The Premise: A Crowd Sourced Blog Posting About Photography Book Publishing
Andy Adams, the creative juice behind the online magazine Flak Photo recently contacted me about a “crowd-sourced” blog posting relating to photobooks, in conjunction with Resolve, the Livebooks blog. Was I game in posting something on my own blog? Sure. I’m always game for a discussion about photobooks.
Miki Johnson, an editor and contributor to Resolve kick started the discussion with a smattering of provocative questions: “What do you think photobooks will look like in 10 years? Will they be digital or physical? Open-source or proprietary? Will they be read on a Kindle or an iPhone? And what aesthetic innovations will have transformed them?”
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”—Alan Kay
Last night, on a beautiful, balmy, breezy September eve in New York City at Tribeca Rooftop, Blurb.inc hosted the awards ceremony for the 2009 Photography.Book.Now contest. As lead judge not only did I MC the evening event, but I got to give a very deserving photographer by the name of Rafal Milach from Warsaw, Poland $$$TWENTY-FIVE-THOUSAND-U.S.-DOLLARS. Not only did it make him happy but it made me very, very happy.
In many ways, Blurb is inventing a part of the future, and their support of books and photography is phenomenal. So, one more “Thank You” to Eileen and the Blurb crew (Robin, Lori, Brenna, Mike and the rest of the team + Wendy and the NYC collaborators for putting on an amazing evening).
Below is the text of my prepared statement for the evening:
There has been a lot of news of DEATH, DYING and KILLING in recent times and I don’t just mean the dozens of wars and armed conflicts worldwide. When we listen to the media we hear that newspapers are dying and photography is dead. They say that digital killed analog, bloggers killed print-journalism and any number of magazines are listed on deathwatch websites.
If you believe it there is carnage and unprecedented global upheaval from which we’ll supposedly never recover.
Personally I think all of that is a load of bull.
I’d like to suggest that this “is what real revolutions are like,” to borrow the words of Clay Shirky, a brilliant social commentator. They involve slippery and exciting change that cannot be controlled by the usual methods.
I fully agree.
“The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread. Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen.”
And so it is with us assembled tonight. We are here not because one technology has killed another, or because some set of industries are in danger of dying, real as that may feel. We are here to celebrate newness, innovation and the glorious creativity of the human spirit. And yes, CHANGE. Whether we know it or not, we are living through revolutionary times.
When someone demands to know whether print-on-demand will kill publishing and whether newspapers and magazines will die “they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution.” As Shirky says: “They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be lied to.”
I cannot tell a lie.
But I can say that books are ancient vehicles for the dissemination of ideas and resonate with us as objects even today. Photography, by contrast, is no more developed than a toddler in the scope of human history. It is a gift of modernity and it is changing rapidly before our eyes … and all of that is as exciting as anything I can think of.
To be attached to old ways and outdated systems in this new day is foolhardy and naive, for who can any longer believe that technologies won’t change radically every six months or more. And who cares!? Change is inevitable. Has anyone mentioned we are living in the 21st century? I don’t know how all of these changes will affect the larger industries many of us work in; no one really does. But I do know that we are the future—we are the architects and the builders and there are more and more powerful tools at our disposal every time we blink our eyes.
So let me remind everyone to please take out your cell phones … and make sure they are on. Please Tweet, Blip, Facebook, Blog and Qik video anything and everything you want. We are witnessing changes the likes of which previous generations could never dream.
The Photography.Book.Now contest was not just another “photography” contest. This was a photography-book contest—and specifically, one that celebrates print-on-demand technology. Many thanks and shout-outs to all the photographers who submitted, attended the party and decided to participate in something fresh and exciting, without really knowing where we’re all headed.
[Posting this entry from 34,000 ft & the future. Here is the full text of Clay Shirky's talk on the state of newspaper publishing. Follow me on Twitter @dariushimes]
Over the past 2 weeks, there has been an outpouring of excitement about the Photography.Book.Now 2009 contest and the impending DEADLINE at noon on July 16th! Here’s a quick round-up of all the press:
There are several interviews with me as the Lead Judge of the contest:
Photographer Cara Phillips, one of last year’s Photography.Book.Now runner-ups, maintains a wonderful blog. She’s just posted an interview with me about the contest. Photo-eye Director Rixon Reed interviewed me for their online magazine. Photographer and blogger Douglas Stockdale also ran a few questions past me. And the Live Books folks posted a short interview with me on their blog.
Other online shout outs about the contest:
Amy Stein, a photographer who recently published her first book (via the Critical Mass Book prize), made mention of the contest on her blog. Hey, Hot Shot! (a fabulous Jen Bekman project, who was one of last years’ judges) posted a nice little piece, as did Lesley A. Martin (Publisher at Aperture) on the Aperture blog. Lesley was also one of last years’ Photography.Book.Now judges.
Pretty much the best annual contest for book-loving photographers is about to END on July 16, a mere 3 weeks away!*** I’m talking about Photography.Book.Now, version 2.0, folks. Hosted by Blurb, one of the acknowledged leaders of the print-on-demand revolution, the Photography.Book.Now contest is important for several reasons. Besides the big carrot of $25,000 USD (just ask Beth Dow how fun it was to receive that last year, no strings attached), and other goodies and parties along the way, it’s a chance to get your work in front of a group of top-notch judges who will all be judging the entries in New York shortly after the end of the contest in mid-July.
(*** I’m one of the judges in this contest, heading up the team for a second year.)
But, to be honest, the educator side of me thinks this contest is important because of how it gets photographers to think outside of the box and to think in relation to the book as a separate entity, one that is a combination of many arts.
Let me explain. …
A book, in general, is a very democratic and accessible vehicle to disseminate ideas, in the form of either text or images—two primary advantages are that books require no electricity and can be returned to again and again, unlike an exhibition, for instance, or the Internet.
Creating a successful book involves editing and sequencing and design all in light and in line with an overriding concept which has to be determined ahead of time. Asking yourself ahead of time, “Who is this book for?” and “What am I trying to accomplish with this book?” is extremely important.
The three categories of this year’s contest Fine-Art, Editorial and Commercial are designed to encourage photographers to think about books the way publishers do. Let me restate that: the categories require that photographers think like publishers.
The fine-art category is extremely broad and the most subjective, in that photographers and artists using photography can do whatever they want to produce their book. Books from “art” photography publishing houses like Nazraeli Press, Twin Palms, J&L Books, Aperture, Phaidon, or Radius Books—are often “name” driven and rely on an audience that recognizes that name, whether that’s a really huge name, like Annie Leibovitz, or someone lesser-known, like Julie Blackmon. What is most important in relation to this category is that the content of the book is driven by the personal, artistic concerns of the artist/photographer, and not by “market conditions”.
Editorial photography, which is the second category, is a much different animal than ‘fine art’ photography and book making. Let me state two things at the outset, though. I’m not really interested in or trying to stoke the debate surrounding questions about what constitutes ‘art’ photography. First of all, anything done well is done artfully. If it serves the goals that one sets out with, then ‘art’ has been employed. With more ‘utilitarian’ tasks, art enhances the outcome—think of ‘the art of cooking’ or ‘the art of furniture-making.’ There are more abstract tasks, such as teaching or public speaking, which also benefit from thoughtful and inspired attention, and which employ ‘art’. So, in our case, I don’t want anyone to think that any of the three categories don’t somehow employ art or don’t constitute artfully done work.
Editorial and commercial photographers often serve patrons other than themselves, however, and this is a big distinction. So, an editorial photographer sent on an assignment to cover X, may find themselves with a much larger, broader, more engaging body of work than will ever get published in a magazine. And they may want to turn that project into a book, and get it out there to a wide audience. Likewise, a commercial shooter ofter has photographic skills that translate into a broadly accessible visual language, and can be used for a ‘commercial’ book project. Publishers often conceive of book projects in-house and then commission commercial photographers to produce work for the book. [cont'd below]
[Image Collection #1: Instances of Books Being Read (from home-decor and home-improvement webistes and catalogs), 2007, by Penelope Umbrico]
Perhaps some concrete examples would help. A new book from Princeton Architectural Press—Bamboo Fences, by Isao Yoshikawa and Osamu Suzuki—is a great example of a commercial book project, in my mind. It’s about a very specific subject—bamboo fence building in Japan, written by Yoshikawa—and Suzuki’s photographs perfectly illustrate the work and convey the physical and abstract beauty of these objects. It’s primarily a photography book, but is supplemented by the text. The name of the photographer (or even the author) is not what will drive the sales of this book. It’ll be bought by architects and interior design folks that are hip to the subject matter.
Here’s another example: Bird, by Andrew Zuckerman. It has a specific subject matter that has been very artfully photographed by a commercial photographer. The audience for this book—and by that I mean ultimate sales for this book—is hoped (by Chronicle Books the publisher), I would guess to be upwards of 50,000+. Who doesn’t like birds?
Further: here are two examples of books that have a pretty broad ‘trade’ appeal, but which are not really ‘commercial’ books the way I’ve talked about the books above. They are Jonah Frank’s Right, Portraits from the Evangelical Ivy League (Chronicle Books), and Articles of Faith by Dave Jordano (Center for American Places). In my mind, both of these books probably stemmed from assignments, and once embarked upon, held a fascination for the photographers, blossoming eventually into the book length projects we see on the shelves. Both have more of a storytelling quality to them then either Bamboo Fences or Bird. In that sense, that come out of a ‘documentary’ tradition, but are presented in as appealing a way to as broad an audience as possible.
In either the editorial or commercial category, I would emphasize again that you need to think like a publisher if you are going to submit to that category. Visit websites of publishers (like this one and this other one) and read the ‘catalog copy’ that they produce about their own books. It’ll give you great insight into what type of audience they are aiming for. In many ways, creating an intelligent, succesfull commercial is as hard as creating a successful fine-art project.
[For more reading on the current explosion in the art & photobook market, you'll all have to wait for the book I'm co-authoring with Mary Virginia Swanson about just that. It will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. For a self-taught graduate seminar in your hands, pick up The Photobook: A History, Volumes 1 & 2 by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger (Phaidon) or a copy of the newly released WordsWithoutPictures.org conceived and edited by Charlotte Cotton at LACMA, to which I contributed an essay.]
And lastly, a huge shout out to Penelope Umbrico, whose work with photos from Flickr is smart and stunning. Penelope, if you’re reading this, I hope we all get to see a book of yours someday soon!
All of the judges have been chosen, confirmed and posted on the Photography.Book.Now 2009 contest website. It’s an amazing line up of critics, curators, gallerists, photo editors and photographers. If you have ever thought of producing a book and have wanted to show it some of the best names in the business, this is your chance!
Last year I was privileged to play a major role in the first occasion for what turned out to be an inspiring and surprisingly well-attended contest. Photography.Book.Now 2008, which was hosted by Blurb and included a range of photography industry sponsors (like American Photography, JPG magazine, Flickr, etc), is now set to begin again, for a second time, with the same Grand Prize ($25,000!).
And, I’m privileged to be part of this whole thing again, acting as the chair of the judging committee. Honestly, I can’t tell you how much fun it was to look at over 2000 entries from around the world. We’re all excited and confident that the entries this time around will only increase, the question is, by what magnitude.
This year, there will be 3 categories (as opposed to just the 2 from last year): Fine Art, Editorial, Commercial. The wording for these 3 categories can be found here, on the Photography.Book.Now website.
The judges, who will be announced in the coming weeks, will be drawn from the international pool of photography professionals with backgrounds in the arts and editorial work, and will include magazine picture editors, gallerists, photographers and museum curators. We had an amazing line-up of judges last year, and this year will be no different.
In case anyone had forgotten, Beth Dow won the Grand Prize last year with her beautifully seen project, In the Garden. The rest of the winners and runners-up can be found here, on Blurb’s bookstore site.
One of things that is most exciting to me—and was to many of the judges—is the chance to see photographers, of all types and backgrounds, engaged in envisioning their own work in book form. For many of us, as publishers, curators, picture editors and gallerists, we are actively involved in looking at photographic work on a daily basis and the book is a central form of expression within the medium. To see so many fresh voices engaged in this process was truly inspiring, and we’re looking forward to that same level of intensity again this year.
So get cracking on either a new project or finish up an existing one, get it worked up as the best book you can muster, and submit it to the contest, which runs through July (see the contest website for more details). Regardless of whether or not you win, the chance for such an illustrious panel of judges to see your work is worth it alone.
Words Without Pictures (Aperture, 2010)
Short Track, by Jake Mendel
Bird Watching, by Paula McCartney