are really key in shaping how that
work comes to the world in book form. Often the photographer comes with either a design and a very particular version of the work that they want to see published, or, it’s at
least well on the way there. And of course the photographer
is always involved in the process. It becomes a collaboration
between a designer, editor, and photographer.
Who has the final say? You or the photographer?
The photographer definitely has the final say about the
choice of the photographs. That’s their work. I think we’re
very sensitive to a photographer’s wishes but we’ve also got
the economics of the project to worry about, and so we may
well put some pressure, and say, “We think it should be like
this. We think it will appeal to an audience better like this,”
and that’s not always what the photographer wants. I would
like to think we always resolve those things in a friendly way.
Are you a collector?
Occasionally a rather academic text creeps in. We do work
with academic writers but ask for writing directed more toward a general reader, to introduce the ideas photographers
are dealing with for a broader audience. I’m not an academic. I use myself as the judge. I’m much more of a populist.
When dealing with new artists on their first book, do you
provide a lot of guidance or do you prefer the artists that
already have a theme or idea in place?
We rarely are involved in helping a photographer make a
body of work. That sometimes happens, but usually we’re
in discussion with the photographer either when they’ve
finished or are well on the way to finishing a body of work.
Many photographers now, and this is different from a decade ago, have very clearly developed ideas of how the book
should be and exactly how they want to see it made. That’s
really changed. There’s been an incredible growth in consciousness of the form of the book.
Now when I get a book by an artist, I want it signed. I never
used to care about signatures. Now I want to have it signed.
There’s a joke going around in the photography world. It’s
to do with Martin Parr. He’s signing so many books that it’s
better to get one that’s not signed, because they’re rarer.
I don’t have the collector’s gene. I’ve never been totally serious about curating my own collection. I’m an editor and a
book maker. I love the process of making books. I love being
surrounded by books, but I’m not a collector.
Do you consider yourself a scholar?
No, I’m educated and relatively well-informed and a real enthusiast for photography, and I completed a photography degree, which was a very theoretical degree. There was a moment
in that time where I was studying Lacan and Derrida and Victor Burgin and simultaneously grappling with some problems
of growth, managing growth, with my then-employer, The
Photo Co-op. I took a business course to help me. The business course was about finding solutions to problems, and the
theoretical work I was doing in college was all about dismantling meanings. I found it nihilist. It was a fork in the road and
I chose business. I’m not an academic by nature. I’m a practical
person. I gained an academic grounding through college which
is definitely useful for my journey in photography, but I’m not
drawn to it. If something seems more interested in theory than
the encounter with the visual world, then it loses me.
With the emphasis on illuminating people about photography, do you feel that graduate school is important for a
photographer today?
That’s very funny.
There’s a real appreciation out there and a real knowledge.
The other aspect of this knowledge is the photographers.
They’re much more sophisticated and quite often their first
steps in the photo book world are to make a book, not to
go to a publisher with a body of pictures. They make the
book. They know much more about book-making than they
The world of photography has changed since I’ve been involved. Twenty years ago, most people working with a
camera, making pictures – photographers – had no training.
There was very little available.There’s been an incredible
growth in photography education. On the one hand, I would
say it’s very hard for a photographer to make an impact today without knowing where they fit into history and hav ing