Since the turn of the millennium the analogue photo book has experienced an international boom
developing into its own art form: a kind of visual literature somewhere between novel and
film. More and more often photographers are publishing their works in this format rather than
only as part of exhibitions. However the photo book as an art form is hardly known to a wider
public. The multiyear project Welt im Umbruch (World in Transition) which the Montag Stiftung
initiated together with the PhotoBookMuseum made one attempt to change this. In Rostock
Duisburg and Kassel members of the public were able to get to know photobooks as an artistic
form of expression and to design photobooks of their own.This volume not only documents the
experience-based knowledge of all participants but also introduces the history of the photobook
along with theories and current practices of participative art. It collects contributions on
the production and distribution conditions of photobooks from Asia Europe and the United
States. In addition to the medium's political and emancipatory potential topics discussed
include the reasons for the analogue photobook's enormous appeal in the digital present.
