Hoxton and PRH in first-time partnership for photography series

Penguin Random House imprint Particular Books and Hoxton Mini Press are partnering on a new series of "Really Good Photography" books.

The collaboration, the first of its kind for both PRH and Hoxton Mini Press, will see first in the series Really Good Dog Photography published on 5th October as a £35 hardback, followed by Really Good Car Photography in autumn 2018 and a third, as yet untitled, book in 2019.

Really Good Dog Photography, including the work of established snappers such as Alec Soth and Elliott Erwitt, aims to show dogs as “dignified and noble beings”. While dogs once featured prominently in classical painting, the book’s publishers argue man’s best friend has since been subsumed into “a throwaway culture".

Helen Conford, publishing director at Penguin Press and co-founder of Particular Books, said the behemoth and two-man band, Hoxton Mini Press, made a good team on the project as ultimately the publishers shared similar interests – communicating and demystifying art and bringing literature to a wider audience. 

"The creative drive really begins with Hoxton Mini Press, and then we bring our trade mentality to bear on that work,” Conford commented. PRH is keen to harness Hoxton Press’ in-depth knowledge of photography, while in turn Hoxton will be able to make use of PRH's resources to bring the book to a wider readership, Conford explained.

Hoxton Mini Press has taken the lead on curation, with text supplied by arts writer Lucy Davies. Production and design is meanwhile the work of PRH’s in-house team designer Tom Etherington, with PRH also taking on publicity, marketing and distribution. The partnership sees Hoxton Mini Press wear two hats as both publisher and author, the commercial arrangement described as "author plus".

"Hoxton really know photography,” Conford continued. "And we have lots of skills here but that isn’t our background in the same way. They know what is happening in that space, who the names are - established, upcoming - that is their world. It’s that which is really exciting for us and what I’ve really been enjoying working with them."

She added: “[Hoxton Mini Press] speaks so eloquently about why there is such a thing as really good dog photography and bringing back this more dignified sense of our relationship with dogs as opposed to a cutesy or funny position we’re often in at the moment. That is captured by the image on the cover - that is a dog who is being taken seriously when it is photographed!”

Publisher Martin Usborne - who founded the press with his wife Ann Waldvogel in 2013 - said he was “really surprised” when PRH invited the 12-book-a-year mini press to partner with it.

However he said he also recognised the synergies between the two, adding he had long been an admirer of Particular Books for its "niche", design-led books and ability to sell them widely, and welcomed the prospect of building brand awareness from the partnership.

"I was very surprised actually [by PRH's proposal]. It came out the blue really," said Usborne, also creative consultant at independent children’s publisher Usborne Publishing. 

"I've always loved Penguin and their series. When Hoxton Press started out, that was very much our vision too - to make small, collectable, affordable, accessible books. That's the DNA behind Penguin and that's the DNA behind us … Particular Books I admire because they manage to sell quite niche, unusual titles to a wide audience, and in the photography world where I come from, many people produce very beautiful books but there's not so many that sell lots of beautiful books, and somehow Particular manages to do both.”

The margins for creating affordable, high-end photography books in the current climate are admittedly “a squeeze”, according to Usborne. 

While the market for Arts books overall is riper than its ever been, achieving an all-time high in 2016 of 4.62 million copies for £68.2m according to Nielsen BookScan, 2016 was however the third-worst year for Photography book sales, which is a sub-category in Nielsen's Arts category.

Sales of Photography books were marginally up in value terms in 2016 to £9.1m (+0.03%) versus £9.079m in 2015, but down in volume terms to 503,548 from 505,291 (-0.3%).

"We don't sell vast quantities but we sell more than other Fine Art photographic publishers,” said Usborne. "We are treading a difficult line which is selling high-end at a low price, and the margins are quite a squeeze. But we are a small team so it is manageable.

"I do think there is a real interest in the book as a beautiful object now there is so much online. People are willing to buy beautiful books of photography, because now if you are going to put something on your shelf you want it to be very special. So I think it is worth us investing in."

He added: "I hope we can learn from Penguin Random House, I hope we can increase our brand awareness around the world, I hope we can continue to bring photography to a wide audience and I hope it allows us to sell more books. But ultimately I think we both enjoy making really beautiful books and it is just very, very satisfying to work with great photography and make these books."