Lesley Martin - Episode 7

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha talks with the Creative Director of Aperture, Lesley Martin. Sasha and Lesley take a deep dive into the world of photo book publishing, discuss the long process of getting a book made, from start to finish, and how up-and-coming photographers might approach publishers. Lesley talks about how she wound up at Aperture, the highs and lows of working collaboratively and about her extensive work on the publication, Stephen Shore's Selected Works, among other. They also talk about the joys of book details such as vertical gatefolds and what’s better to show editor—a PDF or a maquette. They end with some deep talk about legacy and express their mutual admiration. Lesley A. Martin is creative director and publisher of The PhotoBook Review, a newsprint journal dedicated to the evolving conversation surrounding the photobook. Her writing on photography has been published in Aperture, American Photo, FOAM, and Lay Flat, among other publications, and she has edited over seventy-five books of photography, including Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer; On the Beach by Richard Misrach; Paris • New York • Shanghai by Hans Eijkelboom; Tokyo by Takashi Homma; Paul Strand in Mexico; Illuminance and Ametsuchi by Rinko Kawauchi; and Enclave by Richard Mosse. She has curated several exhibitions of photography, including The Ubiquitous Image, part of the inaugural New York Photo Festival in 2008; the New York Times Magazine Photographs, cocurated with Kathy Ryan (2011); and in 2012, Aperture Remix, a commission-based exhibition celebrating Aperture’s sixtieth anniversary. In 2015, she was named a visiting critic to the Yale MFA Photography program. https://aperture.org