© Brian Paul Lamotte and Nick SethiWhat’s next for PhotoBook publishing?
PhotoBook publishing has grown exponentially over the last decade, contributing to the evolving narrative of photography. At this moment of seeming abundance, it feels important to consider the economic, environmental, political and cultural realities moving forward for publishers and artists. What values are shaping the wider culture of PhotoBook publishing? How is the current market evolving? Is it possible to create new forms of the medium that adequately express the strange, unmappable shape of our present?
Gem Fletcher is joined by Bruno Ceschel (SPBH Editions/Mack), Brian Paul Lamotte (Designer) and Lillian Wilkie (Editor and co-director of Bound Art Book Fair).
Bios
Bruno Ceschel is the founder and director of Self Publish, Be Happy (SPBH), an organization dedicated to visual culture, education, and community. Since 2010, SPBH has organized events at institutions such as Tate Modern, MoMA PS1, and Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Its collection of over 3,000 artists’ books is housed at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. As Publishing Director at SPBH Editions, Ceschel has published works by authors including Vince Aletti, Carmen Winant, Charlie Engman, and Mari Katayama. He is a visiting lecturer at École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) and Cornell University.
Brian Paul Lamotte is an independent graphic designer and educator based between Milan and Zürich, specializing in art and photography publishing. Trained in graphic design at Central Saint Martins, his practice is grounded in close collaboration with artists, editors, and printers and is characterized by a research-driven approach to image-led solutions, minimal typography, and material sensitivity in the production of the book form. His pedagogical practice focuses on contemporary publishing and visual culture, and he teaches in the Camera Arts at Lucerne University (HSLU) and at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan. He has designed and produced books and various printed projects for select publishers and cultural institutions, including Aperture Foundation, Dashwood Books, Edition Patrick Frey, Fondation Louis Vuitton, MACK, MAST Foundation, MoMA, Rizzoli and SPBH Editions, where he is currently the art director. His work is held in the collections of the International Center for Photography Library, MoMA Library, The Getty Research Institute, The Met Library, Fotobibliothek Winterthur, and Yale University Library Special Collections.
Lillian Wilkie is a writer, editor and publisher based in London and East Sussex. Her practice and research focus on artist publishing and its communities, photography and its contexts, and marginal fashion media. She is the Director of Chateau International, an independent imprint producing books, zines, editions and programming. Whilst prioritising female and non-binary artists and writers, Chateau International works with a range of international collaborators who share its interests in the counterculture, fashion, feminism, radical politics, community organising and practices of photography. Lillian is co-Director of Bound Art Book Fair at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, a key annual event that builds and sustains communities around print publishing practices whilst exploring the potential for expanded forms of publishing that engage or interact with performance, music, sculpture, fashion, moving image and activism. In 2024, she co-organised INVENTORY, a major publishing programme at Cromwell Place, London. Her writing on photography, arts and publishing has appeared in a range of titles including Modern Matter, Dazed, Elephant, 1000 Words, Frieze, British Journal of Photography, True Photo Journal and Art Monthly. She currently lectures on photography, contemporary art and writing at University of the Arts, London and the International Centre of Photography, New York.
Gem Fletcher is a writer, consultant and podcaster whose work explores photography, art and contemporary culture and how they shape and inform who we are and how we live. Her work has been published in Foam, Aperture, Dazed, It’s Nice That. Creative Review, 1000 Words and The British Journal of Photography. She has written monograph texts for Rhiannon Adam, Juan Brenner, Maggie Shannon and Flora Hanitijo, amongst others. She also hosts The Messy Truth podcast, a series of candid conversations that unpack the future of visual culture and what it means to be a photographer today. Now in its tenth season, Gem explores reflections on criticism, starting out, mental health, politics and success with guests like Antwuan Sargent, Catherine Opie, Farah Al Qasimi, Carmen Winant, Charlotte Cotton, Quil Lemons, Brea Souders and Laia Abril.
Book Now
Sat 31 Jan, 2:30 – 3:15pm
Full-day tickets are available, along with half-day tickets covering either the first two events or the last two events in the programme.
Discover the rest of the programme
no. 236848.