A Look at Artists' Books Symposium: Innovators and Innovations, Part 2

Why It Matters

The talk demonstrates that photobooks’ physical form and collaborative production are central to how photographic work is read, collected and republished, affecting market value, curatorial practice and historical memory. Understanding these material strategies informs collectors, publishers and scholars about how editions and design choices remap photographic meaning.

Summary

Russett Letterman surveyed the ‘objectness’ of Japanese photobooks, arguing that material design, sequencing and collaborative authorship are integral to their meaning. She highlighted landmark projects — Tadanori Yokoo’s elaborate designs, Eikoh Hosoe’s shifting editions of Barakei/Ordeal by Roses, Kikuji Kawada’s multi-layered Chizu, and Daido Moriyama’s DIY Xerox storefront books — to show how packaging, reprints and unconventional production reshape photographic narratives. Letterman traced how designers, photographers and writers intentionally use slipcases, gatefolds, montages and zines to create tiny, self-contained universes rather than mere photo compilations. She emphasized the ongoing reinterpretation through facsimiles and reissues that both preserve and transform originals.

Original Description

Join artists, scholars, and publishers for part 2 of "Innovators and Innovations," recorded during the 2018 symposium "A Look at Artists’ Books: Developing Collections at the Met."

Presentations include:

Russet Lederman: 0:10 - 0:28

“The Photobook as Object”

Paul Chan: 19:39 - 20:02

“What is Badlands Unlimited”

Q&A: 41:57

With Jared Ash, Tony White, Jennifer Farrell, Allison Rudnick, Russet Lederman, and Paul Chan.

Subscribe for new content from The Met: https://www.youtube.com/user/metmuseum

#TheMet #Art #TheMetropolitanMuseumofArt #Museum

© 2025 The Metropolitan Museum of Art