I’m not entirely sure why people, other than students completing a degree course, want to publish photobooks. I understand that, when it is done genuinely, with consideration and an understanding of the subject(s), the act of curation is an important milestone in a long-form piece of work. However, a lot of photobooks and zines pay little attention to the story emerging, and some are simply collections of random images taken over a period of time. Besides, curation can be achieved in a digital form too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many photographers, though, is it just photographic vanity publishing? Do they hope that they will be ‘spotted’ by someone with influence in their area of interest? Do they want to prove something to friends and family? Do they hope to fund the purchase of yet another piece of glass that they are sure will help them create the ultimate image? Or do they think that having a photobook is a sign that they are a ‘professional’?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While one or two copies might impress a friend, unless you move in very specific circles, the likelihood of someone significant to your career seeing one is pretty slim, and they would probably look at your portfolio online anyway. Getting into print is one thing, but it is their distribution that is key to the success of many publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most photographers, these days, use a digital camera and 99% of those have a rear screen which is either used to take the image itself or to chimp immediately after; they edit their images on a laptop, and they upload the result either to use a screen show, or to make them available online to a customer. Only after a substantial amount of time and scrutiny, does the backlit image get printed. Backlit images are very different to printed ones – which depend on reflected light – backlit colours appear more saturated, whites appear brighter and contrast increases. For strictly documentary work, it is hard to think of an image that truly benefits from print over backlighting. They can be viewed regardless of the level of ambient light and even become a light source themselves. It’s only when you move towards art that the texture of the paper medium makes a contribution to the image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What’s the future? Take a look in most estate agents’ windows…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
*** Controversial Opinion Warning *** I’m not entirely sure why people, other than students completing a degree course, want to publish photobooks. I understand that, when it is done genuinely, with consideration and an understanding of the subject(s), the act of curation is an important milestone in a long-form piece of work. However, a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-photo-journey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3445,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions\/3445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}