Originally Posted by
Moopheus
Good luck with that!
I haven't done photo book publishing but I have done general book publishing, both as a small press and working at large companies. Getting distribution as a small publisher is very hard (but not impossible, depending on what sort of services you need), and getting distributors to pay is also hard (at least, a couple of mine went bankrupt--I don't even know now who is still even in business). If you're just doing a book or two, expect that you will have to do marketing and sales work on your own if you want to get books into bookstores.
ISBNs are managed by Bowker, and nowadays they have a website, isbn.org, that handles all of that. Anyone can get one, but it does cost money.
Getting CIP cataloging by the Library of Congress will help get library sales. This is free (as I recall) but kind of a PITA.