Antipodean Photobooks acquired by Tate

Tireless promoters of the photobook, Doug Spowart and Victoria Cooper recently curated a selection of Australian and New Zealand photobooks to be included in the Tate Gallery photobook collection, in conjunction with the Tate’s recent aquisition of over 12,000 photobooks from Martin Parr’s personal collection.

We’ve just completed a commissioned project where a collection of 52 Australian and New Zealand photobooks were acquired by the United Kingdom’s national collection in the Tate. Two years ago the project began as a result of our participation in the 2017 Vienna Photobook Festival and a connection with Martin Parr.

Martin Parr and Doug Spowart at the SLV…PHOTO: Victoria Cooper

The Back Story

In 2017 we presented a cyanotype/photobook workshop on the Greek Island of Skopelos. At the end to the workshop we coordinated a visit to our friends Lachlan Blair and Anna Pritz who live near Vienna in Austria. Just after we booked our flights Lachlan excitedly advised us that we would be in Vienna at the time of the Vienna Photobook Festival.

I contacted co-ordinator of the Festival Regina Anzenberger and offered to make a presentation about my research on Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) photobooks. After some conversations between Lachlan and Regina she enthusiastically accepted my lecture offer. Through some further negotiations with Regina and Libby Jeffery from MomentoPro we were able to present the ANZ Photobook of the Year finalists on a table at the Fair.

Read the full post on the Cooper and Spowart blog