Leica Camera is pleased to announce a cooperation with DER GREIF, a print and online magazine for photography and literature, on the Leica Camera blog. Below is the first of this series featuring an interview of Roger Eberhard.
Roger Eberhard is a Swiss photographer and publisher. Many of his photo series have been published as books. In 2011, he founded the Zurich based publishing company b.frank books. In his artistic work, Eberhard often explores artificially contrived settlements: places that appear as something they are not. For his latest project, Eberhard traveled to South Africa to document a boutique hotel that was built to look like a shanty town (a South African slum). It is a place where wealthy tourists can experience the feeling of poverty “within the safe environment of a private game reserve” without having to miss the luxury of floor heating or Wi-Fi. With this series, Roger Eberhard challenges the perilous shift at work when poverty becomes a form of cultural heritage.
Q: Do you consider yourself an artist or a publisher?
A: I often hear this question. To be honest, I have never asked it myself until other people did. For me, publishing other people’s books is just an extension of my own art practice. So much about my photography revolves around book making; it felt like a small step applying these thoughts to other people’s projects.
It might be easier to describe which field– making art or publishing art – occupies more of my time. In the first two or three years b.frank books took up a lot of my time and my own photography was put a little bit to rest. Last year I decided to focus again more on my art practice and I began working on two new projects. It is a constant balancing act between the two; they both fill me with great joy and they are both challenging. The alternation between the two domains is often a welcoming distraction. When I work on a photographic project, it can sometimes be productive to let it sit for a bit and focus on someone else’s book project.
Q: Did creating b.frank books and the corresponding network help your photographic career?
A: I can see how you would think that. The photography market is a rather small family and having more exposure could result in a slight career boost. But it is hard to say if I got to know some people thanks to b.frank books or because of my own photography, so which of the two is helping the other? What I can say for certain is that people are often confused, in the sense that they would ask, “So what are you now, publisher or artist?” As a general rule, confusion is nothing to strive for. So maybe the publishing might even be a hindrance regarding the photographic career.
On the other side I think that making books and working with other artists on their books has sharpened my thoughts about the medium tremendously. Working with the people I publish is a constant learning experience, which of course influences my own work. So yes, the publishing probably helps my photography but in different ways than you might think and probably in a much slower process than you would imagine.
Q: What got you into publishing photobooks?
A: As I mentioned earlier, the book has always played a big role in my own work. It may very well be the best-suited medium for photography. As Sol LeWitt already put it in 1976, “Art shows come and go, but books stay around for years. They are works themselves, not reproductions of works. Books are the best medium for many artists working today.”
I just love being at the printing press for my own books, really enjoy editing work and rearranging photographs to create a more stringent storyline. Applying these skills to other people’s work came very naturally. First I helped other photographers with editing, gave them some inputs regarding design and production and before I knew it, b.frank books was born. To me, working on my own book or on someone else’s is not a big difference. It’s the same process and it’s a process that I find challenging and fascinating.
Q: Was the boom in the photobook market an incentive for you to become a publisher?
A: I hear a lot of people speak about this boom in the photobook market. But I think one must specify what this boom really is about. I don’t think there is much more money spent on photobooks today than 15 years ago. Yes, a lot of people talk about the photobook, and rightly so, but it’s not a lucrative business. There are so many cool publications being made all over the world now, in all sorts of editions and shapes and ways; it’s absolutely amazing and exciting. So I think the boom in the photobook market is referring more to the variety and quantity of photobooks that are being published today, and yes, maybe also to the few books that are being sought after and cost ridiculous prices, but the boom does not affect the general turnover.

Q: Is your last book “Martin Parr looking at books” a statement about the photobook market?
A: Well, it’s a little satire, a good hearted attempt to start a discussion about the direction in which the photobook market is heading. Nobody represents the photobook market like Martin Parr. When Parr, “the man who matters most in the world of the photobook” (The Guardian), says that a particular book is great, it’s sold out almost instantly. Most collectors hurry to buy it without ever having seen it, not necessarily because they trust Martin Parr’s judgment so much, but because it’s safe to assume that the book’s market price will increase. And I think this is the wrong direction – maybe wrong is too harsh of a word – but idolizing one person’s opinion so completely and following it without questioning it certainly doesn’t go without bearing any risks.
Q: Which risks do you mean?
A: I think Rob Hornstra put it perfectly when he said, ”Recently Martin Parr said that he recognizes a good photobook in 10 seconds”. This tells me that Martin Parr especially loves simple narratives and easily digestible books. And that’s all perfect. Who am I to judge Martin Parr’s taste? But as long as everybody continues copying the opinion of Martin Parr it means we get an over-recognition of simple, conceptual photobooks. To make it very clear, this is not Parr’s fault; this is the fault of all the followers without an opinion walking around in this field. The reason why I care about this is that I believe many fantastic photobooks which deserve more attention are blown away by these small, little, and often overly designed, photobooks which you can understand in 10 seconds.
Q: Did you get a reaction from Martin Parr regarding your book?
A: Yes, I sent him a copy and he replied that he thought it was funny and well designed. He then bought a few copies.

Q: Tell us something about the new book that you published with Ester Vonplon. It seems like a huge project.
A: I am proud and excited to finally send out the first copies “Gletscherfahrt”, some people were very patient and waited a long time for this book. It is always special to work with Ester Vonplon, on one side because I admire her work enormously and on the other because she became my business parter at b.frank books after I published her first book “cudesch da visitas”. Her new work is about the melting glaciers in Switzerland and the gigantic cloths that cover them in summer to slow down the melting process. The series features Ester’s very recognizable style of eerie, cinematic and sometimes abstract photographs that transform the glaciers into human-like shapes, showing their fragility and foreshadowing their possible extinction. Vonplon’s photographs are accompanied by a LP with (original) music by Stephan Eicher, ensuing from sound clippings of the lapping of melted glacier water. The LP and the book are housed in an intricate slipcase that is completely hand made and showcases both items as equals, while merging them into one autonomous piece of art.
Thank you for your time, Roger!
– Leica Internet Team
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Learn more about Roger on his website and b.frank books.