Chris Boot has had a career in various photography organisations. He was director of London’s Photo Co-op, director of the London and New York offices of Magnum Photos, editorial director at Phaidon Press, founder of Chris Boot Ltd. a photography book publisher, and is now executive director of Aperture Foundation. In these roles he has commissioned, edited or published a number of noteworthy photography books.
Boot was born on 27 May 1960 in Kynnersley, Shropshire, England. He has a BA in photography from the Polytechnic of Central London, and a BA in English literature from the Royal Holloway College, University of London.
Between 1984 and 1990 Boot was director of London’s Photo Co-op (since renamed Photofusion), an independent photography resource center and gallery.
In 1990 he moved to Magnum Photos where he became director of its London and then, in 1995, of its New York office, until 1998.
He was editorial director at Phaidon Press from 1998 to 2000. While at Phaidon, he wrote and edited Magnum Stories; edited Robert Capa, the Definitive Collection by Richard Whelan and the Phaidon 55 series of books from 2001 onwards, which included volumes on Nan Goldin, Mary Ellen Mark, Shomei Tomatsu, Dorothea Lange and W. Eugene Smith and Walker Evans; and commissioned The Photobook: A History by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger,Boring Postcards from the collection of Martin Parr,Outland by Roger Ballen, Snaps by Elliott Erwitt, and Heaven and Earth by David Malin and Katherine Roucoux.