Photographers without light are not photographers. We are just people holding a box wondering around in the dark. Light is our tool, it is our challenge, our friend and occasionally our enemy. Mastering light both artificial and natural is at the core of the successful photographer. However, light is no friend of our photo books.

I only need to take a trip along my own book shelves to see the negative impact of sunlight on the covers and spines of some of my oldest books. Over my life I have moved a lot, and at one time I even moved my entire photo book collection by ship to Spain! My books show that hard life lived. They have been placed in hallways, studios, living rooms, a book room and a shed! Everytime on different types of shelving and in a different order. Sometimes, directly facing a window, occasionally side on to a window and the fading on each evidences every bad decision I have made in where I kept them. The insides of the books are good, but the covers have suffered and that affects their value to collectors.

Collectors are pedantic when it comes to condition, and that is worth considering when it comes to buying and selling. However, you may not be a perfectionist in your collecting and that will allow you to pick up rare, sort after and classic first editions at lower prices if the condition is poor. However, if you do come to selling them the same rules will apply. Don’t get too seduced by the high numbers you may see for a perfect copy if your’s is not in the same condition. This is an issue if you are collecting used books, but not if you are collecting new ones as they should be perfect when you buy them (make sure they are by the way, avoid bent corners, torn or creased pages or early-run poorly printed editions).

In my opinion buying new is the best starting point for a photo book collection unless you have done a considerable amount of research into the used market. The reason for this is simple. You will be buying at the original price with no mark-up for rarity and you may also have the option of purchasing a signed copy or limited edition with a print. Both of these additions will add to the value of the book in time. Of course you are also supporting the photographer when they need it most!

I have been doing this since the late 1980s and I am still amazed at how much some of my books are now worth bearing in mind what I orginally paid for them. A visit to www.abebooks.com is always a good starting point if you want to find books, but also to see the wide costing band for just one title. There are bargains to be had as well as prices to be shocked by.

The age of the book is not the defining factor of its value, it’s all about rarity and demand just as it is with any commodity. Just because its old doesn’t mean its of value! In fact in many cases, the older the book the less relevant and valuable it is. This issue of rarity is easily explained by the short print runs that most photography books are printed in and the relatively small audience there is for them. Even an established publisher such as Thames & Hudson would only print and expect to sell a few thousand copies of a book by a photographer such as David Bailey and that would be to a primarily UK based audience. Few photographers achieve global recognition and sales. If we then look towards a small imprint or self-published book it is rare for more than a thousand to be printed and mabe half to three-quarters of those to be sold. The remainder often spending the rest of their lives in a garage, attic, storage facility or warehouse. It is also worth bearing in mind that a photo book may be the only place that certain images can be seen, not everything is online. Therefore, if you want to see them you will have to by the book and the price will reflect that fact.

Therefore, the more in demand (however, gauging this is a science in itself) the book is after its been published the higher the price. Few photo books go into second editions, so if you don’t get it when it comes out expect to pay a premium soon after. To see how this works just put Cafe Royal Books www.caferoyalbooks.com into Ebay to see how books (and I do call them books and not ‘zines’ because that is what they are in my opinion) that were sold at £5.00 now achieve up to five times their original value just a few months after publication.

Photo books have value and if you are lucky they may become good investments and therefore they need to be looked after. They need to be kept out of direct sunlight, not near radiators or heat sources (this can dry-out binding glue). Make sure that the enviromnent is not too humid or damp. Invest in good shelves that do not bow, bend or collapse under the weight of your collection and if possible protect them from becoming torn, stained or damaged in any way! This may all seem like common sense, but I’m sure that we all have at least one book that has befallen one of these catastrophes.

In part three we will look at the next stage of collecting, how to find the book you are looking for!

Further Reading
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/06/18/alphabetical-subject-photographer-or-size-how-do-you-organise-your-photo-book-shelf/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/04/15/first-you-need-a-shelf-then-a-bookcase-then-a-room-the-photo-book-dilemma/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2026/01/12/how-to-collect-photo-books-part-one/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2026/01/16/how-to-collect-photo-books-part-three/

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8 magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2026

Image: Clément Chéroux, My library in Normandy, France, 2020