I visited Bradford in West Yorkshire today to attend the 10th Annual Photobook Fair hosted by the Impressions Gallery.

This is the first time I’ve attended the fair or, indeed, the Impressions Gallery, but it’s a place I will look to revisit again. I only found out about the book fair recently, otherwise I’d have been there previously as I do like a good photobook.

The thing that brought it to my attention this year was when someone alerted me to the fact that they were accepting submissions of zines to be displayed and sold at the event. I’ve never really sought to commercialise any of the zines I’ve made – they’ve all been produced primarily for the zine swap I take part in each year – but I thought this might be a good opportunity for others to see my work.

I had to supply the gallery with five zines, plus a display copy. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough left from the zine swap, so I had to get another batch printed which, along with other costs, will have completely wiped out any profits I might make from sales, so I certainly didn’t do it for financial gain.

You can just make out my zine Brutal on the middle row, second from the left. I chatted with the guy manning the stall and was very pleased (and more than a little surprised) when he later informed me that one of them had been sold, although by the time I left the event, the rest of them were still present (although they will apparently be offered for sale on the gallery website for a while too).

There were a number or speakers giving talks throughout the day, including Daniel Meadows, who kindly signed a copy of a Cafe Royal zine that I had bought containing some of his work. You can see a lot of Daniel’s photographs on his website.

There were talks on publishing from a number of speakers, which were interesting and informative, covering the processes, decisions, and costs that can be involved when producing a book of your own work.

The final speaker of the day was Craig Atkinson, the founder of Cafe Royal Books, a family run independent publisher that produces zines every week covering documentary photography focused generally on British and Irish subjects. He gave a history of how the publisher came about and what had been involved. It was another fascinating talk. I own some Cafe Royal Books publications, but there are now – I believe – over 700 of them, all of which were on display (with the ability to sit and browse each), along with some large prints of pictures from selected photographers. The picture below shows just a fraction of the titles available.

While I didn’t buy a great deal today – I spent this month’s photobook allowance* a couple of weeks ago when I visited the Peter Mitchell exhibition in Leeds – I still came away with a bagfull of stuff thanks to being incredibly fortunate on a tombola stall. Of my clutch of ten tickets, four(!) were winners, landing me a couple of photobooks, a zine, and a set of postcards. 🙂

* I don’t actually have a monthly allowance for this, but I buy enough photobooks that maybe I should. I’ll certainly make sure I have a bigger budget for next year’s book fair.

Samsung Galaxy S22

Taken on 12 October 2024