Book designer, Brian Paul Lamotte examines and explores different themes and approaches to designing and producing photobooks. This sees the class looking at case studies of both historically important titles by artists such as Alec Soth, Ed Ruscha, Moi Ver, Dieter Roth, Wolfgang Tillmans, Viviane Sassen, Jim Goldberg, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Paul Graham, and at projects from his own portfolio that draw inspiration from these titles.
Lamotte offers insight into how to think about a set of images in the context of a layout (format, margins, typography), as well as considering the book as object through conceptually driven production decisions (paper, printing). Through books designed in collaboration with artists including Carmen Winant, John Chiara, Shane Lavalette, Charlie Engman, Nick Sethi, and others, he discusses and visualizes the process of how these books took form.
Topics covered in class:
A – References Section
I. Zines / Self-Published books
Nobuyoshi Araki – Xerox Photobook #1 – “70 Faces” (Self Published, 1970)
Larry Clark – Tulsa (Lustrum Press, 1971)
Ari Marcopoulos – Directory (Rizzoli / Nieves Books, 2011)
II. Artist’s Book
Moi Ver – Paris (Editions Jeanne Walter 1931)
Dieter Roth – Literaturwurst (Literature Sausage) (Self Published 1961 – 1974)
Ed Ruscha- Everything Building on The Sunset Strip (National Excelsior Press, 1966)
Stephen Gill – Burried (Nobody Books, 2006)
Martin Parr – Playas (Chris Boot & RM Editions, 2009)
Laia Abril – The Epilogue (Dewi Lewis, 2014)
III. Traditional Photobook
Alec Soth – Niagara (Steidl, 2006)
Rinko Kawauchi – Halo (Aperture / Editions Xavier Barral, 2017)
IV. Contemporary (Spread / Collage as Image) Photobooks
Paul Graham – A Shimmer of Possibility (2007) steidlMACK
Wolfgang Tillmans – Manual (Walther König, 2007)
Viviane Sassen – Parasomnia (Prestel, 2011)
Juergen Teller – Woo! (Steidl, 2013)
B – Process Section
Andreas Laszlo Konrath — The Following Is For Reference Only (PWP)
David Brandon Geeting — Infinite Power (PWP)
Carmen Winant — My Birth (SPBH Editions & ITI Press)
Małgorzata Stankiewicz — Lassen (Meta/Books)
John Chiara — California (Aperture & Pier 24)
Shane Lavalette — Still (Noon) (Edition Patrick Frey)
Nick Sethi — Khichdi (Kitchari) (Dashwood Books)
Charlie Engman — MOM (Edition Patrick Frey)