Photobook or Artist’s Book? Where do we draw the line?

"By converting photobooks into a ‘container’ of information, Parr and Badger’s classification imposes a divorce between content (author) and the physical attributes of the book (design, printing, editing, etc.). A separation that has its roots in Parr and Badger’s explicit and laudable desire to not only establish the photographer as an ‘auteur’ but also the ‘photobook’ as the ‘literary novel of photographically illustrated books’. However, while such a classification might be sufficient to describe past photobook production, it is perhaps too restrictive to describe present-day photobook-making."

In a first in a series of commissioned guest contributions to the Belgian Platform for Photobooks, Jose Luis Neves wonders where to draw the line between photobooks and artist's books.