Anouk Kruithof, Enclosed Content Chatting Away In The Colour Invisibility
Recent shifts in photographic practices along with a growth in self-publishing platforms have seen the photobook increasingly explored as a site of experimentation, production and distribution for photographers. This panel brings together influential publishers and photographers who are pushing the boundaries of the photobook and its relationship to photographic practice. These are Aron Morel of Morel Books, Bruno Ceschel of Self Publish and Be Happy, and artist Anouk Kruithof. The panel is chaired by Simon Baker, Curator, Photography and International Art at Tate.
Speakers
Aron Mörel
Aron Mörel established Mörel books in late 2008 which specialises in publishing limited edition books. Viewing the artist's book as the final step in the artist’s work Mörel aims to engage the artist in as much of the process of the books design and production as possible, ensuring the book is a unique object built around the series of works published.
Working within a democratic and level ground of emerging artists as well as established artists, Mörel has published and is working on books by Boris Mikhailov, Mapplethorpe, Ryan McGinley, Terry Richardson, Thomas Ruff, Elizabeth Peyton and Jonathan Horowitz amongst others.
Bruno Ceschel
Bruno Ceschel is a writer, curator and lecturer in Photography at Camberwell College of Arts, London. He is the founder of Self Publish, Be Happy (SPBH) and a regular contributor of FOAM, the British Journal of Photography and HotShoe magazine. Previously to setting up SPBH, Ceschel worked as book editor at Chris Boot Ltd, was both Associate and Creative Editor at Colors Magazine and worked on the 2008 Brighton Photo Biennial. He has also curated exhibitions at Fashion Space Gallery in London and MiCamera in Milan.
Self Publish, Be Happy is an organisation which aims to promote and study self-published photobooks. Since 2010, Self Publish, Be Happy has organised events at The Photographers' Gallery, ICA and Whitechapel Gallery in London, OffPrint in Paris and at Flash Forward Festival in Toronto and Boston and its library and exhibition is perpetually on tour. SPBH published its first book titled SPBN – Self Publish, Be Naughty in October 2011 and has just released a new publication by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.
Anouk Kruithof
Anouk Kruithof is a contemporary visual artist and considers photography as a starting-point of infinite possibilities. She graduated from art college in the Netherlands in 2003. Her method is interdisciplinary and mostly ideas based. She makes photographs, photo-video and spatial installations, social in-situ works, take away art and above all she is a frenetic artist bookmaker.
Kruith has participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide including solo exhibitions at Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands, Gallery Boetzelaer|Nispen, London, Galerie Adler, Frankfurt and FOAM, Amsterdam. Her work is collected by MOMA Library, New York, Fotomuseum Winterthur and FOAM. She has won several awards including the ICP Infinity Award, the Illy-Public Prize at Art Rotterdam, the Grand Prix Jury and the SVA Photo Global Prize at Hyeres, Festival International de Mode et de Photographie.
Kruithof is a columnist on PhotoQ.NL and is writing about artistbooks on wandering bears. For her most recent artistbook A Head with Wings she wrote her first fictional short story. In 2010 she organised an exhibition about artistbooks including books of 40 international artists in Berlin.
As part of the event Tate has invited London based independent publishers to showcase some of their publications in the Starr Auditorium Foyer from 16:00-17:00. Invited publishers include Self Publish, Be Happy, Mörel Books, Preston is my Paris and SP books amongst others.
SP Books is a London based independent photobook publisher started by photographer, editor and filmmaker Peter Mann and designer Chris Bedson. SP aims to make small edition books that are satisfying physical objects which work in a very tactile way starting from the experience of turning a page and which are based on work that really needs to be experienced in book form.
Preston is my Paris was originally started by Adam Murray and Robert Parkinson in July 2009 in order to encourage the exploration of Preston as a subject for creative practice and to generally focus more attention on the city. What originally started as a free zine and blog has developed into a multi-faceted project that includes, digital applications, live events and site specific installations. Alongside this Preston is my Paris Publishing has been set up to produce limited edition, affordable, photography publications that although not explicitly focussed on Preston, share themes of the project.