Sunday, July 11, 2010

The 3rd International Photobook Festival, Kassell May 2010






This post is way overdue but I wanted to make it because as festivals go this one was hard to beat. Held in the Kassell Documenta exhibition hall the festival brought together everybody and anybody who has the business and pleasure of "the photobook" at heart. With lectures, booksellers, exhibitions and the buzz of catching up with friends and colleagues it was four exhilarating days.

In between looking at books, (the Schaden team was there in force, Dirk Bakker, Steidl, Joachim Schmid and others from ABC Artist's Books Cooperative to name a few) there were the lectures; Paul Graham, Alec Soth, Rinko Kawauchi, Rob Hornstra, Joachim Schmid, Lesley Martin speaking on Aperture's history, Ferdinand Brüggemann talking about Japanese books.

There was also an exhibition of Best Photobooks with books chosen by 24 international experts among them Gerry Badger, Martin Parr, Guy Tillim, Darius Himes, Frits Gierstberg, Paul Graham, Alec Soth and others.... the award was supported by a beautifully designed and produced catalogue. Some pages are shown above....

Then there was the book dummy show and prize with a call for entries for unpublished photographers to submit a book. This year over 400 books were entered and the best 50 were on display. This year's winner was the photographer Werner Amann and his book American.

I could go on but will simply suggest you put June 1 - 5 in your diary for next year, the 4th International Photobook Festival, Kassell. Don't miss it!

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