When the postman rings, it is generally to announce my (almost) daily Christmas time. Hardly a night goes in which I do not encounter an online link to a beautiful photo book that I have the urge to get. If in the future I am ever sent to therapy, then probably because of this continuously growing desire to buy books.
So much for that.
But what do I generally find when I open the packages? Damaged goods! And that is not funny considering the fact that most of the books are anything but cheap – and that the damage is easily avoidable. People really TRY to do good packaging, but they simply do not think it through! I recieve an amazing amount of bubble wrap every week. Too bad that bubble wrap does not prevent book corners from being damaged. Neither do 10 sheets of packing paper.
Last week I almost went bezerk when a 350EUR book arrived with bent corners. It was evident from the package that it had been dropped – but hey, this is what happens during long shipping procedures, and the content should be packed adequately! Bubble wrap simply is not enough. Basta!
So today I was overly happy to recieve my books from Steidl. Not only did they include a beautiful catalogue, that totally excites me, but they also packed the books in a way that shows that they truly and consciously care about them. And these protective corners do not only allow for simple and quick packaging, they also are cheap – cheaper than multiple square meter of bubble wrap.
Everytime I worked on a book layout I had the impression that I should do SOMETHING with my name … Something that reflects the idea of a mirrow – with a twist – while using a neutral looking font to avoid clashes. I always knew my name had potential for this idea, symmetrical as it is, but I was never quite satisfied with the results so I kept putting the task aside for later.
“Later” arrived today, when I noticed that I am in desperate need of new business cards. So instead of doodling aimlessly while on a conference call, I decided to sketch some more potential logos.
(I always need to fill pages with marks when I am on the phone … and if there is nothing worthy for annotation, my hands get creative. I could do an exhibition with that stuff!)
As to the logo, I am actually quite happy! I think I managed to include everything of importance into this last version – including the framing of a strong “behind”. :)
After all, even with a logo, one should never take oneself too seriously.
There has been a lot of talk about “Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s”, and now that I hold one of them in my hands I totally understand the reasons for the applause. If you are interested in photobooks this is definitively a must-have book. But do not take my word for it, have a look here:
5b4
Conscientious
The British Journal of Photography
… and here is an interview with Ivan Vartanian, one of the authors, on japan exposures, who said that “apart from helping the reader learn how to understand Japanese photography books, I want them to know how essential it is to Japanese photography. It’s very different from western photography, which has this idea that photographs must exist as a print. Japanese photography, in its ultimate form, is the photobook. Communicating that simple idea, to even a Japanese audience, is the main homework of this project. And you’d be amazed how revolutionary that idea is to people who are well versed in photography in the West.”
I will be showing some of the work featured inside this wonderful survey in “photography & Illustration” next.
If you are interested in photobooks and wondering about what their future might look like, you might want to go over to LiveBooks to check on the various comments collected there concerning this topic.
I think I am kind of late in this discussion, but just this morning I stumbled over one of the few comments comming from the photography-collector’s side and I found his argumentation for the following points quite intersting:
1.) For him as a collector the primary reasons for buying photobooks are reference and education.
2.) The purpose of photobooks are the photographs
3.) The purpose is also to collect multiple viewpoints (from artists, curators & critics …)
4.) Photography collectors are not very interested in the innovation in photobooks
In the early summer 2009 I launched my own publishing venture, called “The Little Hunter”, with the aim of getting some self published books out, in limited editions, with full controll over the process. It is important for me to have a possibility to present the work as I see it, at least once. And as I am a collector of photobooks myself, I very much see them as objects. And that is the way I think they will survive.
The research aspect in my oppinion will rely more and more on the digital world. Its main focus lies on acquiring information, which is certainly easier, faster and less expensive to do online. But as soon as emotions and desires kick in, there is no way anything digital will win over an actual object. At least that is the way it works for me – regardless if we are speaking about photography , photobooks, drawings, postcards … love&passion.
