Why Photographers Still Make Books | RCA Photography MA at Offprint, Tate Modern

Why It Matters

Photobooks give photographers a unique, marketable platform to showcase work physically, fostering direct audience engagement and new revenue streams in an increasingly digital market.

Key Takeaways

• Designing your own photobook removes limits on size and format
• Physical books create tactile, personal dialogue between artist and viewer
• Offprint at Tate Modern connects photographers with publishers and curators
• Innovative formats, like condom-shaped books, expand photographic expression
• RCA program builds confidence and market opportunities for emerging photographers

Summary

The speaker, a master's student at the Royal College of Art, explains that photobooks remain vital because they let photographers control every aspect of presentation, from size to material, and because the medium fosters a direct, tactile conversation with the audience.

He stresses that designing a book from scratch eliminates conventional limits—books can be tiny, massive, or even non‑traditional shapes—allowing artists to push photography’s boundaries. The Offprint fair at Tate Modern provides a physical venue where independent publishers, curators and creators meet, generating feedback and sales opportunities. Experimental formats, such as his condom‑shaped book “A Way to Measure the Universe,” illustrate how content and form can intertwine to address personal themes like women’s sexual health.

A memorable line captures the intimacy of the medium: “You are talking to him face to face,” referring to the reader’s interaction with the photographer’s designed pages. He also recounts his girlfriend’s mother’s surprise at the hands‑on process of sourcing paper, cloth and foil, underscoring the craft’s depth.

The discussion signals that photobooks are more than archival objects; they are strategic tools for emerging artists to build confidence, expand networks, and monetize work, reinforcing the book’s relevance in a digital age.

Original Description

This film documents Photography MA students from the Royal College of Art reflecting on the photobook as a creative medium, while preparing their publications for OFFPRINT 2025, the international book fair held at Tate Modern every year. Featuring zine-making workshop filmed at Royal College of Art, Battersea run by Self Publish, Be Happy.

Through hands-on making, students discuss the freedom of the photobook — its scale, materiality, sequencing, and tactility — and how it allows photographers to push beyond traditional image-making. From intimate, deeply personal projects to experimental formats that challenge what a “book” can be, the film captures the process of designing, printing, and publishing from scratch.

As the students prepare to present their work at Offprint, they reflect on confidence, vulnerability, audience engagement, and the importance of having a physical space to share, sell, and talk about their work with artists, publishers, and the public.

Dashen Zhang is a Chinese artist based between London and Jinan whose work investigates the ontology and history of photography, using the medium not just to record but as a way of sensing and interpreting experience. His photobook work explores how photographic tools shape meaning, blending mechanical diagrams, personal perception, and philosophical inquiry. His practice creates space for reflection on how images mediate the way we measure and understand the world around us.

Grace Beckwith (b. 2001, San Diego) is a London-based photographer whose practice interrogates femininity, sexuality, and autonomy through eerie, surreal images that challenge conventions of visibility and vulnerability. Her photobook work — often metaphorical and visceral — asks audiences to consider how photography can confront and reframe lived experience, identity, and perception.

Leah Mclaine is a Malaysian-British photographer and writer whose work stems from her experiences growing up queer within strict religious traditions. Her photobook Having Had Faith — developed during her RCA MA and sold out at OFFPRINT — explores how bodies and minds wrestle with belief, questioning what is left when faith is lost and how photography can capture those tensions.