What makes PowerHouse unique 30 years on?
I like to think that we helped pioneer the art book field, particularly in terms of photography. When we started PowerHouse in 1995, there weren’t any publishers doing contemporary photography. The competition has increased substantially, and for the art form and genre it’s great, but I think we helped pioneer that. My goal was never to be a small, collector’s-item publisher. I always wanted people to go into a regular bookstore and find our books. And, for the most part, we’ve been able to do that.
What are some of PowerHouse’s defining titles?
Around 2000, a Rikers Island corrections officer—turns out it was Jamel Shabazz—came to our office with a collection of photographs of people posing on the street in the late 1970s and ’80s. What he had discovered with his photographs was, essentially, the birth of hip-hop, especially in fashion. That book, Back in the Days, put us on the map in a cultural sense. Another one is New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers, which hit #1 on Amazon. There were several similar books, but ours managed to stay in print.
What’s next on the horizon?
Our biggest book for 2026 is probably the one by photographer Mark Peterson, who we first published 20 years ago. That volume will be about the current political landscape. I’m thinking of it as a sort of “anti-photography” book that forces us to make our own decisions and only gives rise to more questions.
