The End

Dear Readers,

To be able to save time and energy for my personal work, I’ve decided to quit this project. There will be no more posts or updates here, but the content will remain online for as long as possible.

If you want to get in touch with me, you can do so via my website. If you want to be updated about future projects of mine, subscribe to my mailing list.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the visitors, contributors and supporters of The Digital Photobook.

Best,

Martin Brink

Remix PDF

iPad screen grabs of Remix. Photo from Byron Wolfe's Everyday.

I recently asked some publishers if I could use screen grabs of their digital photobooks in a slideshow. The idea was to make a remix edit, placing the books in new and different contexts beside each other. Creative editing for me, and a way to promote some digital books. Instead of making a slideshow I decided that making a PDF was better. Look at your own pace or as a slideshow. It's also the way I edit/showcase some of my own projects.

Thanks to the publishers/artists who agreed. Titles included:

As it is again by JoAnn Verburg (Location Books)
Same Same by John Vink (4Rivers)
Everyday by Byron Wolfe (One Tree Press)
DPR House, MCK Architects by Outcast Editions (Outcast Editions)
Ken Schles: A Digital Resource by The Photobook Club (The Photobook Club)
Bronx Boys by Stephen Shames (FotoEvidence)
Psychometry by Carol Golemboski (Carol Golemboski)
Random Strangers by John Ryan Brubaker (Turn Out Press)
Maps for Getting Lost by John Ryan Brubaker (Turn Out Press)
Untitled by Larry Clark (Nieves)


Remix

1496 x 2048 px pdf, 26 pages, 23 photos.

Download (16 mb)

The PDF's size is optimized for viewing on the iPad with iBooks.

Digital Photobook Advantages

As enthusiasts of photobooks we know that there's a huge desire to produce, own and collect them. Where does that leave the digital photobook? How can it attract artists and readers? Below are three examples of work that take advantage of the medium. Of course these categories can be, and are combined.


The Screen

The simple fact is: With the screen we can do things we can't do on paper, and that's something we should be excited about. It could be video, animations, interaction, distribution, updates, etc... you name it! To me, this is the most exciting category, because it makes creative use of the medium.

Examples: CCcell by Taiji Matsue and Via PanAm by Kadir Van Lohuizen


The Archive or Coffee Table Book

There's really no limit to how many images we can put in a digital book. Projects that would be too expensive to publish in book form, or would have to end up as huge and heavy coffee table books, can instead end up as handy and easily navigated digital books.

Examples: Everyday by Byron Wolfe and Personal Best by Elliott Erwitt


The Existing Photobook

Many digital photobooks already exist in physical form. The most exciting ones are often the ones that are based on books that are out-of-print. Publishing expensive and rare out-of-print books in digital form is a great way of making the work accessible to a wider audience.

Examples: Invisible City by Ken Schles and Sugimoto 1988 by Hiroshi Sugimoto

Top Digital Photobooks

This time of the year, lists of the best photo books are starting to appear on blogs and websites. As a contrast I decided to make a list with what I consider the best and most important digital photo books (or collections of them). Due to the lack of published digital books compared to physical books, and that it's still a relatively new medium, I included some books published before 2012 as well.

iPad screen grab from CCcell

Top Pick:

CCcell by Taiji Matsue


Highly Recommended:

As it is again by JoAnn Verburg

Bronx Boys by Stephen Shames

Everyday by Byron Wolfe

Ken Schles: Invisible City, A Digital Resource by The Photobook Club

Nieves App

Online Editions by Fazal Sheikh

Personal Best by Elliott Erwitt

Quest for Land by John Vink

Radiation Tokyo by Suguru Takeuchi

Still Crazy by Taishi Hirokawa

Sugimoto 1988 by Hiroshi Sugimoto

Tokyo Suburbia by Takashi Homma

Tunnel by Hoichi Nishiyama

War Primer 2 by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

Where E-books and Photobooks Meet by Greg Albers


Other notable projects and books I haven't had the chance to look at: 

Figures & Fictions

Oil by Edward Burtynsky

Via PanAm by Kadir Van Lohuizen



For an updated and permanent list have a look at my Recommendations.

Sorry for the lack of posts

Recently I haven't had the time to post as much as I want to. I've been focusing on making new photographs, completing my new Perspective pdf book as well as dealing with many other tasks. I'm not sure when and if I'll get back to posting again. It takes more time than one can imagine, especially getting enough time to look at new projects as carefully as I want to, and trying to transform my thoughts into posts.
I started this blog to bring more attention to the digital world of photo books and it was never something I imagined myself to carry on with forever. The blog will of course stay online and there might be the occasional new posts as well, either by me or guests, but not as frequently. So still feel free to contact me if you want to tell me about a new project or need input on one. I'm also on Twitter where I'll continue sharing projects and news. I'll use the hashtag #digiphotobook and encourage everyone who wants to share related news or discussions to use it.

Best,

Martin

Where E-Books and Photobooks Meet by Greg Albers

The images above are iPad screen grabs.

Greg Albers of Hol Art Books recently gave a talk about digital photobook publishing at the Phoenix Art Museum, where he mentioned The Digital Photobook. He also produced an interesting ebook version of the talk. Above are some screen grabs from the ebook and below are some extracts from the Hol Art Books blog. Read the whole post and download the ebook for free here.

"Where E-Books and Photobooks Meet is a talk I recently gave at the Phoenix Art Museum. It was organized by the museum's very active In Focus, photography patrons group, and is a reprise, and update, of a talk I first gave at the Society for Photographic Education conference (SPE) in San Francisco this past March. 

Though I hope you'll download the e-book version of the talk for yourself, if you're not sure you want to slog through the whole thing I'll just give you my conclusion right here: Photobooks + EPUB = ♥

And over the short five months since giving this talk the first time, there have been a number of interesting new efforts, including:

A great new digital photobook review site, from photographer Martin Brink (and I love Brink's free PDF photobooks as well): The Digital Photobook."