squirrel$$$bandit
Veteran
Well. I decided it's time to put together a Blurb book, after listening to Brooks Jensen's terrific LensWork podcast today. I've been sort of planning this in the back of my head for more than a year, but I spent today making some selections, healing out dust, etc. in preparation for putting it all together. I downloaded the InDesign template and will start trying to lay it all out in the coming weeks...I figure I'll just put a free .pdf download on my website and a link to the Blurb page.
Anyway, I am thinking the book will be called Fifty Pictures. It'll be about half black and white and half color, and will consist mostly of shots that document personal solitude, or the unpeopled human environment--a few street shots, some man-made tableaus, some pictures in which people are evasive, or intimidated by their surroundings, or appear to have just stepped out for a moment. Basically the book will be about the way what we leave behind gets in the way of being what and who we are.
I don't expect to sell any, really--I just want it to be available. So, some questions.
1) black and white and color. Should I intersperse them according to whim, or should I separate the book into B&W and color sections? I'm leaning towards the former, even though just this afternoon I was leaning toward the latter. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. My suspicion is that this technical difference is more important to photographers than it is to actual viewers.
2) Using Blurb. Any caveats?
3) Is 50 too many pictures? I had no trouble winnowing down to this amount, but would have more trouble winnowing further. This is about 2 and a half years of photographs.
4) Titles. The pictures have titles, mostly, but I'm thinking of going with a more Egglestony approach and just putting the place and year, and perhaps a line of description for a few that might benefit from it. I'm feeling rather anti-title and anti-artist-statement--I figure if the pictures can't speak for themselves, they probably suck.
5) Statement. So yeah...should I bother? Should I have a friend write a little essay or poem or story or something? (I know a lot of good writers.) Should I ask somebody to interview me? I suppose that is kind of pretentious.
6) Layout--I'd like a photo every other page, with the facing page just the small amount of text referring to the photo. This is a huge waste of space and money, but since nobody's gonna buy it...also, I am considering doing the text as pencilled handwriting rather than an actual font. This could be cool but more likely would be really corny. but maybe not?
Thanks.
Anyway, I am thinking the book will be called Fifty Pictures. It'll be about half black and white and half color, and will consist mostly of shots that document personal solitude, or the unpeopled human environment--a few street shots, some man-made tableaus, some pictures in which people are evasive, or intimidated by their surroundings, or appear to have just stepped out for a moment. Basically the book will be about the way what we leave behind gets in the way of being what and who we are.
I don't expect to sell any, really--I just want it to be available. So, some questions.
1) black and white and color. Should I intersperse them according to whim, or should I separate the book into B&W and color sections? I'm leaning towards the former, even though just this afternoon I was leaning toward the latter. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. My suspicion is that this technical difference is more important to photographers than it is to actual viewers.
2) Using Blurb. Any caveats?
3) Is 50 too many pictures? I had no trouble winnowing down to this amount, but would have more trouble winnowing further. This is about 2 and a half years of photographs.
4) Titles. The pictures have titles, mostly, but I'm thinking of going with a more Egglestony approach and just putting the place and year, and perhaps a line of description for a few that might benefit from it. I'm feeling rather anti-title and anti-artist-statement--I figure if the pictures can't speak for themselves, they probably suck.
5) Statement. So yeah...should I bother? Should I have a friend write a little essay or poem or story or something? (I know a lot of good writers.) Should I ask somebody to interview me? I suppose that is kind of pretentious.
6) Layout--I'd like a photo every other page, with the facing page just the small amount of text referring to the photo. This is a huge waste of space and money, but since nobody's gonna buy it...also, I am considering doing the text as pencilled handwriting rather than an actual font. This could be cool but more likely would be really corny. but maybe not?
Thanks.
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