The Photobook Thread

[logan2z]

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...

ludion.be

Yeah, I saw that too.. Pre-order price of $45 at Amazon for a January release.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Thriftbooks has the new Metzker for less if you want to avoid Amazon.

 

[logan2z]

Thriftbooks has the new Metzker for less if you want to avoid Amazon.

I’ve looked at their site many times and their prices are very good, but I’ve never bought from them. Have you had good luck?

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Never had any issues that I can recall. It is a new book so what could possibly go wrong? (famous last words). Most of the books they have are used of course.

I've been leaning towards getting books directly from the publishers or anyone besides Ama-ithrowthebookinabox-zon.

It is funny that the Metzker book popped up being so affordable when we were talking about how expensive books from nobodies have become. I'll get the Metzker book for sure. It's a no brainer for $35.

 

[logan2z]

Never had any issues that I can recall. It is a new book so what could possibly go wrong?

Poor packing leading to damage, is one possibility.

I've been leaning towards getting books directly from the publishers or anyone besides Ama-ithrowthebookinabox-zon.

I mostly swore off Amazon for books a long time ago. I generally buy direct from the publisher or one of the speciality photobook sellers like Photo-Eye or Baltimore Photo Space. Occasionally, there's a ridiculous deal on a book from Amazon that is tough to pass up and I'll take my chances.

It is funny that the Metzker book popped up being so affordable when we were talking about how expensive books from nobodies have become. I'll get the Metzker book for sure. It's a no brainer for $35.

I was surprised at how inexpensive the book is as well. I'll definitely be buying a copy.

 

[albireo]

It is funny that the Metzker book popped up being so affordable when we were talking about how expensive books from nobodies have become. I'll get the Metzker book for sure. It's a no brainer for $35.

It seems it's still on pre-order based on the european Amazon websites? To be released on Feb 10th. 2026. Preorders are often heavily discounted.

 

[Bwbuff]

Yeah, I saw that too.. Pre-order price of $45 at Amazon for a January release.

Seller from the big auction site has this book for sale already, I thought the book will be released in 2026 .

 

[Bwbuff]

Poor packing leading to damage, is one possibility.



I mostly swore off Amazon for books a long time ago. I generally buy direct from the publisher or one of the speciality photobook sellers like Photo-Eye or Baltimore Photo Space. Occasionally, there's a ridiculous deal on a book from Amazon that is tough to pass up and I'll take my chances.



I was surprised at how inexpensive the book is as well. I'll definitely be buying a copy.

100 % agree , if I can avoid Amazon, ordered Mary's book by Robert Frank, arrived damaged , regrettably I had to return it for full refund.

 

[logan2z]

Seller from the big auction site has this book for sale already, I thought the book will be released in 2026 .

Was the seller on the auction site in the US or Europe?

There’s a flip-through of the book on Vimeo posted by PhotoBookStore in the UK, so it appears to already be available there. The US Simon and Schuster web site lists a release date of 01/06/26.

 

[Bwbuff]

Was the seller on the auction site in the US or Europe?

There’s a flip-through of the book on Vimeo posted by PhotoBookStore in the UK, so it appears to already be available there. The US Simon and Schuster web site lists a release date of 01/06/26.

There are few , from US, UK and Australia.

 

[logan2z]

There are few , from US, UK and Australia.

Not sure where the US sellers are getting the book, it hasn’t been released in the US yet

 

[warden]

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 wasn't able to make it to the sale unfortunately, but my pal Mike lives in the neighborhood so he went and kept an eye out for me. Here's his report that he texted after visiting.

"Found the house (1800 block of Delancy), was able to walk right in, very crowded with pokey nerdy types, as you might imagine. Quite claustrophobic. Narrow passageways, narrow stairways, and not a photography book in sight….but I persisted….UNTIL just as I was about to give up, on a table in a corner of the basement, next to some books on algae and Elizabethan poetry, I found you a treasure. You’ll have to wait until we see you again - but I think you’ll really like it. Can’t believe it wasn’t already snatched up.

If you had been interested in books on learning Latin or Greek, you could have filled your Jeep up. Very esoteric stuff."

 

[MattKing]

A friend who is a talented photographer himself bought this book for himself for Christmas:

We were visiting him (our friend) this morning. The book is gorgeous.

 

[nathanbucs]

Just went through all the posts in this thread. Thanks for all the recos and the now huge dent in my finances haha. Kidding aside, I’m based in Southeast Asia and mostly purchase books by Japanese photographers available for sale on Shashasha.

Picked up these recently which are excellent:
- Waga Tokyo 100 by Issei Suda
- Cui cui, Utatane, and Hanabi by Rinko Kawauchi

Still hunting for these two which are out of print:
- Citizens by Jun Abe
- Fushikaden by Issei Suda

 

[MTGseattle]

I don't want to belabor the thread with too much debate about costs ( justified or not) of photo books, but some of the "instantly rare," or "instantly classic" stuff lately is quite annoying.
Trent Parke books are 1 example (I like his work which makes this phenomenon doubly annoying).
Bryan Schutmaat and Todd Hido come to mind as well.


Does anyone care to speculate on what causes this seemingly instant demand?

 

[Pieter12]

Could it be the books are printed in limited editions and sell out quickly?

 

[MTGseattle]

Could it be the books are printed in limited editions and sell out quickly?

That's definitely part of it. My involvement in the overall arts scene is simply a few local gallery email lists and whatever I find out between this site and the lfpf forum. maybe if I was all over instagram I would hear about some of these folks before things got out of hand?

 

[logan2z]

maybe if I was all over instagram I would hear about some of these folks before things got out of hand?

Bingo! I believe much of the popularity of artists like Todd Hido and Brian Schutmaat (among several others) is fueled by social media hype. New work/books by these artists is plastered all over Instagram, from the artists themselves, their publishers, gallerists, their artist friends, workshop/competition organizers, etc. I doubt I would have ever heard of Schutmaat had it not been for Instagram.

I'm not really a fan of Hido or Schutmaat so their soaring book prices haven't affected me personally, but book prices in general seem to be out of control.

 

[logan2z]

I’m based in Southeast Asia and mostly purchase books by Japanese photographers available for sale on Shashasha.

I follow their YouTube channel. They have turned me on to several great Japanese photographers I wouldn't have known otherwise.

 

[Pieter12]

Good photobooks are insanely expensive to produce, and the quality is far better than it was in the past 25-50 years. That accounts for some of the prices we see today (along with inflation, of course) for new books as well as the demand for collectable books.

 

[logan2z]

Good photobooks are insanely expensive to produce, and the quality is far better than it was in the past 25-50 years. That accounts for some of the prices we see today (along with inflation, of course) for new books as well as the demand for collectable books.

I don't disagree, but prices seem to have spiked way up recently. $75-$100 seems to have become commonplace.

 

[Pieter12]

Another factor that has been brought to my attention is with the growing print-on-demand industry (which use different inks), traditional lithography inks are less in demand and there are fewer sources. That can add to the price of a good photo book.

 

[photobook44]

Hi, just found this amazing forum. I‘m from Germany and we don‘t have a forum on photobooks here. At least I don‘t know one. So thanks a lot for this.

To be honest. I like both Parke and Hido. It‘s mostly repetetive stuff. That‘s true. But the production is not cheap and the quality of „The end sends advance warning“ for example is really georgeous in my opinion . There are 6.000 copies of it. That‘s much. But Hido is really well known. So I think it will sell out again very fast like all the other 1st editions of him too.

Art is to a great part marketing. Was ist in the past and will be in the future. If you like it or not.

BTW: Merry Christmas !

 

[MattKing]

@photobook44 ,
Welcome to Photrio!
A word of warning though - this particular thread seems to be dangerous to the bank balance of many of the regular participants!

 

[logan2z]

A word of warning though - this particular thread seems to be dangerous to the bank balance of many of the regular participants!