Tomoka Aya was born and based in Osaka, Japan. She founded the Third Gallery Aya in 1996, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021. She has organised exhibitions by Ishiuchi Miyako, Yamazawa Eiko, Okanoue Yoshiko, Imai Hisae, Kodama Fusako, Jo Spence, Heshiki Kenshichi, Gocho Shigeo, Abe Jun, Narahashi Asako, Watanabe Koichi, Kakimoto Hiromi, Higashionna Yuichi, Inagaki Tomoko and others. Aya works with photography and contemporary art ― she intro-duces artists’ works in and out of Japan by participating in Paris Photo, the world’s largest photography art fair, and Art Basel, the world’s largest contemporary art fair.

In 1995, Markus Schaden founded the publishing house and bookshop schaden.com, which specialises in photography books. He has published more than 100 photography books by far. He is a former vice-president of the German Society for Photography (DGPh), a member of the editorial board of the magazine FOAM, and a jury member at photo festivals in Arles, Paris and other places in the world. In cooperation with the Lichtblick School, Cologne and the Goethe Institute, he has organised PhotoBookMaster classes in Amsterdam, Jakarta, Arles and Cologne, and teaches regularly at the Acade-my of Media Arts (KHM) in Cologne as well as the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund. In 2014, together with Frederic Lezmi, he founded the PhotoBookMuseum in Cologne, the world’s first museum dedicated to the study of photography books. Following an internationally acclaimed inaugural exhibition in Cologne, the PhotoBookMuseum has organised exhibition projects around the world.

Jess Baxter is a curator, researcher and writer based in London. She is currently Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern, where she worked on A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, as well as displays of Deana Lawson, Joel Meyerowitz and Chinese photobooks. She is one of the Emerging Curators of the British Art Network for 2023-24. Publications include Lieko Shiga (Tate Publishing 2023), an article on the practice of Mikhael Subotzky (Mag-num Photos 2023), and an upcoming book on medieval and contemporary art practices (2024).

Clint Woodside is a photographer, curator and founder of Deadbeat Club, an acclaimed independent publishing house rooted in contemporary photography. Based in Los Angeles, Woodside works with artists around the world with the expec-tation of close collaboration and long standing partnership. With thoughtful design, innovative editing and meticulous print quality, each title is one Deadbeat Club is proud to share with its community. Woodside has curated shows and exhibited work extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the US.