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 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.

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

AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY 27 (+ name dropping)

Got my copy of American Photography in the mail just before
Christmas. As usual, a heavy tome full of (mostly) awesome
fotos.

I am honored and thrilled to have some of my fotos published
along side those of some of my fave fotogs:

Terry Richardson

Dan Winters

Antonin Kratchvil

Martin Schoeller

Ryan McGinley

Timothy Archibald

Me

The big book should be on the stands at a bookstore near you.
Go check it out.

drool is taking the week off.

Tune in New Years Day for more drool. . .

WILKIE

I’m kind of sad but also relieved. Wilkie is dead. He was 16 human
years old.

We’ve known the end was near for a month or so. I was hoping that
it would be clear, when to take him in. And it was. He got real sick,
real fast, a couple of days ago. He stopped eating and then his legs
gave out, couldn’t walk. His dying was nothing but relief.

Now, I’m a photographer so I wondered, as the time drew near, whether
I might take fotos of him after he died. Sounds morbid, I know, but. . .

I told myself that I would just go into the situation with an open mind,
allow myself to feel what I felt, to figure it out as I went along. Just
like usual.

As the drug went in, as Wilkie panted a little (but not too much), I kind
of choked up, cried a bit (but not too much). He died so peacefully.

Cin and I were there, looking and feeling. Then talking. We studied Wilkie,
felt him get cold, saw him dead. We were alright. So was he.

I took some fotos.

Wilkie, December 12, 2011

OLD NEWS

Finally managed to get my hands on the issue of British Journal of
Photography. . .the one with my work in it. They arrive on these
shores about 4 weeks after they appear in the U.K.

I’ve never really had a close look at that publication, always going
for the N. American default: PDN.

Well, let me tell you that, while the BJP is more expensive, it’s way
more interesting. Might be just because this particular issue was
about portraits, which is my primary area of foto-interest.

But something tells me that the BJP just has more substance than
PDN.

For instance: a 6 page interview with Malerie Marder (who has just
about the worst website in the world). To find out more about her
and her work you can bop over the Conscientious, where Joerg
just published a glowing review of her new book: Carnal Know-
ledge. (Here)

Plus there are pages and pages more of articles on other fotografers
and approaches. It all seems pretty sophisticated (in a good way) and
informed.

And if you need an occasional geek fix, not to worry. BJP also has
a section or two devoted to gear and stuff.

Anyhow, like I said, I would never have picked one up and studied
it if it hadn’t been for the swell article Colin Pantall wrote about
collaborative portraiture (which included some of my work). Goes
to show you that there are still plenty of stones left to turn over,
when it comes to any-and-all things foto. And it’s usually self
interest that makes stuff and discovery happen.

I suggest tracking one down and having a look-see for yourself.

ATTRIBUTION

Related, I think, to the past two week’s posts about whether
fotos are of or about something. . . .

You will often bump into fotografers who will tell you,
in no uncertain terms, just what exactly it is their work
is about. They attribute so much to their fotos.

Spare me the details.

First of all, I think I can make up my own mind, thank
you very much. And, secondly, by having such a clear
cut idea of what it is they are actually showing you, I
believe they are really just fooling themselves and trying
to fool you while they’re at it.

Of course, if you are careering, trying to establish your
credentials as an artist, it never hurts to take this tack,
to position yourself as an artist. All too often the public
will be led and persuaded by what you say, not by what
you do.

If you have all the pretensions of being an Artist, if that’s
what you sell yourself as (to yourself as well as your clients)
you can turn your palatable, beautiful clichés into money.

But doing it that way, attributing so much to the fotos you
take will, in the end. just hold you back. It will lock you in
to just doing what is safe, what you know. There will be no
discovery, no real progression.

The problem is you end up believing your own hype. And
once that happens you loose your perspective, and it’s
perspective that makes you an artist.

Best, if you ask me, to just go out and do your thing, try to
think just enough, not too much, see what happens, see how
you react to your chosen subject and let the people who look
at what you’ve done make up their own minds just what it is
that you have actually done.

ADVENTURES IN PUBLISHING

I figured I’d get some BLURB books printed, so as to be able
to send hard copies to potential publishers. Got them in the
mail this week and have to say. . .they’re quite nice.

The reproduction is more than swell and the look and feel
pretty much works, too.

LIVE THROUGH THIS (148 pages, softcover)

I like them so much that a part of me thinks I should forget
spending the time and energy looking for an “actual” publisher,
that I should self-publish and that’ll be that.

Of course, there are certain things a publisher would bring to
the table: better printing and paper; an editor; nicer binding;
distribution and, finally, some kind of ego gratification.

page spread (from BLURB version of LTT, which contains many never before seen fotos from the project)

I also have to tell you that I’ve been thinking about printing it on
newsprint, in a large tabloid format, and issuing it like that, for
something like $12 a copy, cheap.

I’m still turning this over in my brain and am just now beginning
to seek out other’s help and opinion. These days there are so many
options for hard copy production of things like this.

As usual, if any of you droolers have thoughts on this, I’d be happy
to hear them, either as comments here or you can PM me.

page spread (from BLURB version of LTT)

detail of the note from Stephanie, seen above