CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/21/2019

In memory of our friend and colleague, Xavier Barral

We are profoundly saddened by the loss of Xavier Barral, a towering figure in photography book publishing, who died at the age of 63 on February 19, 2019. A visionary with exquisite taste and an irrepressible passion for aesthetic adventure, Barral published books on such wildly disparate subjects as automata, nineteenth-century nocturnal wildlife photography, the construction of photographic forensic evidence, Mars and the Rosetta Comet, in addition to superb monographs on and artist’s books by Malick Sidibe, Sophie Calle, Josef Koudelka and Masahisa Fukase. We are honored to have had the chance to work with Barral, truly a publisher of the highest standards and always one to amaze. “I looked forward to seeing Xavier Barral, as he was so genuinely passionate about the projects he worked on,” writes Elisa Nadel, Artbook | D.A.P. Vice President and Director of Publisher Services. “He had an incredible sensibility and eye for photography and knew how to make each book so special. Through his unique personal design decisions—from the choice of paper to the quality of the binding type and the layout of the work itself—he always had the individual photographer in mind, which made every single book a treasure.” Featured image is reproduced from Masahisa Fukase.