FBP: FOTOFILMIC BOOK PROGRAM LED BY GREG GIRARD AND GUEST MENTORS MICHAEL KOMINEK & GONZALO SANCHEZ
SEPTEMBER 2025 – MAY 2026
BOWEN ISLAND + TOKYO+ ONLINE

PROGRAM PRESENTATION:

Over the course of 9 months, participants in this new long form mentoring program will get the opportunity to develop ready-to-pitch or self-publish book maquettes of their chosen photography projects from scratch. At the heart of FBP is the desire to offer photographers of all levels and backgrounds a practical, well structured approach to molding their best work into compelling book objects. To achieve this important goal and pivotal step in any photographer’s career, we are incredibly grateful to have gathered a most ideal mentoring team in acclaimed documentary artist Greg Girard – the author of over a dozen highly regarded and collected photobooks to date – and long time publishing collaborators Michael Kominek – who runs the reputed Kominek Books publishing house and Kominek photo gallery in Berlin – and designer Gonzalo Sanchez, who worked on many of Greg’s books through the years.

FBP includes two intensive in-person retreats, first on Bowen Island at the FOTOFILMIC Space at the start of the program in September, then in Tokyo, Japan, in March, where participants will receive additional feedback on their forming book projects from select renowned Asia-based photography editors. Complementing these seven days of physical gathering is a robust 26-hour schedule of both individual and group remote meetings with Greg, Michael, and Gonzalo to ensure steady, continuous progress through all phases of the bookmaking process: from rigorous editing and page sequencing to build rich and nuanced storytelling arcs, to finding bold, coherent design identities with materials to match, and more. All final book maquettes will receive a feature exhibition at the FOTOFILMIC Space in the summer of 2026, and be presented again in Paris the following fall in November 2026 during the Paris Photo week.

CORE MENTOR: GREG GIRARD

Greg Girard is a Canadian photographer who has spent much of his career in Asia. His work has examined the social and physical transformations in Asia, especially in its largest cities, for more than four decades. He is the author of several photographic books. City of Darkness Revisited, published 2014, revives an early collaboration with co-author Ian Lambot, and updates their influential book, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City (Watermark, 1993). Based in Shanghai between 1998 and 2011, his photographic monograph, Phantom Shanghai (Magenta, Toronto, 2007), with a foreword by novelist William Gibson, looks at the rapid and at times violent changes in China’s largest city as Shanghai raced to remake itself at the beginning of the 21^st Century. Other recent titles include JAL 76-88 (Kominek, Berlin, 2023), Tokyo-Yokosuka 1976-1983, (Magenta, Toronto, 2019), Hotel Okinawa, (The Velvet Cell, Osaka, 2017); Under Vancouver 1972-1982 (Magenta, Toronto, 2017); Hanoi Calling (Magenta, Toronto, 2010); and In the Near Distance (Kominek, Berlin, 2010), a book of early photographs made in Asia and North America between 1973 and 1986. The International Centre of Photography in New York featured his series “Half the Surface of the World”, a survey of US military bases and their host communities in Asia, in 2012. His work is in the collection of National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, M+ Museum Hong Kong, and other public and private collections. National Geographic Magazine in a special issue in 2022 cited his photograph from a story on gene editing, titled ‘The DNA Revolution’, as one of this century’s ‘100 best photos’. He is represented by Monte Clark Gallery, North America; Blue Lotus Gallery, Hong Kong; and Kominek Gallery, Berlin.

https://www.greggirard.com/
@gregforaday

GUEST MENTORS: MICHAEL KOMINEK & GONZALO SANCHEZ

Michael Kominek is a gallerist, publisher and photographer. He founded Kominek Gallery in 2008 and he represents emerging and established artist such as Bryan Schutmaat, Daisuke Yokota, Mark Steinmetz or Greg Girard. Under the imprint of Kominek Books he has published books by Alec Soth, Viviane Sassen, Rinko Kawauchi or Senta Simond.

https://www.kominekominekominek.shop/
@kominekbooks

Gonzalo Sanchez is a book designer based in Florence, Italy. Originally from Argentina, he studied Graphic Design at the University of Buenos Aires and worked over a decade in Barcelona, Spain. Collaborating with publisher Michael Kominek, Gonzalo has designed photobooks for renowned photographers like Joan Fontcuberta, Greg Girard, Mark Steinmetz, and Rob Hornstra, among others.

https://www.gonzalosanchez.co/
@gonzaloasanchez