Café Royal Books is an independent publisherArtist’s books are collected by Tate and send across the globe
, Southport Visitor. Accessed 11 July 2014. of

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

photobooks or

zines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very smal ...

, run by Craig Atkinson and based in

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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/nowiki> Coco-nut Dancers: An interview with Craig Atkinson of Café Royal Books, The Photographers' Gallery. Accessed 11 July 2014.Great new zines from Café Royal Books offer unlikely tours of Britain and America
, It's Nice That. Accessed 11 July 2014. Café Royal Books produces small-run publications predominantly documenting social and cultural change, Including themes of youth, leisure, music, protest, race, religion, industry, identity, architecture and fashion, often in Britain and Ireland,Publication: Café Royal Books immerse us in all of the peculiarities of Britain
, It's Nice That. Accessed 11 July 2014. using both new work and photographs from archives. Café Royal Books has been operating since 2005 and has so far published over 950 books and zines. Its publications are held in public collections including

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

;On 7 January 2023, requesting the words or phrase "cafe royal books" from
Tate Library Catalogue
brought a list of 213 items. National Art Library,

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London;Search Results: 29 titles matched: Café Royal Books
, National Art Library. Accessed 11 July 2014.

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York City;Dadabase: The Museum of Modern Art
,

. Accessed 11 July 2014.

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...

;National Gallery of Canada: Library and Archives — Catalogue
,

. Accessed 11 July 2014. the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Explore the British Library: Search, View and Order from our Catalogues & Collections
,

. Accessed 11 July 2014. and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Martin Parr has described Café Royal Books as "a great archive of much forgotten documentary photography" and Daniel Meadows has said "Craig Atkinson nbsp;. . . has invented a publishing model for creating a truly exciting new history of documentary photography in Britain."

Details

Café Royal Books publications in Foyles bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London

Based in Southport, Atkinson is also a senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Central Lancashire. He founded Café Royal Books in 2005.Craig Atkinson: Staff Profile: University of Central Lancashire
, University of Central Lancashire. Accessed 11 July 2014. New booklets are published frequently: in 2014, typically one per week and in short runs typically of 250 copies. They are sold both directly and through bookshops in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, Japan, Canada and Switzerland. The booklets have a consistent print quality, paper and layout; they are laid out to a grid system, usually 36 pages in length, slightly under A5 size, predominantly black & white and affordable. The colophon is on the front cover, making it easy to read on bookshop shelves. The booklets predominantly document social, historical and cultural change, including themes of youth, leisure, music, protest, race, religion, industry, identity, architecture and fashion, using both previously unpublished work and photographs from archives. Atkinson wrote in 2013 that emphasis "is given to work that encourages new ways of thinking about existing material or language which demonstrates the importance of using, documenting, collecting and observing a particular process or thing." For example, in 2012 Café Royal began publishing a series of books based loosely on documentary photography with links to Britain and Ireland. The themes Café Royal Books specialises in collaborating with a photographer and their archive or estate. It has published work by over 100 photographers, including John Benton-Harris, John Bulmer, David Carol,

John Claridge John Claridge (born 1944) is a British photographer, known for his work in advertising, black and white portraits in Soho and street photographs in the East End of London. Early life Claridge was born in Plaistow, London. His father worked ...

, Douglas Corrance, John Deakin,

Peter Dench Peter Dench (born 23 April 1972) is a British photojournalist working primarily in advertising, editorial and portraiture. His work has been published in a number of books. Biography Dench was born and grew up in Weymouth, Dorset. He graduated f ...

Henrik Drescher Henrik Drescher (born in 1955) is a Danish artist. Life and work In 1967 Drescher and his family emigrated to the United States. Drescher began studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston but quit after one semester to become an il ...

Alejandro Guijarro Alejandro Guijarro (born 1979) is a Spanish contemporary artist who currently works between London and Madrid. Early life Guijarro was born in Madrid, where he began his artistic education at the Escuela de Arte N10, completing a BA (Hons) in ...

, Ken Grant,

David Hurn David Hurn (born 21 July 1934) is a British documentary photographer and member of Magnum Photos. Life and work Hurn was born on 21 July 1934 in Redhill, Surrey, England. He was raised in Cardiff, Wales. Because of his dyslexia he joined the ...

Chris Killip Christopher David Killip (11 July 1946 – 13 October 2020) was a Manx photographer who worked at Harvard University from 1991 to 2017, as a Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies. Killip is known for his black and white images of people ...

, Stephen McLaren, Daniel Meadows, Tish Murtha,

Jim Mortram Jim A. Mortram (born 10 September 1971) is a British social documentary photographer and writer, based in Dereham, Norfolk. His ongoing project using photography and writing, ''Small Town Inertia,'' records the lives of a number of disadvantaged ...

, Martin Parr, Simon Roberts, Victor Sloan, Brian David Stevens,

Homer Sykes Homer Warwick Sykes (born 1949) is a Canadian-born British documentary photographer whose career has included personal projects and landscape photography. Early life and education Sykes's father, Homer Warwick Sykes, was a Canadian-born American ...

Ed Templeton Ed Templeton (born July 28, 1972) is an American professional skateboarder, contemporary artist, and photographer. He is the founder of the skateboard company, Toy Machine, a company that he continues to own and manage. He is based in Huntingt ...

Arthur Tress Arthur Tress (born November 24, 1940) is an American photographer. He is known for his staged surrealism and exposition of the human body. Early life and education Tress comes from a Jewish background; his parents immigrated from Europe. He was ...

, Patrick Ward, Janine Wiedel, and Document Scotland photographers among others. Café Royal has worked with some photographers to produce numerous different books of their work. Some of the books are of Atkinson's own work. Café Royal Books occasionally publish larger print runs: as examples, the first printings of Killip's ''Huddersfield 1974'' and of

Chris Steele-Perkins Christopher Horace Steele-Perkins (born 28 July 1947) is a British photographer and member of Magnum Photos, best known for his depictions of Africa, Afghanistan, England, Northern Ireland, and Japan. Life and career Steele-Perkins was born in ...

' ''Wolverhampton 1978'' were of 500 copies. And some of the publications are later reprinted. In 2022 Café Royal Books held a retrospective exhibition of 500 publications and 127 prints of work from those books at the Martin Parr Foundation. The exhibition was titled ''Café Royal Books, Documentary, Zines and Subversion.''

Collections

Various Café Royal publications are held in public collections (museums and galleries) including: * Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art: 4 publications (as of June 2018) *

. *

, New York, NY. *

. * National Art Library,

, London. *

. *University Library,

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

Café Royal Projects

Café Royal Projects are occasional projects that use gallery type spaces for a purpose other than an exhibition. In 2010 the Café Royal Temporary Library invited artists to submit books and editions. The gallery space was presented as a reading room for the public to use, with 800 titles. In 2012 the International Drawing Project exhibited film, drawing, and publications from eighty artists over three weeks. Ten catalogues were published to document the event and the artists. In 2013 an exhibition and reading room featured essays from academics with backgrounds in photography, artists' books and communication design.

Exhibitions

*''Café Royal Books, Documentary, Zines and Subversion,'' Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK. April–June 2022. *''Picture Book: Co-curated with Pages,'' The Tetley, Leeds, UK, January–March 2016. With Café Royal Books publications as well as work from Christian Barnes, David Barton, Nous Vous, and Landfill Editions. *''The Vanished East End: Documentary Photography from the 70s and 80s,'' Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, September 2021 – February 2022; Brady Arts and Community Centre, April 2022. A collaboration between Café Royal Books, London Metropolitan University's School of Art, Architecture and Design and the East End Archive, an online and digital photographic resource, with work by Diane Bush, Mike Seaborne, Brian Griffin,

Tom Hunter Sir Thomas Blane Hunter (born 6 May 1961) is a Scottish businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Sports Division Tom set up his first business after graduating from the University of Strathclyde as he was, in his own words, "unemployab ...

, and Syd Shelton.

References

External links