Introduction

Mysteries of Light is a wide-ranging book on photobooks, what they are, how they work best, their place in the art world. The book is comprised of both essays of mine and reviews of photobooks I wrote for Photobookstore Magazine and The Od Review, though each piece is not simply a review. Thanks to both Photobookstore Magazine publisher Martin Amis, where most of the pieces ran, and Collier Brown of The Od Review, I had complete control over my pieces, choosing the photobooks I wanted to write about and writing about them exactly as I saw fit. I almost always went for books that raised larger questions about photobooks, such as what makes a photobook approach art and literature, how do so-called street photographers transcend the street, how do photobooks create their own unique experience. I then used the review to examine those questions.

A couple personal essays start off the book: “Why I Love Photobooks,” and, from 2016, “Why I Take Photographs.” Then will come the reviews of fine photobooks, in the order I wrote them, and then another piece on my own work, Rules of Street Photography (2020), a piece I wrote for Photobookstore Magazine after writing about a book by Jeff Mermelstein, rules extrapolated from his work, and those I’ve learned on my own. In the pieces I talk in a wide-ranging way about my own work as a photographer out on the street; though if I had to boil it down, I’d go with the title on one of my own photobooks, I Was Just Wondering Around. The title comes from the mistranslation of a phrase Daido Moriyama says in a documentary on him, but isn’t that what all great photographers do? Take their camera and just wonder around. What’s more delightful than that: a good walk lifted by a higher, enrapturing purpose.

Well, maybe hunting out rare photobooks. I end the book with a three-part piece on my first trip to Tokyo (in 2018) combing the shops of that city for classic books I could afford.

Mysteries of Light covers all aspects of photobooks, and along the way helps define what makes up photobooks that will endure, as well as all the different forms photobooks can take. I discuss artists like Daido Moriyama and other Japanese masters such as Issei Suda and Masahisa Fukase, as well as well-known photographers like Alec Soth, Vanessa Winship, Boris Mihailov, Jim Goldberg, and Christer Strömholm, and fascinating newer artists like Jason Eskenazi, Laura El-Tantawy, Igor Posner, and Takahiro Kaneyama.

I also repeat myself a bit, since each piece was written on its own, to stand on its own. If you read straight through, you’ll discover some of my photographic tics: I love Japanese Provoke work. I don’t like the term “street photographer.” I see no reason to take pictures of people looking at cellphones (their souls melt away). There are more favorite themes, and to the extent there’s some redundancy, I apologize. Think of it this way: Each piece is one more blow as I hammer out an aesthetic of photobooks.

Reading over the pieces for this book, I also note my growing confidence, both as a writer on photobooks, and as a photographer. As I was writing away, my own photobooks made it into the permanent libraries of the Museum of Modern Art, ICP, and the New York Public Library. They’ve also sold well at significant shops such as PS1 MoMA, Dashwood, Printed Matter, the Strand Rare Book Room, and numerous other places worldwide. Hence there’s more talk about my own photo work as the book moves along.

Still, at bottom the point of each piece, and of Mysteries of Light as a whole, is simply to get at the heart of what a great photobook is, and all the ways that photobooks become powerful works of art.

Enjoy.