Aalto University to acquire Musta Taide publishing company
20.06.2012
The publishing company Musta Taide specialising in high quality photography books will be acquired by Aalto University.
Operations will continue as part of Aalto ARTS Books, which is responsible for the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture publications.
Thanks to Helsinki School, photographic education at Aalto University is internationally renowned and in future the design and production of a photo book will be emphasised even more.
– A photo book is an important calling card for a photographer. With the new internet-based publication platforms and crowd funding, the publication of photo books has picked up everywhere and older photo books have become highly sought after at photography auctions, says Merja Salo, professor of photography at Aalto University and the driving force behind the deal.
Preserving the Musta Taide brand, operations will expand to become international with the goal of maintaining the high level of visual and contentual quality also in future.
– Musta Taide will publish monographs by photographers and research on photography in future as well. The biggest change in future will be the expansion of the Musta Taide sales network abroad. This way the operations will foster the internationalisation of Finnish photographic art, continues Merja Salo.
Led by its founder, photographer Tuomo-Juhani Vuorenmaa, Musta Taide has been in operation for more than two decades. In the early 1990s, Musta Taide was a photography journal, deriving its title from the nickname ‘black art’ given to photography by I.K. Inha, a photographer and author. Later on, the publishing house has focused on photo books.
The publishing list has included classics by photographers such as Pentti Sammallahti and Caj Bremer as well as debut books by younger artists, Perttu Saksa’s photo book ‘Echo’ being the most recent. Musta Taide has also published Finnish photography research and doctoral dissertations on the topic, its multifaceted profile helping it to become the most important Finnish publisher in its field.
The founder and chief-editor of Photo RAW magazine Hannamari Shakya and photography artist Kristoffer Albrecht are the new forces behind Musta Taide. Shakya will act as a producer and Albrecht as an artistic advisor.
Further information:
Professor Merja Salo, tel. +358 50 585 5238, merja.salo [at] aalto [dot] fi