Recently. I have been working on a physical book the idea for which has been rolling around in my cranium for some time.
Back in the winter of 2016/2017 I spent some time photographing meeting houses and churches in the general “neighborhood”. I ended up with almost one hundred processed, finished photographs.
My first thought was to put together a press printed book, containing three or four dozen photos total. However, the project stalled at the photo editing stage. I simply could not cull the set of photographs down from one hundred to forty-ish. Every time I tried, I ended up with a different subset. I put prints in a folder and put the project aside in frustration.
A month or so ago, one of my photo friends* suggested that selecting a smaller number of photos and making a shorter book might actually be easier. Lo-and-behold, she was right!
I ended up with a dozen photos that I have sequenced and printed four to a 13″x19″ sheet. I have printed four set of folios on some very nice two-sided matte paper. Now all I have to do is decide on the covers and sew the covers and folios together. The decision is always harder than the sewing!
This morning, as an experiment, I spent a bit of time putting together an ebook version (as a pdf file) of this project. Here is a link to the book which is titled “White Clapboard — Winter Light“.
The ebook is best viewed by downloading the pdf file and opening it in Acrobat Viewer rather than just clicking on the link and viewing it in your browser.**
What do you think?
* We are a group of about ten photographers who meet on an irregular basis to discuss “projects and objects”… that is, our creative processes and the prints that result.
** Opening the file in most browsers will display the book one page at a time. This is OK. However, Adobe’s Acrobat Viewer will display the book as two page spreads, as I designed it.
Hi, Frank – I can relate to the appeal of traveling about, especially in winter, and creating this collection. I have found it irresistible myself to photograph some of the same buildings. The photos are great and I like how the juxtaposition of photos allows one to observe the architectural differences and similarities. I’d find it an additional point of interest if you were also to include the year(s) when the version of each church you photographed was constructed. I support your creative endeavor, but I wonder how marketable such a book would be (-IF- that is your intent) because of perhaps a limited audience? It’ll be interesting to see what others think.
Comment by Pat — 18 August 2018 @ 7:35 PM
Wonderful compilation of clapboard structures. Especially liked the angle you chose for each of them and your focus (pun intended) on their steeples. Interesting how several copied the “castle” look. Wonder if a book would be appealing to local stores as visitors are always looking for something to bring home as a memento of their visit to an area.
Well done, my friend!
Comment by Joe — 19 August 2018 @ 7:19 AM