The Masters of Photography series was first published in 1976 by Aperture, the nonprofit photography resource center and publisher based in New York, but it’s been out of print since the early 1990s. Each of the small, handsomely designed hardcovers in the series focuses on one of the world’s greatest photographers—among them Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, Tina Modotti, and Berenice Abbott—and includes a critical foreword and a selection of about 60 duotone b&w reproductions.
Beginning in October, Aperture will revive Masters of Photography, re-releasing most of the previous titles with new jacket art, additional images, and updated forewords, as well as publishing new titles featuring more recent artists. The first two books in the relaunched series focus on Paul Strand (with a new foreword by Peter Barbarie) and Dorothea Lange (with a foreword by Linda Gordon), respectively.
Originally entitled the History of Photography series, the line was started by the late Michael Hoffman, the longtime director of Aperture, and included 20 books. “The last printing for any title in the series was sometime in the 1990s,” said Chris Boot, executive director of Aperture. “The series moved a lot of copies over the years. Sales varied from title to title but overall it sold tens of thousands of copies and lots of people were engaged by these books.” The line was discontinued because Aperture believed there were a lot of similiar titles in the marketplace and the life of the series was done. Masters of Photography is being relaunched because the demand is still high, and Boot added, “because we need a line of books that introduces contemporary audiences to the great photographers. Many people don’t know about photographers like Paul Strand, and there’s a new show of his works opening very soon at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.” (Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the Twentieth Century will run there from October 21 through January 2015.)
Aperture will follow the books on Strand and Lange with reprints of the books on Cartier-Bresson (with a new foreword), Abbott, and Walker Evans. Each will be priced at $18.95 and will, for the first time, include some color photographs. While Aperture plans to republish most of the original 20 titles in the series, Boot said, the publisher will probably not publish all the previous titles because of “rights issues” with some of the estates.
As part of Aperture’s plan to publish the titles in multiple languages, the series will be released simultaneously in Chinese through a partnership with the China Photographic Publishing House. Aperture will produce the books and CPPH will translate. “The books will launch Aperture’s presence in China, and we hope to use it to launch new partnerships around the world,” Boot said.
The books are designed for museum bookshops, Boot said, as well as for photography students and new converts to the medium. “There’s so much new interest in photography in the era of social media, so many new amateur photographers that we never used to reach. These books are a way to take an interest in photography a little further.”
