Taco Hidde Bakker

This is not a photobook: Errata Edition’s study on Zdeněk Tmej’s ‘Abeceda: duševního prázdna’ and the mystery of missing pages.

Photobooks are precious objects. The previous decade saw a rapid increase in their popularity and in their monetary value. Largely responsible for this are the books on photobooks by Andrew Roth (The Book of 101 Books, 2001) and Martin Parr & Gerry Badger (The Photobook: A History, two volumes, 2004 & 2006). These reference works have disclosed a great deal of hitherto hidden treasures. Of course, photobooks whose classical status was already established were also included, alongside obscure and sometimes extremely rare books, both from the West and beyond. While Roth, Parr & Badger and others have made us aware of the beauty and importance of photobooks as integral works of art, the inclusion in the newly established canon has led to soaring prices, and nowadays its market is the playground of wealthy collectors. It is becoming increasingly difficult to gain access to original copies of canonised photobooks.