If you’re looking for the next photography book to add to your collection, the latest from Minor Matters Books co-founder and publisher Michelle Dunn Marsh could be of interest to you. Her upcoming memoir, “Seeing Being Seen: A Personal History of Photography,” features photos carefully chosen from her own collection to provide a glimpse into her life and work as a book designer, publisher and cultural producer.

Cover photograph by Will Wilson, from “Critical Indigenous picture Exchange,” 2019.

Among the photos in this book are some portraits of Dunn Marsh taken by renowned photographers such as Stephen Shore, Larry Fink, Sylvia Plachy and Will Wilson. These photos proved to be important parts of her encounters with the masters that shaped American photography. Along with her exploration of themes that influenced her views and passion for print, this memoir is a promising volume for anyone interested in the creative process that goes into publishing photography books.

Portfolio of books Dunn Marsh has designed, edited, or published, as displayed in her home studio, 2020. Credit: © Joe Freeman Junior.
Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled from the “Kitchen Table” series, 1990/2010. © and courtesy Carrie Mae Weems.
Eugene Richards, A firefighter sits alone in the rubble, World Trade Center site, New York, 2001 from “Stepping Through The Ashes.” © and courtesy Eugene Richards.
Mary Ellen Mark, Alex London and Chayanne Yate, Pride March, Manhattan, 2008. © and courtesy of the Mary Ellen Mark studio and estate.

The book is also an expansion of an exhibit of the same title spearheaded by the Highline Heritage Museum. As such, it also includes a checklist of the prints and books that were part of the show.

“Seeing Being Seen” is set to be printed as a 128-paged book with the following specifications:

  • 8.5-by-10 inch hardcover
  • 128 pages
  • ~40 black and white and color photographs
  • 20 illustrations with 16-page saddle-stitched paperback workbook insert

If you’re keen on adding this to your library, the book is on its last leg of presales at $50 until April 1, 2021, with the goal of being published in Fall 2021. As a co-publisher, you will also receive Reading Photographs, a workbook on Dunn Marsh’s process of training the brain to distinguish between what we see and our emotional response to it when looking at photographs.

Visit Minor Matters Books to learn more and grab your copy before the presale ends.