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[Short Summary] 21st Editions The Art of the Book ® is a luxury, fine-press book publisher, based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Founded in 1998 by Steven Albahari and John Wood https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/John_Wood_(poet) 21st Editions began as a journal of contemporary photography, taking inspiration from William Morris’s https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/John_Wood_(poet) Arts and Crafts movement https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement as well as Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Work (1903-1917) https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Camera_Work. After the publication of six journals, 21st transitioned to limited edition, handcrafted photobooks, specializing in word, image, and artisan binding. By 2018, 21st had published sixty-three titles, closing what is now the complete 21st Collection. The Collection is currently housed in two locations: The National Gallery of Art https://www.nga.gov/research/library/rarebooks.html and the University of Minnesota https://www.lib.umn.edu/special. [History]
In 1995, Steven Albahari and John Stevenson of the Platinum Gallery (Santa Fe and New York) began discussing the idea of a new journal of contemporary photography that would continue the legacy of Camera Work, the first photography journal to champion photography as a fine art. Stevenson introduced Albahari to the photo-historian John Wood https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/John_Wood_(poet) who would become the cofounder and first editor of 21st Editions.
Albahari and his wife, Janet McCarthy, mortgaged their house to finance the new venture, and in 1998, work began on 21st: The Journal of Contemporary Photography in a 10x10 foot garage on the Cape. From the start, Albahari and Wood wanted the journal to be more than a survey of contemporary photography. They wanted to build on the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement. 21st Editions aspired to the highest standard of word, image, and artisanal binding for each publication, taking even the Stieglitz model a step further by adding to the photogravure https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Photogravure a wider array of printing techniques, including platinum, silver gelatin, ambrotype, chine colle, cyanotype, fresson, gum, kallitype, planography, and tintype.
In keeping with the Arts and Crafts tradition, 21st Editions printed letterpress https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Letterpress_printing, using metal and polymer type. Oftentimes, the typefaces themselves would tell a unique story and were, for that reason, an essential part of the overall design. The pages would be inked then sent to the binders to be handbound with materials like leather, handmade papers, metal, wood, silks, linens, and even stone. The artisan bindings were created specifically to be paired with the individual content and concept of each book. Platinum or palladium prints https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLrQ7nUIGeI were created by coating the paper with an emulsion of photosensitive platinum and/or palladium metals (and in the case of Sally Mann’s Southern Landscape https://www.21steditions.com/sally-mann-1, even gold). A special process melded the gum and platinum. As a highly demanding endeavor, each print could take several days to complete. It was not uncommon for dozens of artisans to be enlisted for the making of a single book. Production sometimes took up to five years to finish, each edition ranging anywhere from one-hundred to just fifteen copies. The Wall Street Journal https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal was the first newspaper to profile 21st Editions in 1999. The feature was entitled “In Stieglitz’s Footsteps.” It described 21st as “the most luxurious literary/photography journal in the world” [Footnote: 8/16/15, Arts&Style, E7] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB917483705269804000, a sentiment that would be echoed by galleries, publishers, and collectors throughout the company’s career. Over the next two decades, 21st Editions would publish award-winning photobooks [1] by some of the biggest names in photography, including: Wynn Bullock https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Wynn_Bullock Adam Fuss; https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Adam_Fuss Eikoh Hosoe https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Eikoh_Hosoe
Michael Kenna https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Michael_Kenna
Herman Leonard https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Herman_Leonard Sheila Metzner https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Sheila_Metzner; Jerry Uelsmann https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Jerry_Uelsmann Vik Muniz http://vikmuniz.net
Joel-Peter Witkin https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Joel-Peter_Witkin; Todd Webb https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Todd_Webb; Joel-Peter Witkin https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Joel-Peter_Witkin; Sally Mann https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Sally_Mann; and Masao Yamamoto https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Masao_Yamamoto. Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning authors like: Robert Olen Butler https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Robert_Olen_Butler; Annie Dillard https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Annie_Dillard; Adam Johnson https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Adam_Johnson_(writer), and Richard Wilbur https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Richard_Wilbur often accompanied these photographs. Despite this revolving door of contributors, 21st Editions has maintained over its lifetime a small, core team of assistants, editors, and designers, including Co-publisher and Editor John Wood; Publishing Assistant and Production Manager Pamela Clark; Typographers Michael Russem and Crissy Welzen,; Platinum Printers John Marcy, Martin Axon and Stan Klimek; Binders Amy Borezo, Sarah Creighton, Erin Fletcher, Peter Geraty, Daniel Kelm, Kylin Lee, and Lisa Pelt. Harvard University affiliates John Stauffer https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/John_Stauffer_(professor) and Collier Brown https://scbrownjr.com/about/ joined as Coeditors later. In 2018, 21st Editions officially completed its Collection, comprising sixty-three titles and an archive of original work from the artists and artisans involved over the years. The National Gallery of Art https://www.nga.gov, with the help of the Thompson Family Foundation https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/the-thompson-family-foundation,061194385/, acquired a complete 21st Collection in the fall of that same year, as did the University of Minnesota https://www.lib.umn.edu/special, which now serves as a repository for the entire 21st Editions archive. Albahari continues to publish one-of-a-kind projects outside of the 21st Collection.
