The London Book Trade

These photos of London booksellers in their domain by photographer Mike Tsang are simply astonishing.  He was approached by Biblion Bookshop to commission a portrait project on the weird and wonderful characters involved in the rare and antiquarian book trade in summer 2009.

As you can see, almost all subjects are pictured alone, being surrounded by books, giving you the sense of solitude.  As Michael of bookpatrol put it, you get the feeling the photographer is somehow documenting an endangered species; a visual record of a vanishing breed.  I hope not.

"It’s true that the book trade is suffering from challenging times. I made sure to ask each dealer I photographed how their business was going – a common answer was that the Internet age had eroded the dealer’s traditional advantage: knowledge of the rarity of a cook and thus an accurate estimate of the value of it. Now an average punter can look on Google very quickly to establish a rough price to ask from the dealer – so now knowledge has become more disseminated amongst the public instead being confined to learned professionals, reducing the dealer’s margins. Other factors such as the rise in high street rents, the fall in literary budgets, the competition from charity bookshops also come into play - these causes combined have led to the reduction in the number of independent book dealers in London by almost a third in the last decade alone. They have in various numbers taken proactive steps to take advantage of new technology – most have moved cataloguing online, concentrated on email marketing and gained access to a wider international customers through the Internet – one dealer was even in the process of setting up a YouTube channel!" "And whilst some book dealers have closed their brick-and-mortar shops and moved to phone and email dealing only, all stressed the still-present need for personal contact with customers, whether that is in a five-story English townhouse in Mayfair or simply a coffee and a chat at the next book fair. As Sheila Markham, writer and lover of books in equal measure, told me: "Where is the thrill of the chase in much of today’s online book buying?” And I believe that is the reason the business will still survive. Like all industries, the book trade is subject to change, and although change with the times bookdealing must I hope that the tradition and romance involved in finding that perfect rarity and the perfect buyer to match will remain – although perhaps they will be matched over a YouTube channel and not a bookshop."  ~ Mike Tsang

More photos at www.miketsangphotography.com
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