The Photobook Thread

Patrick Robert James · Nov 29, 2025

Forgot about the BF sales until just now. Picked up Todd Hido's expanded one at Aperture. I almost bought it last month for $48 on Amazon but glad they jacked the price back up when I went to order it. The direct from Aperture price was only $39.

Now I'm off to check out the Yale and Artbook sale. Kinda bummed I missed the Getty sale again. Still don't have the Moriyama book.

logan2z · Dec 1, 2025

Patrick Robert James said:
Kinda bummed I missed the Getty sale again. Still don't have the Moriyama book.

You’re in luck. The Getty Bookstore has a 30% off Cyber Monday sale today.

Alex Benjamin · Dec 1, 2025

Less into buying books these days than going through some in my book shelves that I haven't looked at in a while.

Today, it's Ray K. Metzker's Landscapes (Aperture/Philadelphia Museum of Art), a book I probably already mentioned in this thread. Beautiful photographs, wonderful clarity of style.

Wondering why we don't talk about him much.

Would love to get hold of this one, but totally out of my price range.

logan2z · Dec 1, 2025

Alex Benjamin said:
Less into buying books these days than going through some in my book shelves that I haven't looked at in a while.

Today, it's Ray K. Metzker's Landscapes (Aperture/Philadelphia Museum of Art), a book I probably already mentioned in this thread. Beautiful photographs, wonderful clarity of style.

Wondering why we don't talk about him much.

Would love to get hold of this one, but totally out of my price range.

The Landscapes book is the only one I own from Ray Metzker. Most of the others are very expensive on the used market, which may explain why he's not talked about much - at least in this thread.

I wish someone would reissue some of Metzkers books. Steidl published Light Lines in 2008, I'd love to see a new release of that - of course they'll announce it in 2026 but won't actually release it until 2035

albireo · Dec 1, 2025

Alex Benjamin said:
Less into buying books these days than going through some in my book shelves that I haven't looked at in a while.

Today, it's Ray K. Metzker's Landscapes (Aperture/Philadelphia Museum of Art), a book I probably already mentioned in this thread. Beautiful photographs, wonderful clarity of style.

Wondering why we don't talk about him much.

Would love to get hold of this one, but totally out of my price range.

Thanks for this! I didn't know him. His landscape book - based on the samples I browsed on google images - is stunning!

Alex Benjamin · Dec 1, 2025

Well, talk about coincidence... I was just going through The New York Times art section when I saw that photographer Ruth Thorne-Thomsen died a little over a month ago.

She was Ray Metzker's wife.

Obituary in The New York Times (paywalled)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/arts/ruth-thorne-thomsen-dead.html

Milpool · Dec 2, 2025

Metzker is terrific. Thanks for mentioning this.

Alex Benjamin said:
Less into buying books these days than going through some in my book shelves that I haven't looked at in a while.

Today, it's Ray K. Metzker's Landscapes (Aperture/Philadelphia Museum of Art), a book I probably already mentioned in this thread. Beautiful photographs, wonderful clarity of style.

Wondering why we don't talk about him much.

Would love to get hold of this one, but totally out of my price range.

Patrick Robert James · Dec 3, 2025

logan2z said:
You’re in luck. The Getty Bookstore has a 30% off Cyber Monday sale today.

Yup. On it's way.

Patrick Robert James · Dec 3, 2025

I am a fan of Metzker too, but the books are an ouch. He should be more well known. Shame.

logan2z · Dec 3, 2025

Alex Benjamin said:
Less into buying books these days than going through some in my book shelves that I haven't looked at in a while.

I'm certainly being a lot more selective, and taking fewer chances on books by photographers whose work I'm not familiar with. This is mostly due to the significant increases in new photobook prices. I routinely receive emails or see Instagram posts announcing new photography books from relatively unknown photographers that carry price tags of $75-$85.

Case in point: I just received an email from Baltimore Photo Space announcing the pre-order for a book called Gumsucker from a photographer named Rory King. I've never heard of him before, but I clicked through to the BPS web site to check it out. It's a decent size book at 11x14" and 128 pages and is published by Charcoal Press. It's priced at $75 unsigned and $80 signed. I looked up Rory King and he graduated with a BFA in 2017 and this is his second book. So he's a relatively young photographer with a limited publishing track record.

Maybe I'm too much of a tightwad when it comes to buying books, but I can’t help feeling that this one - and many others like it - is overpriced. And while I don’t know much about the economics of photobook publishing, I can’t help thinking that Charcoal Press and Rory King might be better served by pricing this young photographer’s second book more reasonably to introduce his work to a wider audience. At $80, it's not one on which I'm willing to take a chance.

nikos79 · Dec 3, 2025

This marvellous book is available at a reprint this year:

Sergio Larrain: Valparaíso

Sergio Larrain (1931–2012) published very few books during his lifetime, but perhaps the most celebrated was Valparaíso. He photographed this Chilean seaport throughout his career, but it was in the early 1960s, when he returned to his homeland after traveling the world as a Magnum photographer...

www.thamesandhudsonusa.com

Alex Benjamin · Dec 3, 2025

logan2z said:
Maybe I'm too much of a tightwad when it comes to buying books, but I can’t help feeling that this one - and many others like it - is overpriced. And while I don’t know much about the economics of photobook publishing, I can’t help thinking that Charcoal Press and Rory King might be better served by pricing this young photographer’s second book more reasonably to introduce his work to a wider audience. At $80, it's not one on which I'm willing to take a chance.

I feel exactly the same.

nikos79 · Dec 3, 2025

The Prix de Livres of Lausanne internationally acclaimed photo book award prizes more aesthetics of the book than actual content.
Generally flashy, quirky, overwhelming prints and design with not so interesting content. Sometimes the concept e.g. the writing and intentions takes most part of the book than the actual photos.
And of course crazily overpriced. Might be a marketing strategy who knows.

MattKing · Dec 3, 2025

logan2z said:
Case in point: I just received an email from Baltimore Photo Space announcing the pre-order for a book called Gumsucker from a photographer named Rory King. I've never heard of him before, but I clicked through to the BPS web site to check it out. It's a decent size book at 11x14" and 128 pages and is published by Charcoal Press. It's priced at $75 unsigned and $80 signed. I looked up Rory King and he graduated with a BFA in 2017 and this is his second book. So he's a relatively young photographer with a limited publishing track record.

Well, he does have a really good surname!

Patrick Robert James · Dec 3, 2025

I agree. These days I feel a bit of fatigue with books. Most of them are just too expensive for what they are, and I already have so many. A lot of which I have barely looked at.

One sad thing today is the price of used books. Sometimes if you don't pony up for something you want when it is new, you won't ever be able to get it.

The trend for everything to be big and expensive even for new photographers is ridiculous. I am not going to take a chance on that egotistical fluff for someone who has no track record. To build an audience make a book small and affordable. I love small books that have good printing. I doubt I'm the only one. Some of my favorites are simple books that weren't very expensive. Wessel's Night Walk is a good example. So are the Getty In Focus series.

Mike Lopez · Dec 3, 2025

Ray Metzker is one of my all-time favorites. @logan2z Light Lines is one of the "you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands" books in my collection.

logan2z · Dec 3, 2025

MattKing said:
Well, he does have a really good surname!

Does this give him the right to charge a King's ransom for his book

nikos79 · Dec 3, 2025

logan2z said:
Does this give him the right to charge a King's ransom for his book

I guess it also depends on whether they want to make money out of it or not. If they want they need to charge a higher value. If they don't really care then the price of the book can be low

MattKing · Dec 3, 2025

logan2z said:
Does this give him the right to charge a King's ransom for his book

He probably isn't.
Newish photographer = small production run and potentially higher per sale promotional costs.

logan2z · Dec 4, 2025

MattKing said:
He probably isn't.
Newish photographer = small production run and potentially higher per sale promotional costs.

Sorry, I made a bad joke. I'm quite sure the photographer himself had nothing to do with the pricing of the book.

Milpool · Dec 4, 2025

I agree - small books printed well. Night Walk is good. Tice’s small books like Seacoast Maine etc. (although those are probably also expensive now). There are many other examples.

I’ve more or less stopped buying books, not to mention prints.

You mentioned Hido earlier. I’ve always liked his work but don’t have any books so that’s something I’d probably still buy.

Patrick Robert James said:
I agree. These days I feel a bit of fatigue with books. Most of them are just too expensive for what they are, and I already have so many. A lot of which I have barely looked at.

One sad thing today is the price of used books. Sometimes if you don't pony up for something you want when it is new, you won't ever be able to get it.

The trend for everything to be big and expensive even for new photographers is ridiculous. I am not going to take a chance on that egotistical fluff for someone who has no track record. To build an audience make a book small and affordable. I love small books that have good printing. I doubt I'm the only one. Some of my favorites are simple books that weren't very expensive. Wessel's Night Walk is a good example. So are the Getty In Focus series.

warden · Dec 4, 2025

There is an estate sale happening tomorrow in Philadelphia that I may attend. A well heeled man had a massive collection of books which he kept in every room of his house, and they will be sold off to those who show up. There are over 100,000 books in this man's house. Unbelievable.

logan2z · Dec 4, 2025

Milpool said:
I agree - small books printed well.

An example of this for me is The River is Moving / The Blackbird Must be Flying by Gary Green, published by L'Artiere in 2020. A beautiful little book that I look through often.

THE RIVER IS MOVING / THE BLACKBIRD MUST BE FLYING – GARY GREEN | L’Artiere Edizioni, independent publishing house and photography books

A meditation on nature and the idea that all elements (including human beings) are connected to each other.

www.lartiere.com

Pieter12 · Dec 4, 2025

warden said:
There is an estate sale happening tomorrow in Philadelphia that I may attend. A well heeled man had a massive collection of books which he kept in every room of his house, and they will be sold off to those who show up. There are over 100,000 books in this man's house. Unbelievable.

I read about that. It brought to mind the character from The Brutalist.

Alex Benjamin · Dec 5, 2025

Just saw that Ludio reissued Ray Metzker's City Lux this year.

Ray K. Metzker. City Lux

Ray K. Metzker. City Lux , Ray K. Metzker (1931–2014) is today recognized as one of the great masters of American photography. Trained at the progressive Institute of Design in Chicago – the brainchild of Bauhaus pioneer László Moholy-Nagy – Metzker developed a distinctly experimental style...

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