A photograph on a screen can be glanced at and forgotten within seconds. A photograph in a book asks something else of us. It waits quietly on the page until the reader decides to turn it.
When photographers talk about books, they often begin with the physical experience. They describe the weight of paper, the moment an image appears unexpectedly on the right-hand page, or the pause created by a blank spread between photographs. It is a language that can seem oddly out of place in an era when most images circulate through screens and disappear just as quickly.
Yet for many photographers today the photobook has become one of the most vital places for images to live. Unlike the endless stream of pictures online, a book unfolds slowly and deliberately. Images gather meaning through sequence, and a photograph encountered early in the book may return pages later with a different weight.
Turning the page becomes part of the experience of looking. Each spread alters the one before it, allowing the reader to move through a body of work at their own pace. In this sense the photobook is not merely a container for photographs but a structure through which images begin to think together.
This month that slower rhythm will gather in Melbourne. On 21 and 22 March 2026 photographers, publishers and readers will meet at Balam Balam Place in Brunswick for the MEL Photobook Fair, a two-day event devoted entirely to the photographic book. What began as a modest gathering has quickly become one of the most visible meeting points within Australia’s growing photobook community.
The organisers
The MEL Photobook Fair is organised by three figures whose practices reflect different strands of Australia’s emerging photobook culture: Matt Dunne, founder of the independent imprint Tall Poppy Press; photographer and publisher Rohan Hutchinson of ACB Press; and Angus Scott, visual artist and co-creative director of Photo Collective. Each arrived at publishing through different paths, yet all share a belief in the photobook as a creative and collaborative medium.
Matt Dunne came to publishing through his own photographic practice. Before establishing Tall Poppy Press in 2021, he spent years producing handmade books and zines as a way of exploring how photographs behave in sequence. For Dunne the photobook offers a space where images form relationships across pages rather than exist as isolated pictures.
Starting a publishing imprint became a natural extension of that process. Through Tall Poppy Press he focuses on artist-driven publications that combine careful design with a willingness to experiment. Dunne often challenges the idea that photobooks should aim for immaculate production, arguing that traces of the making process give a book its character.
Rohan Hutchinson approaches the photobook from within a broader photographic practice concerned with landscape and environmental change. Through ACB Press, founded in 2020, he treats publishing as another way of thinking through photographs. In a gallery images appear side by side; in a book they unfold gradually, allowing visual connections to emerge across pages.
This sequencing allows photographs to speak in quieter and more layered ways. A reader can return to earlier images, notice patterns, and build their own understanding of the work. The photobook therefore becomes a space where meaning develops through time.
Angus Scott brings another dimension through Photo Collective. The organisation supports contemporary photography in Australia through publications, awards, exhibitions and educational programmes. As co-creative director, Scott works across editorial platforms and national initiatives that connect photographers, audiences and institutions.
Together the three organisers represent a convergence of independent publishing, artistic practice and community infrastructure. The MEL Photobook Fair grows directly from that intersection.
A community taking shape
For many years photobooks existed in Australia largely through scattered initiatives. Photographers produced books, but opportunities to encounter them together in the same place were rare. Many artists discovered new publications through festivals overseas or through small networks of independent publishers.
The first edition of the MEL Photobook Fair took place in 2023 at Collarts in Melbourne. It brought together artists, small presses and readers who had previously encountered one another mainly through exhibitions, festivals or online networks. The gathering revealed something that had already been quietly developing: a community larger and more connected than many had realised.
In 2024 the organisers collaborated with PHOTO Australia during the Melbourne photography festival. Their Photobook Weekend included exhibitions, public programmes and the presentation of the Australia–New Zealand Photobook Awards. The event helped position the photobook more visibly within the wider photographic landscape of the region.
The upcoming 2026 fair represents the most ambitious iteration so far. Across two days independent publishers and artists will present their books directly to readers, creating a space where conversations about photographs unfold outside the formal structures of galleries or institutions.
Participants include Perimeter Books, one of Australia’s most recognised photobook distributors, alongside a wide network of independent presses and artists. Among them are ACB Press, Tall Poppy Press, 14th Frame, Always Friends, First Edition Library, Helios Books, Imageless, Jonty Bell, M33, Mark Forbes, Melbourne Photobook Collective, Mellen Burns, Mental Vacation, Murex Studio, Nicholas Walton-Healey / Ornate Gesture, Our Stories on Film, Simone Rosenbauer, Tomorrow Publications and Tree Paper Gallery.
Taken together they represent the expanding landscape of Australian photobook publishing. Established distributors appear alongside small artist-run presses producing limited editions and experimental publications. The fair offers a rare opportunity to encounter this diversity in one place.
Conversations around the book
The fair is not simply a marketplace for books. It is also a space where ideas about the photobook are discussed, questioned and shared. Throughout the weekend a series of talks and workshops explores how photographers approach the form.
On Saturday the programme opens with “Spread ’Em: Queer Photobooks”, organised by the Queer Love Collective. The session examines how photobooks have become platforms for queer storytelling and archival practice. It also reflects the role small publications often play in preserving histories that might otherwise remain unseen.
Later that afternoon designer Karl Haliday joins Rohan Hutchinson for “Narrative Possibilities in Design”. Their discussion considers how layout, pacing and typography shape the reading of photographic work. In the photobook, design becomes part of the storytelling itself.
Workshops invite participants to engage directly with the process of making publications. In “Strangers in Print”, led by the collective Always Friends, participants collaborate to produce a zine together. The exercise demonstrates how small publications can emerge quickly through shared effort and experimentation.
Later in the day Anu Kumar joins Matt Dunne for “Photobook as Platform”. Their discussion addresses how independent publishing has opened new avenues for photographers to circulate work outside traditional exhibition systems. For many artists the photobook has become both archive and exhibition space.
Saturday evening concludes with the announcement of the Photobook of the Year as part of the Australia–New Zealand Photobook Awards. The awards exhibition will remain open throughout the weekend, allowing visitors to encounter a range of recent publications from across the region.
Sunday continues with “Collaborate, Don’t Control: Working with Designers”, featuring Wing Lau, Kyra Jensen and Sasha Taylor. The panel examines the collaborative relationships that often shape the final form of a photobook. The programme concludes with a workshop led by the NOR3PLY collective titled “How to Manifesto”.
The slow power of the page
The renewed attention to photobooks may seem surprising in an era dominated by digital images. Photographs now circulate through the world with extraordinary speed, appearing on screens and disappearing again within moments. In such a landscape the idea of spending time with a printed book can feel almost radical.
Yet the photobook proposes a different rhythm of looking. A book cannot be scrolled endlessly; it must be opened, held and turned page by page. Each spread creates a pause, allowing the reader to absorb an image before moving on.
For two days in Brunswick that slower rhythm will take shape in a single room. Tables will be covered with books while conversations about sequencing, printing and design move easily between strangers. Visitors will open one publication after another, discovering photographs gradually, page by page.
The scene will be simple: people standing around tables, opening books and talking quietly about what they see. Yet moments like these are often where photographic culture renews itself. Sometimes a movement begins not with an exhibition opening but with someone leaning over a book and quietly saying, “You should see this.”
Event details
MEL Photobook Fair
21–22 March 2026
11am–5pm each day
Level 4, Balam Balam Place
15 Phoenix Street, Brunswick, Melbourne
Book market, public talks, workshops and an exhibition of shortlisted titles from the Australia–New Zealand Photobook Awards.
For more information visit: https://melpbf.com.au/
