Another photo book by photographer Sunil Gupta reiterates that the lens is now looking bookwards Sunil Gupta ,57,recently launched yet another photography book titled Queer,published by Vadhera Art Gallery and Prestel in Delhi. He will soon launch it in London. From large coffee table tomes to small pocket-book varieties,books on photography have become popular collectors items. A year back Dayanita Singh brought out a self-titled retrospective book,that was also recently launched in Spain. In the pipeline are books we will cherish for a long time. The big daddy of photo books from India,Raghu Rai will soon have two more tomes,one on trees,and the other on forgotten frames from Bangladesh. Whereas,fashion and lifestyle photographer Amit Pasrichas India At Home,will release next year. A variety of photographers are investing time and money in the production of photography books,which have a good chance to become artwork themselves. Anyone who has made a name for themselves at least have one photo book to their credit. In todays age of software,internet and digital prints,production of a photo-book has become an easier process, says Rai. The photo book has a hallowed history. The earliest example lies in the Alkazi Art Foundation in the form of photo journals that the British brought out in the 1930s and 40s. The boom in photography has led to a wide range of books. From collectors items like Singhs Sent A Letter and Pasrichas Monumental India that can cost up to Rs 10,000,to affordable photo magazines like Camera Work,that have been brought out by Gupta and Gill and PIX (a new photo magazine) by Rahab Allana. Gupta recalls that his relationship with books began even before he took up the camera. As a young man growing up in an India that was not gay-sensitive,I found my best companions in books because they were private. When I began to take photographs,the next logical step was to preserve and present them in books, says Gupta who has over 10 published photo books. Queer documents a range of Guptas work,from the early days as a queer diaspora artist living in London in the 80s and 90s to his latest series Sun City 2011,a gay photo-fantasy set in a Turkish Bath House in Paris. The book format lends itself very well to photographs since,unlike other art forms like painting and sculpture,which may only be represented by photographs of the artwork; a photography book comes as close to owning the actual artwork as one can get, he says. Singh echoes a similar sentiment. Thats why she began making hand-made photo-dairies for her friends and later developed them into a mini-exhibition that got boxed in Sent A Letter,a collection of seven small accordion books. After that we saw several books from her large coffee table varieties,Myself Mona Ahmed,Privacy,Go Away Closer and her small diary-sized catalogues for Dream Villa and The Blue Book. My purpose in creating these books is to make my work accessible. And have a mini-exhibition, says Singh. However,Pasricha believes that the book cannot replace an exhibition. For me a photo-book doesnt rival an exhibition,even though the books I produce are large sized. Mounted and framed and on the wall is the way I like my photos, he says. But,a book immortalises your work for at least 10 to 15 years. It is a document accessible to generations and travels across borders, he adds. His next book,resembles mounted photos. They will appear framed and butter paper in-between the pages will ensure you see one picture at a time, he says.
