Have you every tried to find a book and not been able to find it? Me too! I am not by nature an organised person. A tidy person, but not an organised person and there is a differance between these two descriptions that when it comes to photo book collecting that is very important.

My desk, office and studio space are tidy. They have to be for me to work on all of the different projects I work on. A tidy room is a tidy brain rings true for me. However, I’m not great at admin, filing or structuring processs for storage. I start off with good intentions, set up a process, then within a few weeks forget the process I had implemented and find myself back at the beginning of not being able to find anything again. Maybe you are the same. I am always impressed by any photographer who is not like me, and runs storage systems like a highly efficent tax office.

The photographer Alec Soth seems to have found a balance between chaos, good intention and tax office rigour. He has an alphabetical system in place and a larger enough space for this to work across a number of shelves. You can see how he does it here www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TRO_k7rreg. You can also see how others do it in a compilation of films by photo book publisher Mack www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLndepRtSM19xBGk2y2fMN9LH84pYyTgS7. What is clear is that there is no solution that fits all, but that a sense of organisation is essential if you want to find a book on your shelves simply and quickly. I know all of this but I am still not good at this, so do not despair if you are not either.

I have written on the different processs that people have for placing books on their shelves and I have put a link below to that article, but as I suggested in Part One a collection needs to be seen as a library and therefore you do need a retreival system that you stick to especially as your collection grows. A simple solution to a simple problem that few of us address, but if implemented you may just able to find the book you are looking for.

Finding books to buy may seem like another easy process but with an increasinging number of photo books being published it may not be as easy as you may think. There are a number of ways of doing this, all of which rely upon an element of chance but you can increase your odds by adopting at least a few of them. The first is my favourite and one that may reap the least rewards, but is I think the most fun. Whenever I pass a charity/thrift store or second hand book store I always go in and head straight for the photography section in hope of unearthing a hidden gem for a bargain price. Its not as easy today as it once was as it is so easy for the seller to Google the book and come up with a price that others are expecting to acheive. However, I do still find some great bargains. Of course you can also visit Ebay and Abe Books but these lack that sense of adventure of finding the unexpected, althought they are of course useful platfors to find used books if you know what you are looking for.

A second more efficent way is to regularly visit a site such as https://photobookstore.co.uk which says what it is on the tin! This is my ‘go to’ website for all photo books. It covers all areas of work from a global perspective and has a film for each book taking you through each page. Its not as good as actually holding a book but its a good online second best solution. I also recommend www.photobookjunkies.com. They don’t have the films but they often have rare and hard to find books, signed copies and curios. Most importantly these are both independent platforms that need our support! However, beware that if you visit either you will see yourself losing many hours clicking through all of the books they have on offer.

Signing up for publisher newsletters and following publishers and photographers whose work you admire on social media is also a good way of staying informed about work being made for books and books being published. They are also useful in keeping up-to-date with Kick Starter projects that you could support. In the UK we have the annual BOP (Books On Photography) two-day event in Bristol https://bopbristol.org and I know there are other events around the country. I’m sure that similar exist wherever you live. These alongside book launches are great opportunities to buy books, but also to meet the photographers and engage in conversations around their work. A good collection is not just about books on the shelves it is about an immersion into the medium and conversations either online and/or in-person with people involved in all aspects of the process of making and collecting.

And on that note I will leave you to you collecting. Have fun, buy well and enjoy what you buy, and never forget that a collection is to be read not just to be admired!

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/2026/01/14/how-to-collect-photo-books-part-two/

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

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