The Photobook: A History Volume 3

This project was the final volume in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger’s innovative examination of photobook history. The first two volumes of the study (2004, 2006), spanning almost 130 years of photographic history, delivered what is considered to be the first comprehensive academic survey of photobook practice. The Photobook: A History, Vol. III(2014), on the other hand, was designed to highlight books discovered after the publication of Vol. II (2006) and to evaluate the significance of photobook making in contemporary photographic practice. Based on Martin Parr’s extensive photobook collection, Vol. III was supported by a constant collaborative process in which Parr and Badger uncovered artistic patterns and ideas that they then converted into thematic chapters (Neves, 2017). Prof. Parr carried out the bulk of the initial research while acquiring the numerous volumes examined in this output. During this stage of the study, Parr gathered contextual information about each title and recorded that information in a database. Once the final selection was decided, the authors created the thematic chapters and generated the introductory and individual explicative texts based on Parr’s initial field research and his deep understanding of photobook history and practice. Importantly, the different themes explored in The Photobook: A History, Vol. III(2014) -political propaganda, protest movements, colonialism, conceptual artistic practices, and contemporary debates around identity -paved the way to subsequent investigations concerning contemporary photobook practice and catalysed discussions and publications surveying, among other topics, women and photobook practice and African photobook history.