LA Art Book Fair 2023

Review by Douglas Stockdale and Gerry Clausing •

This August we saw the return of the LA Art Book Fair 2023, which like many art and book fairs had been impacted by COVID 19 in early 2020. This book fair, sponsored by Printed Matter, looked and felt familiar, located again at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. With the exception of the small entrance fee of $5.00 on Friday and Saturday (Sunday being Free), this was very similar to their last fair in 2019. As in the past, this was a four-day event, a Thursday opening night, followed by three days of the book fair. Our PhotoBook Journal editorial team was fortunate to check it out on Friday when access to the book tables, books, authors, and publishers was relatively unencumbered. Also on Friday morning there was a Student Preview, which fortunately included an opportunity for the press, including us, to start roaming around.

Below, one of the many book exhibition areas.

Predominately our interest was with the photographic books, which were primarily located up in the Mezzanine area, with some other book publishers of interest scattered throughout the location. On the ground floor were larger book publishers whose titles extended beyond just photography. There was also a constant trickle of book signings during the fair that increased our interest, and thus made it necessary to pay attention to the scheduled events.

Regardless, with this vast space filled elbow-to-elbow with tables of books and zines, and similar again to the last time LAABF occurred, there was something for everybody.

Some of the more memorable conversations and discussions were held with the representatives in the accompanying images.

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Photographs contributed by Jonas Yip, Ken Karagozian, Gerhard ‘Gerry’ Clausing and Douglas Stockdale

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Ana Casas Broda, publisher HYDRA + Fotografia (Ciudad de Mexico)

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Andrew Fedynak, Zatara Press (Richmond, Virginia)

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Katie Clifford, GOST Books (London, UK)

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Bihn Danh, book signing, Radius Books (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

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Claudio Pogo & Magdalena Wysocka, Outer Space Books (Berlin, Germany)

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Lola Paprocka, Palm Studios (London, UK)

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Gerry Clausing, Mary Virginia ‘Swanee’ Swanson (Radius Books, Santa Fe, NM), Douglas Stockdale, 2023 copyright Ken Karagozian

Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are copyright of the authors and publishers.