This series features interviews with independent photobook publishers. This month’s interview is with Pablo Lerma of Meteoro Editions.

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

Pablo Lerma: Meteoro Editions is a publishing house founded in 2018 while I was living in New York City, and currently based in Amsterdam. Working with a variety of imagemakers and visual artists around the world, at Meteoro Editions I create art publications with a focus on projects that deal with vernacular photography, archives, utopias and fictional representations of the world.

Every project I publish is different but based on the needs of the artist and how we envision the final physical form of the publication. There is always a textual component and a strong focus on archives and materiality for each publication.

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

PL: Prior to my move to Amsterdam, I lived in New York City for almost seven years. During my time in the NYC, I encountered a vibrant photobook community. In NYC is where I started self-publishing my first publications with the help of Conveyor Arts and eventually, I published my first monograph with Kris Graves Projects. It was a learning process, creating and producing my first books, but also attending to readings rooms, exhibitions about photobooks, salons organized by my friends at 10x10 Photobooks, endless conversations at the ICP library, long days at the NYABF, … that series of events made think about starting my own imprint. And that’s how I planned in my last year in the city, to start approaching artists I liked with the intention to collaborate with them in future publications with Meteoro Editions. The foundation of the publishing project helped me to build the transition in my return to Europe.

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

PL: I am always aware of the work that’s been done and shown in certain spaces and locations where I have/had connections with. Also, I get emails from artists and/or recommendations from colleagues about new works. Many references come to me through different channels.

I find the determination to publish a new work when I think: “I wish I would have made that work myself”. A combination of desire, admiration and respect convey towards the artist and work I published under Meteoro Editions.

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

PL: If I think about every book, I’ve done at Meteoro Editions, there are dozens of anecdotes and memories. I always work closely with the artists and designers in order to bring alive the publication, so depending on the book there is a way or another I feel some special kinship.

However, I guess, publishing False Lighthouse with Yael Eban was a journey of discoveries because it was the first time I published someone else’s book. Yael and I spent lots of hours back and forth doing selections, editing, designing, sharing inspiration… I remember those sessions with a lot of uncertainty and excitement. After Yael’s book, I kept the same amount of excitement and happiness, but reduce the uncertainty, just a bit…

DTP: What are some forthcoming titles are you particularly excited about?

PL: I always get extremely excited because each project is so different, that makes the experience of working with each artist very unique.

Very soon, I will be releasing with Stephen Milner his new monograph on queerness and surf called A Spiritual Good Time. This publication has been in production these last months, and it’s ready to arrive to our friends in a few weeks. For 2021, I am working in new publications with a few artists such as: Alanna Fields, Jaime Permuth, Allen Frame, and Luis Úrculo, among others.

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

PL: I remember working with Martínez Bellido for his publication Emil, and having difficulties thinking on how to conceptualize his project into a book form. This publication comes from a very successful photographic series in an exhibition form. These are small prints, almost business card size, that have been intervened with painting. The size and materiality of the images is so powerful that you can’t get away of it. For that reason, we wanted to escape away from it without compromising the essence of the project.

That’s how we came up, after several weeks of conversations and some mock-up layouts, with the idea of changing the physical experience of the viewer when looking at these photographs. The artist, always shown this work framed, presenting the images at 1:1 scale. For the publication, we decided to scale them four times bigger than the original one. That changed completely the perception of the work. We were able to still keep the essence of the intervention in the image. In addition, we decided to show in the publication the back of the images with their inscriptions, something that a regular viewer in a gallery wouldn’t be able to access it because of seen the work always framed. Finally, to link the process of the book with the original images, we were able to source out a very similar material for the cover (some sort of a fake shinny snake skin) to the one in the original album were the artists extracted the images from.

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?  

PL: Not every photographic project deserves a publication, not every photographic project deserves an exhibition. The book form is a form itself with a very specific language and a way to communicate to the public and that cannot be achieve just in the act of “translating” photographs into pages. It requires time, knowledge and understanding of why and how you want to have a publication with that specific project. Every time I start working on a new book, I realize that I know nothing, and the only thing I have in my back is a bit of more experience. 

Also, there are many things that should be consider in the process of publishing: economics, production, distribution, audience, number of copies… In my opinion, publishing a book is a task of force that needs dedication, support and teamwork.

Visit the Meteoro Editions website to learn more about their books.