Chris Boot (born 27 May 1960) is a British photography curator, book publisher, and has worked in a variety of other roles related to photography. He was director of London’s Photo Co-op, director of the London and New York offices of

Magnum Photos Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Maria Eisn ...

, editorial director at Phaidon Press, founder of Chris Boot Ltd. a photography book publisher, and is now executive director of

Aperture Foundation Aperture Foundation is a nonprofit arts institution, founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Minor White, Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange, Nancy Newhall, Beaumont Newhall, Ernest Louie, Melton Ferris, and Dody Warren. Their vision was to create a forum ...

. In these roles he has commissioned, edited or published a number of noteworthy photography books.

Life and work

Boot was born on 27 May 1960 in Kynnersley, Shropshire, England. He has a BA in photography from the Polytechnic of Central London, and a BA in English literature from the

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

, University of London. Between 1984 and 1990 Boot was director of London’s Photo Co-op (since renamed Photofusion), an independent photography resource center and gallery. In 1990 he moved to

where he became director of its London and then, in 1995, of its New York office, until 1998. He was editorial director at Phaidon Press from 1998 to 2000. While at Phaidon, he wrote and edited ''Magnum Stories''; edited ''Robert Capa, the Definitive Collection'' by Richard Whelan and the ''Phaidon 55'' series of books from 2001 onwards, which included volumes on

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depe ...

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, Shomei Tomatsu,

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Great Depression, Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administratio ...

and W. Eugene Smith and

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; and commissioned ''The Photobook: A History'' by Martin Parr and

Gerry Badger Gerald David "Gerry" Badger (born 1946) is an English writer and curator of photography, and a photographer. In 2018 he received the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society. Life and career Badger was born in 1946 in North ...

, ''Boring Postcards'' from the collection of Martin Parr, ''Outland'' by

Roger Ballen Roger Ballen (born April 11, 1950) is an American artist living in Johannesburg, South Africa, and working in its surrounds since the 1970s. His oeuvre, which spans five decades, began with the documentary photography field but evolved into the ...

, ''Snaps'' by

Elliott Erwitt Elliott Erwitt (born Elio Romano Erwitt, July 26, 1928) is a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. He has been a member ...

, and ''Heaven and Earth'' by

David Malin David Frederick Malin (born 28 March 1941) is a British-Australian astronomer and photographer. He is principally known for his spectacular colour images of astronomical objects. A galaxy is named after him, Malin 1, which he discovered in ...

and Katherine Roucoux. In 2001 he founded Chris Boot Ltd. in London, producing and publishing some forty photography books independently until 2011. From January 2011 until May 2021, Boot was executive director of

in New York.

Books commissioned or edited by Boot apart from those published by Chris Boot Ltd.

Chris Boot Ltd.

His company Chris Boot Ltd., a London-based photographic publishing house and exhibition producer, launched in 2001 and operated until 2011. It published ''Lodz Ghetto Album'' by Henryk Ross (2004) and ''Things as They Are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955'' by

Mary Panzer Mary E. Panzer (September 19, 1951) is an American banker and politician. A Republican, she served 25 years in the Wisconsin Legislature, including 11 years in the Wisconsin State Senate (1993–2005) and 14 years in the State Assembly (198 ...

and :fr:Christian Caujolle (2005), both of which won the ICP Infinity Award. When Boot left in 2011 his assistant Maxwell Anderson took over management and no new projects were initiated. Chris Boot Ltd. published the following books of photography:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boot, Chris Publishers (people) from London British curators Photography curators Living people 1960 births Publishing companies established in 2001 2001 establishments in England Visual arts publishing companies Book publishing companies of England Photography companies of the United Kingdom Businesspeople from Shropshire