Making photobooks: Advice and insights from Aron Mörel

Aron Mörel – founder of photo and fine art book publisher Morel Books – on making photobooks, why it’s important to give artists room to experiment and why photographers should do their research before approaching publishers…

Aron Mörel publishes photobooks by leading and emerging artists. He has published over 40 titles since founding Morel Books in 2008 – including work by Boris Mikhailov, Stephen Shore and Thomas Ruff as well as recent RCA graduate Alix Marie and Romain Mader, the Swiss photographer who received Foam’s prestigious Paul Huf Award for emerging talent in 2017.

Mörel is part of a growing group of indie publishers that have sprung up over the past decade. He was inspired to set up the company after spotting a “huge subculture that was kind of blossoming”: specialist photobook stores had just arrived in London and New York (Claire de Rouen in London and Dashwood Books in New York) and social media had given photographers and photography enthusiasts a new platform to share interesting work (Mörel notes photographer Tim Barber’s website Tiny Vice, a curated selection of photographic projects and interviews, as a particular source of inspiration).

“I’d always had this fascination with photo books and wanted to go into publishing, so I felt like it was now or never,” he explains.