On Thursday October 4^th 2012 the very rare photo book The North American Indian by the American photographer Edward S. Curtis will be auctioned at Swann Galleries in New York. The price estimate by the gallery is $1,250,000 - $1,750,000. 

Helmut Newton’s Sumo book, the biggest and most expensive book production of the 20^th century was sold in 1999 when it came out for about euro 400 per copy with a limited edition of 10,000 copies. Today the book is for sale for about euro 11,300 per copy at the Taschen website (£9,000).

Peter Beard’s Art Edition photo book was euro 1,500 on pre-order in 2006. Now it is priced at about euro 5,600 per copy (£4,500), but it is actually sold out.

Art photo book limited editions became a trend since the success of the Sumo book, yet they are a bit pricy. Fortunately there are more affordable trade editions of the Sumo book and Peter Beard’s book to enjoy the great photography they show. But the interesting thing is how photography and especially photo books became highly sought after artwork, although millions of people are doing photography nowadays, millions of photo books are made and published every day, yet or maybe because of the new role photography plays in our lives, the photo art book’s prices rise into the sky.

So, make sure you keep a copy or two of your photo books just in case they become collectors items one day.

Happy book making!

Ute Sonnenberg for www.rohoyachui.com