A SLOW KILL TURNING INTO A FAST KILL

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ADVENTURES IN PUBLISHING

I’m pretty much thinking I’ll self publish LTT. I’m also thinking
about giving it another name. But I’m not sure.

Everyone I’ve talked to who knows about fotobook publishing
tells me that, these days, the fotografer must pay from 50%
to 100% of the printing costs. That’s just the way it’s done.
The publisher will then look after distribution and publicity.
If enough books get sold the fotog makes his money back.

That sounds weird to me. (But, then again, a lot of what passes
for “normal” these days sounds weird to me.)

Anyway. I’m still undecided.

In the meantime, here’s the very first foto I took of Steph from
this particular project. Shot November11, 2010 at 12:24 p.m.

steph-001

Steph and I took the holidays off, off from getting her story
down, in her words. So far we’re up to when I first met her.
Her voice is something else.

Here is what she has to say about the time she first came
to Ottawa:

chris new where i could go to find the
block so he took me one day so i could
get my pills so he took me down to the
block but he was scared to ask anyone
so i went and asked the first person i
seen was noddening out and boom i
found my fix.

chris was all about going out and leaving
me behind at his sisters house so one
night i went to the block on my own
and ended up learning that there was
a homeless shelter there so i signed in
to stay there cause it was a one hit! i
could get up in the morning and my fix
was outside! it was awsome in my eyes
anywhere else i had to travell forever to
get my fix but here in ottawa i had it
made!!:) well i thought but really it was
just a slow kill turning into a fast kill.

OLD TECHNOLOGY

Christina came to visit. She drew this picture of me.

me-x-xtina

She’s also been working on a series of fotos, using her wits
and her honesty and emotions. And old technology.

And by old technology I mean a Nikon D2x, all of eight years
old. Ancient these days.

But rather than bemoan the fact that she doesn’t have the
newest and shiniest camera, she just gets on with it and
uses the flaws in what she has to produce these little dark
gems.

© Christina Riley

Those old cameras were terrible at the high ISO, so what does
Christina do? She cranks hers up to the top and shoots away
using a cheap prime lens, pushing the camera’s capabilities
past what it was reasonably meant to do.

The fotos will look very “flawed” to the geeks out there. But if
you are interested in feeling images, rather than just looking
at them, it’s difficult to deny the affect of these.

© Christina Riley