Press Books is an offshoot of the Heavy Collective, a photography publication that also dabbles in independent publishing and events. Three guys – Geordie Cargill, Jack Harries and Chris Loutfy – came together to lift their ideas off the page and into a physical space, a garage behind their mate’s gallery now known as the Corner Collective. Press Books is a labour of love for Cargill, Harries and Loutfy. All three have full-time jobs and they operate the store on weekends only.
Cargill tells Time Out it’s like having a library of indie mags to dip into and share with the world. “We’re working with three distributors, and everything else is sourced directly from the artist, right down to the zines. People come in and drop off their own works for us to display.” Loutfy says that 70 to 80 per cent of the items in store are independent stock; on our visit, we spy photographic titles Aint-Bad Magazine and LIT from Melbourne-based publishing house Bloom.
As a secondary service, the store manages a Hillvale Dropbox, a film deposit box for photographers who want to have have their negatives processed the old-fashioned way – it's one of only two in New South Wales. “It’s not a money-making venture," says Loufy. "It’s more or less trying to fill a void for independent publishing in Sydney. There are things that roll into town, like the MCA Zine Fair, and they definitely help. But once a year really isn’t enough.”
Press Books connects with many of its customers via Instagram to promote the small launches and showsthey host in the space. “It’s definitely new waters for Sydney,” says Cargill. “One of the books we sold this morning is not in print anymore and it was just amazing. Afterwards we were thinking, ‘why didn’t we didn’t save it?’" He laughs. "Not that it’d be worth a lot of money."