The Self-Published Photography Book
October 9 – 11 Camden, Maine
Tuition: $550 Class size: 12
You want to publish your own book of photographs but aren’t sure where do you begin? What are the details and how do you pull them together to bring this concept to final book form? This workshop is designed to help you answer those questions and navigate the labyrinth of self-publishing.
We will begin with a dessert “meet and greet” on Friday at 7 pm. Participants will give a brief synopsis of their project, and share a few selected images with the group. Beginning Saturday at 8 am we will cover the nuts and bolts of self-publishing photography books. A number of talented and published guests will share their expertise and experience with the group. Subjects covered will include, but not be limited to, design, scanning, materials, contracts and deadlines, presses, binding, funding and selling your book. We will break at 5 pm and enjoy a meal together at my home.
Sunday we will work from 9 am until 4 pm. Each participant will be given the opportunity to show the full extent of their project to the group. This is the day that separates this workshop from other book project workshops. Time spent playing with the layout of your images is the most important part of the book project. Placement of your images is what makes your book sing and keeps a viewer turning the pages. This process is less about “critiquing” and more about playing images off of each other, which results in the “sum” of your book being greater than its individual image “parts”. While some images will stand best alone others will shine in unexpected ways when partnered with another. There is no other way to find this out than to move the images around and try the different combinations out, while asking yourself what point you are trying to make. Editing the images within a group brings new ideas and energy that is difficult to produce when working alone so I highly encourage anyone producing a book to open themselves to this step as part of their process.
This process is less about “critiquing” and more about playing images off of each other
My experience in publishing photography books involves three books to date. My first book, Tillman Crane/STRUCTURE (2001), was done through a publisher. I self-published both my second (TOUCHSTONES, 2005)and third (ODIN STONE, 2008)books. I am currently at work on my book on the Jordan River (UT) available in September 2009 and a book on Knox County, Maine, due out in 2010.Combined with the cumulative experience of 30+ years teaching and critiquing photographs I believe I can be of great help with your first photography book. I hope you will join me in exploring the “A-Z’s” of creating your own photography books, from concept to press. Bring your project, in whatever form, for help and support in making your book project a reality.