A new photobook and a new direction in photography

I spent the last two weeks getting my act together for the Fotofest Meeting Place portfolio review in Houston. After procrastinating for months I finally made my travel arrangements and I put together handouts for my reviewers. But I’ve mostly been thinking about my photographs and how I will present them during reviews.

I’m taking my photography in a new direction. The change is primarily a result of studying at the San Francisco Studio School. When I plunged into photography three years ago, the postmodern conceptual approach that dominates fine art photography was a major influence on my work. Since I enrolled at the Studio School last fall, my work has been increasingly driven by formal considerations as I learned visual criteria for evaluating images. More importantly, I’m allowing more of myself and my feelings to be present in my work as I consider how I can contribute to the medium of photography.

This explains why I renamed the blog “Sincereity and Photography.” I made a conscious decision to reject irony as I bring my work closer and become personally invested. I will be more generous with what I share here on the blog and I will talk more about the changes in my photographic practice in future posts.

Back to Fotofest… Until Saturday, I was unsure how I would present my new work. I knew I would bring prints, but I was missing the enthusiasm I had when I presented a book dummy for Mountain As Monument at previous reviews. For me, the book is “the thing” and I don’t get as excited about prints. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a nice print, I just feel like it’s an excerpt. On Saturday I realized that I needed to make a new book.

I wrote down my ideas and quickly created a layout in InDesign. Even though I’m not working with a pre-defined concept, the book needed a structure which evolved into a three part narrative. I had a blast sequencing the images and designing the book.

The cover is inspired by American Photographs by Walker Evans who is a recent influence. I’ve also been waiting for a chance to use Bembo typeface. Maybe it’s overused but I love it. Because the book has 80 pages, I’m not envisioning this as a handmade artist book. Perhaps this will be my first foray into self-publishing a commercially printed book.

I finished the book layout Sunday night and uploaded it to Blurb for printing. I have a love/hate relationship with Blurb. It is amazing to get a presentable book dummy in a week but I’ve had terrible experiences with their quality control. I’m hoping to have a copy before my reviews start.

I’m ready for Fotofest, but more importantly, I can’t wait to see what happens with this book and where photography will lead me in the upcoming years.