The Latin American Photobook

Following on from Parr’s formative Photobook histories (Volume 1, 2004; Volume 2, 2006 and Volume 3 to be published in 2014), Parr has progressed his interest in the photographic book as a fundamental route through which to explore and analyse the development of the medium. This contribution adds significant detail and structure to our knowledge of the tendencies prevailing in South American Photography and affords readers a hitherto unavailable concentration and cultural analysis of Latin American Photography. As an essential point of reference, this book explores photographic interpretations of social, cultural and political themes in Argentina, Brazil, Chile,Columbia, Cuba, Equador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela between 1920 and the present day. 150 Photobooks were selected and analysed from wider research. The research provides revealing commentaries on creative tendencies across the modern development of Latin American photography, and features work by –and critique of- book works by practitioners including Claudia Andujar, Barbara Brändli, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Horacio Coppola, Paz Errázuriz, Graciela Iturbide, Sara Facio, Paolo Gasparini, Daniel González, Boris Kossoy, Sergio Larrain, and others. The book is structured by thematic sections that foreground particuplar imperatives -including The City, Conceptual Art and Photography. There is also an important examination of Photography and Literature, a category uniquely important to Latin America, given the dominant associated practices of writers like Borges and Garcia Marquez.The findings were introduced to European audiences through an exhibition of original publications at Le Bal, Paris in Spring 2012., A further publication, C, under Parr’s editorship, presented 16 portfolios of work -further extending knowledge of key works to indigenous audiences, whilst developing our comprehension of key aspects and tendencies previously under-represented in more established histories of photography.The book was published to coincide with exhibitions of the original artefacts at Le Bal Gallery, Paris and Aperture Gallery, New York.