Entering the photobook
A book is more than a collection of beautiful photographs: it offers a rhythm of reading.
The book offers a duration
A photobook organises an experience that unfolds in the reader’s hands. It has an opening, expectations, returns and an ending. Images can act through adjacency, accumulation or interruption. First leaf through without trying to understand everything. Then notice where you slow down, where you turn back and where a break surprises you. These reactions are clues to the reading. A book should not be judged only by asking whether every photograph could hang alone in an exhibition.
Look at the object before the argument
Format, weight, binding, paper and cover change how you approach the photographs. A small, intimate reproduction is not read like an image extending to the page’s edges. Observe the sheen, any transparency and how the book stays open. These choices are not mere signs of luxury. They may support a connection to archives, a diary, a catalogue or a family album. Do not assume every detail was intentional: first describe its effect and, where possible, consult the design and printing credits.
The spread is a unit of reading
Place the open book in front of you and compare the two sides. Look for relationships of form, gaze, colour or scale. Ask whether the images extend one another, contradict one another or remain deliberately unrelated. The central fold may divide a photograph, obstruct it or create tension. An image on the right may be preceded by empty space on the left; a small format may force you to move closer. These relationships belong to the object. A stream of separate images on a screen rarely reproduces their rhythm precisely.
Read the connections and silences
Turning a page is an action. What disappears remains briefly in memory and influences what comes next. Notice a motif returning after several pages, groups of images and changes of register. A blank page may be a pause, but also a production constraint: look for its effect without imposing an explanation. Texts, maps and reproduced documents can shift the narrative. Note their positions: reading a caption before or after a photograph does not necessarily produce the same experience.
Place a book within its edition
When consulting a well-known title, check the publisher, year, language, format and any mention of a new edition. Two versions of one project may differ in sequence, design and texts. A reprint is not necessarily a new edition; an exhibition selection is not the complete book. The V&A’s Photography and the Book room presents the role of publications in the history of the medium and offers routes into library research. A precise bibliographical reference prevents confusion between the objects being compared.
Editing your images: choose a question
Before making your own book, formulate a question in one sentence. A walk, a family archive or a territory can produce many different books. Print your images at the same small size to reduce the prestige effect of larger ones. Make families of images, then look for transitions between them. A strong photograph may prevent the book from moving forward if it resolves everything too soon. A quiet photograph may be essential because it creates a transition. Test several openings and endings before investing in expensive production.
Exercise: two dummies from the same set
Choose twelve photographs and make two eight-image dummies. The first follows a clear progression; the second relies on echoes across distances. Let another person read them separately, without spoken commentary. Ask what they retained, where they hesitated and which image they expected next. Do not simply ask which dummy they prefer. Revise one version from these observations, then record the changes. This exercise teaches you to hear a reading without abandoning your intention with every opinion you receive.
Glossary and criteria for reading
Sequence: the order of images; flatplan: an overview of the pages; dummy: a working version of the object; bleed: an image extending to the edge after trimming; colophon: production and publication information. Pitfalls include lining up only your best images, adding text to explain every ambiguity, multiplying paper types without need and confusing commercial rarity with editorial quality. A successful book can remain simple: its choices make the reading more precise and encourage a return to the photographs.
An original Luisour guide. The exercises are learning suggestions, not statements of the photographers’ intentions.