Looking backwards with photobooks

This is an alternative cover.

I bought this book because photo historian Manfred Heiting part edited it. The format for his photobooks is to show the page or spread from a book, rather than just the photo. As a publication designer, I'm interested in the typography and layout of a book as well as the photos.

The 250 books featured in 'Imagining paradise' are all from the Richard and Ronay Menschel Library, which is part of the famous George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. All the books have a photographic connection -- maybe a book of travel photos, Egypt and Palestine (1858) portraits of society elites, 'Men and women of the day' (1888) agriculture, 'Pictures of East Anglican life' (1886) medicine, 'Spinal disease and spinal curvature' (1886) industry, 'Men at work: Photographic studies of modern men and machines' (1932) and obviously photo techniques, 'Agfa kine handbook (1935). All the selected books have generously sized reproductions of covers, some pages and long, well-researched details about the author, photographer, publisher, date et cetera.

There are twenty-eight essays covering various aspects of the 250 considered books, placing them in their historical perspective. The last few pages bring the history of Eastman House up to date (at least until 2007 when this book was published) with references to conservation, movies, publications. Pages 274 and 275 has a list of photographers and their work held by Eastman House and it reads like photographers Who's Who, for example: Alvin Langdon Coburn 18,090 prints, Lewis Hine 10,403, Harold Edgerton 1,077, Margaret Bourke-White 358, Alfred Stieglitz 174, Henri Cartier-Bresson 86, Esther Bubley 19.

This is a handsome-looking book with its large page size and designed by Heiting, published by Steidl with their usual customary care regarding paper choice and printing. Anyone interested in historical photobooks will find it fascinating.