Schedule and Fee

Fee €25
12pm Sat 19 May
The Library Project, 4 Temple Bar Street, Dublin 2

Who is this for?

This seminar is aimed at artists, photographers, and creatives working in the design and production of books, and those planning to publish in the near future, who wish to learn about contemporary approaches to this enduring format. Looking at important examples from our extensive book collection, participants will find out how others have applied design thinking. The goal is for participants to leave with an informed opinion on contemporary trends and with enough inspiration to tackle self-publishing.

Description

Photobooks have become a very important tool for photographers. Contemporary photographic practices and publishing nowadays go hand in hand, having the photobook enjoy a continuous boom for the last 10 years. This process was facilitated by cheaper means of production, by deeper collaborations with designers – who in many cases made the object a success beyond the quality of the work- and by the growing exposure of this format with festivals and book exhibitions.

The seminar looks at how we all can benefit from the photobook’s recent history, learning from incredible successes and resounded failures, and informing design strategies to respond to our work. Participants will be invited to browse through and deconstruct a wealth of examples drawn from the temporary exhibition of the Fotobook Festival Kassel Dummy Award shortlist, in addition to the PhotoIreland Foundation Collection.

Mentor

Ángel Luis González

Ángel Luis González is CEO and Director of PhotoIreland Foundation, an organisation that promotes a critical engagement with Photography. Ángel won the David Manley Entrepreneur Award in 2011 for the PhotoIreland Festival. In 2013, he launched The Library Project, a cultural hub in Dublin city centre offering a growing photobook library, an eclectic Art bookshop and a productive gallery. He has been a portfolio reviewer at many international festivals and is responsible for books like ‘Martin Parr’s Best Books of the Decade’ in 2011, ‘New Irish Works’ in 2013, and the latest series of ‘New Irish Works’ in 2016. He was a contributor to Landskrona Foto 2016, focused on Irish Photography, and he lectures at the Fine Art Photography Master at IED Madrid.

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About the Critical Academy

The Critical Academy opens up a new radical space where to learn, research and examine contemporary art practices around Photography and their contexts, as much as the arts management and cultural policy that affects them. The academy has been created by PhotoIreland Foundation in a bid to develop an educational space outside the traditional institutions where practitioners and theorists can gather to experiment and challenge contemporary ideas that affect their practice.

The Critical Academy offers a number of opportunities to actively participate in its programme, aiming at times at very specific backgrounds, with three main components: a new educational space for Seminars; group Research on key projects; professional Development and Support programmes for artists and Arts administrators.

The Critical Academy is a project by PhotoIreland Foundation. Find out more at edu.photoireland.org