A little over a year ago I started to publish my photographic book reviews on The PhotoBook and now some 75 photobook reviews later, I have started to co-publish a few of my reviews in conjunction with photo-eye’s online magazine, which they publish in conjunction with their book store and gallery, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This has been an interesting journey, from writing an occasional book review on this site, then realizing that I had a lot of books in my library and creating The PhotoBook, a separate blog focused on just photobooks that dealt with projects, series or monographs. There seemed to be enough photographic technical book reviews available and these books were not interesting to me (not that I had not accumulated enough of those books as well over the years). So thanks to those who endured my basic criticism & writing skills early on, which I have found is much akin to photography itself, you need to practice, study, think, reflect and be open to feedback, achieve a certain level of competency, then work like hell some more.

The first of these photobook reviews is Deanna Templeton’s 17 Days, which can be found on photo-eye here and on The PhotoBook here. For Templeton’s review, the only difference between the two sites are the selection and size of the photographs to illustrate the article. And not too surprising, the photo-eye article is hot linked to their book store to enable a quick purchase. For Templeton’s 17 Days, I believe that photo-eye also has some signed copies.

Best regards, Douglas

Early last week, I was contacted by photo-eye, the Santa Fe gallery and bookstore, to write photobook reviews for them. We’ve worked out most of the details, as they need a brief photobook review and I can wirte a more encompassing review of the same book, which I can publish on The PhotoBook.

I think that this is a nice win-win for both of us, and I especialy enjoy the validation of my photobook reviews. Thank goodness for spell checkers though, or I would have been doomed from the start of this venture!

One of the great things about this for me is that it provides access to some photobook publishers and their books that I might not otherwise see or be able to acquire. I also get to accumulate some photo-eye points that I can later trade in for some books from their site, again defraying my book purchasing expenses and gaining access to a broader selection of photobooks. Yeah, thats what I call win-win-win ;- )

At the moment, it would appear that my photobook reviews would probably start on the photo-eye on-line magazine in late October. I’ll post an update when the first one is published with them. At the moment, it appears that the first photobook review will probably be Duane Michael’s 50, published by Edizioni Ziz, a publisher located in Verona, Italy. nice.

Best regards, Doug

Reminder that Blurb is in the midst of their Photography.Book.Now judging and concurrently they have the “People’s Choice” Award.  So if you have not voted for your favorite book yet, and you really  like my mine, please vote for Insomnia: Hotel Noir here.

Best regards, Doug

Interesting week, but the net result is that today I am getting back on track with my book submission for Insomnia: Hotel Noir.

First I could not  the user’s manual for the monitor calibration and it had been a bit too long since I had updated my monitor calibration (yeah, I know, not a smart thing with an LCD monitor), so it was not coming back to me very quickly. But then a brain-fart; I would do a quick comparison to one of my other monitor settings and sure enough I found a profile that put me back on track.

Then I needed to puchase the exact paper I wanted to use for my book submission, as I really want to put my best foot forward. I was lucky and found the right size and quanity way in the back of the paper bin at the only local camera store who carries the Harmon Fb Mp I needed. So far, so good.

Then I fired up the Epson 4800 and only find that I was essentially out of Light-Light Black. Grrrrr. I diffinitely need that ink, so back to another camera store that maintains a good stock of the Epson 4800 110ml replacement cartrigdes. Now I was back home in time to help pick up a birthday cake for my grandson’s birthday party and the rest of the day was having fun with the family and to print another day.

Which takes me to today. So I write this while my first test print air dries to ensure that everything is lined up. I guess I could have tucked it into the microwave to expidite the dry down, but my wife seems to think that this is not a bright idea as to how it might effect the food. I am not going to argue.

Which reminds, how I really like the look and feel of the Harman Fb Mp papers. so nice.

Best regards, Doug

I think that I have made a successful next step in publishing my project Insomnia: Hotel Noir, which is to have a book query acknowledged and a request for a formal book submission.

One big goal for Insomnia: Hotel Noir was to have it published by a traditional publisher. And one of the advantages of the multitude of photobooks that I review for The PhotoBook is becoming familiar with the types of books each of the many book publishers seem to be interested in. And each publisher does have what I will call a photobook personality. I will cruise through my photobook publishers links, to see what each of the publishers have just released or will soon be releasing. After a while, you can sense what type of photobook they will publish, as well as what kind of book is missing from their lists.

In my case, Insomnia is probably not destined to be a big hit book, which for the big publishers is between 10,000 – 150,000+ books, which are the books you will find in Borders and the like. Thus I think Insomnia is a better fit with one of the smaller publishers who print in quantities of 1,000 – 2,000 books, maybe even less. I also feel I need a publisher who is interested in a cinematic story, with an intriguing story line and open to photographer who is not represented by a photo gallery (yet).

One of my primary intent’s with the self-publishing of the Blurb version of Insomnia is that this would make an excellent book dummy for a publication submission. My one concern was that I had to edit (crop) a number of the photographs to obtain what I thought was a great looking book with the available Blurb format. Second concern, to ensure that a publisher knew that I was not tied to the hip with my Blurb design version and that I was open to another to work with a design team.

So I had linked my Blurb “book dummy“, my Insomnia blog, the project photos that I have on my web site  to an email to one publisher that I was very interested in and asked if they saw a potential fit and what their book submission policy was. Apparently that was sufficient information in my query that they could see how my book could fit within their book publishing interests and asked for me to make a formal submission.

Next step, I have to purchase additional 13 x 19 Harmon FB Mp paper, complete my monitor calibration and make a complete set of prints for my formal submission. I hope that I can have that completed sometime next week. Yeah!

Still a long way to go yet. I think of it as getting to first base.

Best regards, Doug

JiaShan boatman, 2008 copyright of Douglas Stockdale

While I was working my way through the first edit of my photographs for the Chinese Picture Postcardsproject, this one photograph just jumped at me as the image that could be my potential photobook cover.

The project is a series of dyptichs, one of which will be a classic China photograph that you might purchase a post card of,  in order to send home to create envy or perhaps as trigger for a fond memory. The second photograph of the pair will be the reality photograph, about the change and upheaval I experienced within China.

And for me,  this photograph incorporates both of those elements. The old Chinese village with a picturesq boatsman paddling out to his destination on the river, but on the opposite banks, a row of modern, dense housing, which has risen on top of the old village hutong.

And this is starting to look like it could be a rather large book.

Best regards, Doug

Cavallo Point Lodge bookstore

One of the occasional delights that I have, is that while working on one project, through a series of somewhat related connections, other great opportunities appear!

Here is my current example; while working on Linda Connor’s photobook Odyssey review for The PhotoBook, I found about a wonderful photographic place to creatively hang-out in the SF Bay area called Cavallo Point. And a small treasure trove of nicely printed and at this point, relatively unknown photobooks.

I had been writing her Odssey review, but struggling to find digital images from the book’s interior to illustrate my article on The PhotoBook. One good option is to find the photographers website and see what images are posted, or request the images from the photographer. In Connor’s case, I could not find a web site. hmmmmm.

But just at that same time, I was contacted by Ben Zlotkin, who owns Edition One Books, a print on demand publisher. He asked me to list his POD provide on the resource list of The PhotoBook, but then went on to mention some current books that he had printed for Cavallo Point resort, including Linda Connor’s  monograph. Serendipity strikes, with him mentioning Linda Connor, someone I was trying to find.

I remarked back to Ben that I was working on her book Odssey. In his reply back, he stated that he was mentioned in Linda’s credits, because she used Edition One Books to work up her dummy for Odssey. And sure enough, Ben and Edition One Books was mentioned in Connor’s credits. hmmmmm

So I asked if Ben was in contact with Linda and if he could connect us. Which he did, so a big shout out Thanks to Ben! 

And I asked Ben more about the Cavallo Point books, which he provided me with a sample of Mark Klett’s monograph, Time Studies. Oh wow, beautiful! These are some really nice books, so more about these book later on The PhotoBook.

So I did get linked up with Linda to obtain some needed photographs for my book review.  And I found out more about the Cavallo Point project, which Linda had been involved in during the early stages.  I found some relatively unknown books by twenty great photographers, a real treasure trove of photographic material, as these are all unique but well published books. And a great location outside SF with good access to the wine country. AND a great collection of photographs (800+), and maybe the best hanging exhibition of Imogen Cunningham, about 50 vintage silver gelatin prints which are hanging in the resorts restaurant for the next six months. And Edition One Books,  whic appears to be a really good publishing resouce for those who are interested in photobook self-publishing. And finally, linked up with Anne Veh, the photographic curator at Cavallo Point, with whom I have already had a great discussion about the Cavallo Point photographs.

Nice. In fact, very nice indeed.

Best regards, Doug

 Copyright Douglas Stockdale

I am continuing to think about what I saw in China over the nine months that I was there. China is a place that is in a rapid transition to try to become “modern”, and at the time, they had a ton of money to throw at their public projects.

And I think that there are enough pretty pictures of China, so I do not feel that I would add anything to that subject. But attempting to get into the issues and effects of change is something that I am interested in.

My earlier triptychs from Re: Development are still on my mind, but I am not sure how to proceed, so I am going to take a small step back and use some of those same images with the Chinese Picture Postcard photobook project. My thinking right now is to pair up the opposing types of images, the typical pretty photograph on one side of the page spread, with a facing photograph of the current construction and change.

So I think that I have figured out what my next photobook project is. wonderful! Now to make sure that as I provide updates, I can upload the images so that they sit next to each other, which the two above are supposed to be doing, but don’t appear to be behaving on my monitor.

Best regards, Doug

Update: persistence pays off.  I thought that I had prep’d and loaded the images correctly to get the effect, so I just reloaded them again and Bingo!, got it. Somehow I goofed the first time. sigh.

Copyright 2005, Candida Hofer

Just a quick note to announce that I have posted my 50th review on The Photobook today. When I started this new blog, I was not sure what would happen.  I had a big stack of photobooks, so it was going to take a while to write all  of those reviews, and it would give me a chance to figure out how this would work out for me.

Looking back, to be honest, when I first started,  I was just publishing some quick thoughts, but now the tone and tenor has changed (hopefully for the better!), and I am seeking books that are not an easy read or review.

It will be interesting to see how my photobook reivews will have progressed when I have published my 100th, eh?

Best regards, Doug

Insomnia: Hotel Noir copyright 2009 by Douglas Stockdale

I just announced on my Insomnia: Hotel Noir blog that I published the book with Blurb over the weekend. nice.

And this morning I received back some nice comments from David Maisel regarding my review of his book, Libraries of Dust, which I just published on The PhotoBook. That is my 49th photobook review that I have published on that blog. I am now working on my 50th (small milestone) photobook, Candida Hoefer’s Libraries.

Good start after a nice 4th of July holiday; we grilled some brats, a little cold beer and a wonderful sunny, but not too humid and hot, weekend. really nice.

Best regards, Doug