Strange Fire

Q&A: alexa becker

By Jess T. Dugan   |   November 7, 2019

Alexa Becker is the Acquisitions Editor for photography and art books for Kehrer Verlag, a Germany-based publisher founded in 1995. After earning her Master's in Art History from the University of Heidelberg, she started her career at Kehrer in 2003, where she is responsible for selecting and acquiring new photography-related projects.

Jess T. Dugan: Hello Alexa! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Before we talk about your current work, I’m curious: what sparked your interest in both photography and book publishing, and what was your path to getting to where you are today?

Alexa Becker: Since I was a child, I had a great interest in books - I devoured them. However, it never occured to me to work for a book publisher. But life has its ways: after my studies at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) where I majored in art history, I learned that a publisher based in Heidelberg was looking for someone to handle their US distribution. I was curious, went to the interview with Klaus Kehrer, and got the job right on the spot. It came as a surprise to me, but it was a great opportunity and would shape my career for the next 16 years. At the beginning, we published mainly art books and exhibition catalogs, but at some point - I like to refer back to a meeting with Jessica Backhaus at the Frankfurt Book Fair - we discovered that working with photographers was a great joy and we wanted to explore this field more. This lead to the publishing house’s program slowly turning more and more towards photography until we were actually considered a solid photography publisher. An important step for me and for us was an invitation to FotoFest in Houston in 2008. Until then, Kehrer Verlag was practically unknown in the US, but Lisa M. Robinson paved the way and got Wendy Wattriss and Fred Baldwin to invite me to the portfolio reviews. Lisa and I also were part of a workshop Mary Virginia Swanson and Darius Himes organized at the time during FotoFest, and these contacts proved invaluable. Thanks to the open-mindedness and welcoming attitude of the photographers and everyone I met during this first portfolio review in Houston (and the ones that have followed), we entered the American photography scene and were able to establish our name on the map next to the famous Steidl Verlag.

Over the years, my position within the publishing house shifted and I became Acquisitions Editor, which meant I felt like a kid in a candy shop, being able to see and select from such an amazing variety of international photography projects out there.

JTD: Tell me more about that: as you mention, you are responsible for finding new artists and titles to be published. What does this process look like for you?

AB: We receive a good number of submissions and it’s my job to go through all of them. There are some interesting projects to be found there, for sure. The same is true for portfolio reviews. Of course, there are also recommendations by fellow photographers, curators, book people you meet at festivals or fairs, etc. In general, I keep my eyes open, and sometimes great work can be found also via online photography competitions. Luckily, I am regularly invited to serve as a juror (the last was Photolucida’s Critical Mass). But also, Instagram and other online platforms may spark an interest.

JTD: I can only imagine how many proposals and artists cross your path. What is it about any given project that inspires you to suggest it for publication?

AB: That’s a tough question to answer. It’s a combination of qualities that vary with each individual project. Originality is one thing. By that, I don’t mean you have to find a topic nobody has ever photographed before - that’s hardly possible. What I mean is the way you photograph your subject matter, how you personally look at it, how you capture it in your own style. Another aspect is whether the body of work in question might be meaningful to others. Even though a work might be highly personal, like for example Nina Berman’s “Autobiography of Miss Wish,“ which deals with the friendship of the photographer and her protagonist, it matters at the same time to us as society: how do we perceive and treat homeless people, people suffering with drug addiction, people who do not fit in the scheme? A work I’d recommend to my team should present a new perspective and ideally, it should evoke an emotional response.

JTD: It seems that many photographers want a book, yet I find that sometimes they don’t understand the full extent of what goes into making one, how to identify whether it’s the right time for a book, how to connect with a publisher, etc. What advice do you have for photographers looking to make a book? Are there any common mistakes or pitfalls you see that you’d like to warn against?

AB: As you say, the right timing is important in regard to your personal artistic development. Even if you have assembled a lot of material, this doesn’t automatically mean the next thing happening should be a book. A body of work has to be well-rounded, and it doesn’t hurt if one shares the project with experienced people / a mentor over time, getting critical feedback. Also, it is a good thing to have one or two other projects or concepts in the background that may become a follow-up to the book. In other words, don’t rush things with your first book, and don’t do so with the ones thereafter. Nobody expects a book from an artist every other year. It’s better to rely on quality rather than on quantity.

As for connecting with a publisher: Don’t be shy to get in touch! Follow the guidelines on their submission page. They are there for a good reason.

JTD: Kehrer Verlag is based in Germany, yet you publish many books by US-based artists. I’m curious if you perceive differences in work being made in Europe versus that being made in the US? Similarly, do you find that as a European publisher, you’re willing to publish books that US publishers are more reluctant to publish? 

AB: I wouldn’t say that the photographic language is very different between American and European artists. Also, because of our almost unlimited possibilities to travel and experience other countries and cultures, even topics cannot be accounted to one party or the other (although exceptions always prove the rule, of course).

In general, I can say that we are not shy about publishing topics that are considered a tough sell on the market. We publish books on abuse, war, loss, and difficult interpersonal issues. But certain US publishers are doing so as well. One of our photographers once phrased it like this:

When I went to see American publishers, it seemed they were more interested in marketing points than in the work I presented. When I came to you, the thing that mattered first was the topic itself and therefore I felt my work understood and appreciated.

It sounds a bit old-fashioned, but in this case, I don’t mind.

JTD: Currently, we are in the midst of major discussions around diversity and access in the photography world. As you know, the mission of Strange Fire is to support work made by women, people of color, and LGBTQ artists. What are your thoughts on diversity in book publishing? Do you have any particular initiatives or practices that deal directly with increasing diversity among the books you publish?  

AB: In publishing and art, it is (or should be) all about diversity! I don’t know where we would be if we published a limited range of topics by certain people only. It would be plain boring. Since Mariette Pathy Allen’s book The Gender Frontier (2003), we were aware and open to the topic and have welcomed submissions that dealt with all kinds of gender issues. Another book I remember vividly is My White Friends by Myra Greene. When I met her at Photolucida in 2011, I was stunned by her perspective and was enthusiastic to publish it.

Lindsay Morris surprised me with her work on gender nonconforming young kids, You are You (2015), and the list goes on. What’s incredible is the power these photographic works have. They catch our attention and make us want to dig deeper and learn to know more about whatever is going on in that publication.

Reproduced beautifully in a well-designed book, these topics live forever. At one point they become a historical document of the time they were published. They reflect what society was like back then, and one can compare how things have changed (hopefully for the better) immediately.

As a matter of fact, we haven’t thought about an initiative to allow even more diversity in our program, but I’m glad you triggered the idea!

JTD: What are some projects you’re currently working on, and what’s on the horizon for you?

AB: There are always several projects in preparation, one of them is Dotan Saguy’s new body of work, There is Nowhere to go but Anywhere. It’s related to his first book, Venice, where he explored the scene at Venice beach in Los Angeles. While photographing there, he met a family – parents and three kids - that is done with the American Dream and pursues an alternative lifestyle by living in a converted bus. The work goes beyond just documenting their everyday life, it questions the shifting priorities we experience in the Western world. What’s more important - money and status or personal fulfilment and spending time with your loved ones? 

Jamie Johnson is currently starting to work with us to publish Growing up Traveling, a body of work about Irish Traveler kids who she has photographed for five years now. It’s a moving document about growing up within a cultural environment that is basically looked down upon by the rest of society. The kid’s quotes that Jamie has collected reflect a great pride in who they are and their optimism, which is sometimes a little heartbreaking.  

JTD: Great, thank you so much Alexa- we appreciate you sharing your insight with us and are excited to see these new projects come to life in book form!