This means that all the books we put out are very different. However, the one thing that makes us different from other publishers, like MACK and GOST, is that we do not a single designer or single design team instead, when we start work on a book, we have a global network of designers that we work with, and we will choose the right one for the project and outsource it to them. Sometimes a proposal arrives fully formed and well-designed, and there’s not much for us to do. Reverté: Once we decide we are going to publish a book, then we are very involved. How involved are you with the design process of the books that you publish?
But when you publish a new photographer, you have to be sure. For instance, we recently published a book with Lee Friedlander and we know there’s a market for it, so that’s not a problem. It’s really tough right now unless you have a big name. So we have to be really focused and understand the strengths of the books that we publish. This is what we hear from our distributors in the US, Europe and Asia. Or it’s really nice, but it’s something that has been published before, and there’s nothing new about it.Īt the moment, the photobook market seems overcrowded, so people are buying fewer books. The three of us understand the market, which is important because sometimes we see work that we like, but it won’t sell. Reverté: There are three main people working here – myself, Lea, and Mara, who is the editorial director. Sometimes we make mistakes, but we learn. Ramon still makes a lot of the decisions, as he has a great instinct for books that are going to work, but often the decision-making process is also extended to the team, which is really nice. Tyrallová: Since I joined Editorial RM five years ago, the selection process for projects we want to publish has changed. If we are the ones to propose a book, it will be work that we know will have mass-market appeal and we can print thousands of copies of, because with fewer copies, it’s very difficult to break even. A lot of the books we publish, like those that recently won The Photobook of the Year Prize at the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards ( Woman Go No’Gree and Jardín de mi Padre), came to us as proposals – we weren’t aware of them beforehand. When it comes to email proposals, we have to decide if the book will be worth publishing in terms of both the quality of the work and whether there is a market for it.
I used to make most of the decisions, but since Lea – who knows a lot about photography – has joined the company, we have both been responsible.
#PRINTLIFE PHOTOBOOK PUBLISHER SERIES#
From your experience, how do you know when a photo series is worthy of becoming a book?
You’ve published over 400 titles, many of which are photobooks. You can find information and apply to take part here.Īhead of the workshops, Ramón Reverté and Lea Tyrallová of Editorial RM spoke to Magnum about the books they have made, their processes of collaborating with a wide network of photographers, designers, and distributors, their focus on Latin America and Spain, and how they make decisions on which projects will make a good publication.
#PRINTLIFE PHOTOBOOK PUBLISHER PROFESSIONAL#
In early 2021 they will publish Jerome Sessini‘s forthcoming photobook on the war in Ukraine.Įditorial RM lead sessions as part of Magnum’s Professional Practice workshops next month focusing on photobook publishing and design, which features a programme of talks and activities with Magnum’s Rafal Milach and other photobook publishers. Editorial RM have to date published around 400 titles, including a number of monographs by Magnum photographers: Christopher Anderson‘s Capitolio, Cristina de Middel‘s This is What Hatred Did and Party: Quotations from Chairman Mao, Martin Parr‘s Playas, and Antoine d’Agata‘s Codex: Mexico1986 -2016. After their business produced two photography-led books about the Mexican architect Luis Barragan, Reverté was inspired to make books of his own, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Beginning his career working for his family’s publishing business, predominantly producing scientific and technical books, Reverté was always interested in publications about art and -in particular- photography. Ramón Reverté founded the publishing company Editorial RM, with bases in Spain and Mexico, in 1999.
0 kommentar(er)
