duction techniques and design approach, often
with a new introduction by an author, critic, cura-
tor, or art historian. More than 25 years after
Random House subsidiary Pantheon Books pub-
lished the internationally successful trade edition of
Wisconsin Death Trip(1973) by Michael Lesy, the
University of New Mexico Press released its own
version as a paperback reprint edition in 2000.
Many other successful works, in contrast, did not
extend their availability via a second edition. Henri
Cartier-Bresson’sThe Decisive Moment(1952) was
published simultaneously by Simon & Schuster,
New York, and E ́ditions Verve, a Paris-based art
press run by Stratis Eleftheriadis, known as Te ́r-
iade. After its immense impact on twentieth century
photography, the book sold out and did not reap-
pear as a new edition.
Along with reprints and co-editions, the proces-
sion of rare art books perpetually re-entering the
art market lengthened through each decade.The
North American Indian, a 20-volume photographic
and narrative series by Edward Sheriff Curtis, was
published from 1907 to 1930 with financial backing
from John Pierpont Morgan. John Andrew & Son
and the Suffolk Engraving Company hand-pressed
2276 bound and portfolio photogravure prints for
each of the nearly 300 editions produced. By the
time The Plimpton Press of Norwood, Massachu-
setts, published the final volume in the set, the
unprecedented publishing feat went largely unno-
ticed by book patrons in the 1930s. In the 1970s,
collectors and auction houses began to express a
surge of interest in Curtis’s work, and by the turn
of the century, each volume sold for prices ranging
from $7,500 to $20,000.
As smaller art presses produced more short-run
books of the highest production quality each year,
many sought to enhance distribution opportunities
and marketability to potential collectors. From its
first year in 1952, New York-based Aperture was
known for its influential photography magazine of
the same name, led by Minor White. In 1965, when
Michael Hoffman came on board as editor after
White’s departure, Aperture created a book pub-
lishing program. Released that same year, the
Edward Weston monographThe Flame of Recog-
nition, edited by Nancy Newhall, became one of the
best-selling photography books of the century. In
1968, Hoffman partnered with publisher Jonathan
Williams to establish The Book Organization, a
cooperative endeavor designed to strengthen book-
store sales for a group of small art presses. As
Aperture’s publishing operations expanded under
the Aperture Foundation umbrella, publications
like theMasters of Photographyseries and the land-
mark monographDiane Arbus(1972),published in
association with MoMA, brought the press its
greatest visibility and successes yet.
In 1979, photo-eye of Santa Fe, New Mexico,
createdBooklist, a quarterly international guide to
photography book publishing. Photo-eye develop-
ed Booklist, deemed the only publication of its
kind, alongside its own imprint, photo-eye Books.
Within 20 years, photo-eye became the largest inde-
pendent photography bookstore in the United
States. When New York-based Distributed Art
Publishers, known as DAP, was established in
1990, it soon became the largest international dis-
tributor of contemporary fine art books. The DAP
catalog includes titles from independent presses
such as Actar of Barcelona, Spain; Steidl of Got-
tingen, Germany; and Hatje Cantz Verlag of Ost-
fildern, Germany. Publications from museums
such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, the
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the San Fran-
cisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston; rounded out the catalogue.
From the 1970s onward, dozens of small presses
specializing in photography books debuted, as de-
mand for such works grew along with their af-
fordability as mass-produced art objects. In New
York, photographer Ralph Gibson started his own
art press, Lustrum, in 1969. The following year,
Gibson self-published the highly acclaimed book
The Somnambulist, and in 1971, Larry Clark’s
groundbreaking Tulsa. Gibson later produced
more than 30 monographs that established him as
both a photographer and book artist.
In 1984, Benedikt Taschen began publishing pho-
tography under his Taschen Books imprint, based in
Cologne, Germany. Over the next 15 years, the press
established its reputation through the lush, high-
quality printing of its photo-book line. Each title
was produced in mass quantities and sold at rela-
tively low prices in large bookshops. In 1999,
Taschen published a 464-page photo-book by Hel-
mut Newton calledSumo.Measuring 3132 inches
and weighing in at 66 pounds, it was the biggest and
most expensive book published in the twentieth cen-
tury. Taschen released a limited edition of 10,000
signed and numbered copies, with each one accom-
panied by its own display stand.
In 1991, Walter Keller and George Reinhart
founded Scalo in Zurich, Switzerland, with an ad-
ditional office and gallery in New York. The defi-
nitive Robert Frank book The Americans, first
published by renowned French press Robert Del-
pire in 1958, joined the Scalo edition list in 1998.
Phaidon Press, founded in 1923 by Bela HorovitzFINE ARTS PRESSES