This series features interviews with independent photobook publishers. This month’s interview is with Stinus Duch of Disko Bay.

Drenge by Frederik Danielsen — *Drenge* by Frederik Danielsen

Don’t Take Pictures: How would you describe Disko Bay to someone who has never seen your books?

Stinus Duch: Disko Bay is a small publishing house that works to publish photobooks by Danish Fine Art and documentary photographers. It’s a one-man operation but we work closely together with designers and print makers to curate and craft unique books in limited print runs. Our aim is to promote Danish photographers on the international scene of photography and in the world of photobooks.

I would describe Disko Bay as a family more than a business. Making a book is so intimate and you need a secure and familiar space to engage with a project. I try to create this atmosphere when we edit and work with the books.

DTP: What series of events led you to start your own publishing house?

SD: I started Disko Bay in 2018 after working five years with Danish Magnum photographer Jacob Aue Sobol editing books and creating exhibitions. We always talked about why there was no photobook publisher in Denmark. I always figured that at some point someone would start one. We have so many talented photographers in Denmark that it just seemed odd to me that no one wanted to work with this. But no one did. Years went by and I started collaborating with the book designers from Spine Studio on other projects. The idea had been in my head for a few years then and they just said “Go for it, we’ll help you design the books, a visual identity and webpage” and then there was no turning back. I just had to jump on it.

DTP: How do you find photographers that you want to work with and how do you determine what might make a good photo book?

SD: I worked with photography for over a decade before I founded Disko Bay, so finding projects to publish was and still is not a challenge. I often contact photographers that I know to be working on projects that I sense would make a great book. A good photobook consists of a lot of different things that can differ from project to project. But one essential thing for me is that a photobook has to be honest. That it doesn’t try to be something it’s not, it could be by size, choice of paper or number of images. That is why it takes such a long time to edit a book for me. You really have to listen to the work and give it time and space to grow.

DTP: Have there been any books that have been particularly rewarding to produce or that you felt a special kinship with?

SD: It was a special experience to produce Unsettled City by M.H. Frøslev because of the massive material and time he spent on this work and the immense time we spent on the edit and design. We started with more than 10,000 images captured over ten years and ended up with 95 in the final book. It took around a year to edit down. There was a lot of firsts with this book: It was my first real hardcover book, my first time working with Narayana Press (world renowned printing house) and the first book that also got through to the international photo community.

DTP: What forthcoming titles are you particularly excited about?

SD: This is hard, because I love all the books we make. I look forward to publishing Matilde Søes Rasmussen’s Unprofessional about a decade of traveling in China as a professional model. She is pointing the camera back on a business where beauty and body is a commodity. I’m also really excited about Tine Bek’sThe Vulgarity of Being Three Dimensional, that will be out in 2021. We just started editing and I am so in love with these images. The book raises questions about gluttony and decadence and is inspired by Marie Antoinette and her fascination with the bourgeoisie on one hand and the abounding and Baroque on the other.

DTP: What was one of the most challenging books that you have published and why?

SD: I think all the books I have made has had some challenges along the way. But the most challenging in terms of overview was perhaps From Now On by Alexander Arnild Peitersen because of all the different paths we could have gone with this material. Alexander shot on more than ten different cameras and just as many types of film, color, black and white, RISO print and darkroom prints. It was a beautiful mess of images shot over eight years, so we spent a lot of time cleaning up and out. We ended up with quite a strict form, maybe because of the chaos of the content but maybe it also just needed a firm hand in the end… and then we got delayed three months by the pandemic, the print house shut down the day before we were to print the book.

DTP: It seems that an increasing number of photographers, at all stages of their careers, are looking to publish a book. What should photographers think about before they embark on the book process?

SD: One should never embark on a book process if one does not need to make a book. I can’t stress this enough. Making a book demands so much attention and sensitivity (and time and money, etc.) but the most important is that you simply have to make this book. There is no better answer. I talked to several of the photographers I worked with and they told me that once their book was published, they felt almost redeemed or reborn, as if something where lifted off their shoulders or out of their bodies. You carry your book with you at all times because the book is your life, your love, your pain, your dreams and everything in between.

Visit the Disko Bay website to learn more about their books.

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