Exhibition Type: Photo books

Artist: More than 50 authors

Venue: Hout Bay Museum

Address: 4 Andrews Road, Hout Bay

The photobook occupies a unique place in the history of photography. More than a container for images, it is a creative medium in which photographs unfold through sequence, design and narrative, inviting a slower and more intimate encounter than the gallery wall.

Curated by Heidi Erdmann (Hout Bay Museum) and Alexandra Martinez (Strauss & Co), these two companion exhibitions present more than fifty photobooks drawn from Heidi Erdmann’s personal collection. Assembled over more than three decades, the collection brings together landmark South African and international publications spanning documentary photography, portraiture, landscape, conceptual practice, photojournalism and artist’s books.

Together, these publications trace the richness and diversity of photographic practice, while demonstrating how the photobook has become one of the medium’s most enduring forms of artistic expression. They reveal the many ways photographers have used the printed page to tell stories, bear witness, experiment with form and preserve cultural memory.

More than an exhibition of books, The Photobook as Object celebrates the photobook as an artwork in its own right and offers visitors an opportunity to engage with photography through one of its most influential and enduring formats.

Part of this exhibition will be on view at Strauss & Co at Brickfield Canvas, 35 Brickfield Road, Woodstock from 21 – 25 September.