[reposted, slightly re-edited from a post over at toycamera.com]
I am in the middle of designing the first book under my new publishing imprint, Candela Books. Business identity in the works. Website in the works. Those whom I have known on here for a while are aware that I have been working on a project the past three years or more involving a body of work by a New York photographer. Her name is Gita Lenz and I expect to have a monograph of her work available by the spring, well in advance of an exhibition I have arranged for her work in a New York gallery and which will support the book and vice versa. There is a lot of work to do yet where that project is concerned and so I will definitely be burning up the blogs and forums trying to promote that book when the proper time for it comes. The idea in doing the monograph for Gita is to make sure that a quality body of work by a relatively unknown mid 20th century photographer will be remembered. Yesterday was her 99th birthday. She is amazing really. The books will be distributed traditionally through stores and online and will be the introduction that I will use to approach book and photo book retailers. I have a learning curve with this project. I have no delusions (well, maybe a few delusions) about the difficulty of getting the book out there. But I have stopped teaching indefinitely while I get this started up and hobbling forward.
SO... this brings me to another couple of ideas I have. I hope to follow the Gita Lenz book with another monograph or two, more contemporary than the first title will be, for a few different reasons, and I am in discussion with a couple of artists. The number of titles I produce annually will be very limited initially, perhaps always, because I want to choose my projects carefully and produce them in a quality manner and see that there is appropriate/effective distribution and fulfillment. But somewhere in the nebulous future a toy camera /lo fi book may also loom...
As Yet Untitled...
A toy camera book. Kicking around in my head. This community means a lot to me and I have been watching it develop for 20 years now. There are a large number of people I will go to immediately if and when I begin work in earnest on a toy camera book. And I will be putting out formal calls for submissions when the time is nearer too, when I have an editorial vision or construct in my head. But now, while the idea is still gestating, here is an opportunity to introduce yourself to me or remind me of your work. You can assume safely that I will pour over the galleries here and elsewhere. I will dive back into Flickr. Because I will be sole editor of the book, there will be some distinct biases, but my hope will be to introduce a collection of work that feels like a whole, more than a survey or an historical updating type of effort. There are some good 'how to' type books and collective efforts out already and I have participated in some of the past projects here and elsewhere. In fact, I hope to be involved in the project that Andrew (over at toycamera.com) is collating and shepherding forward. And it looks like he is doing a great job.
But this book should hopefully feel different. A little more controlled I hope and a little narrower in its vision than other titles out there. I love a great image no matter who the artist is. And I don't care if someone shoots commercially for a living or teaches or is a retired longshoreman or sells bladder meds to rhino keepers, whatever... but a commitment to the work is going to get my attention. Serious people, even if the work itself is not serious. I want the book to show more than just the potential of the toy camera as artistic medium. I want this book to hit a high mark in imagemaking. I have an interest in the current trends that lomo embraces, indeed I admire looseness when it manages to also have other positive attributes... poignance, pathos, tragedy, finer qualities in general. BUT, and this is important, I need there to be an idea there in the photo and not just a streak of light or reckless double exposure... the trap with the popularly pursued 'just shoot it' model is that the airiness doesn't often satisfy intellectually, sensually, graphically, aesthetically... Not a dig at lomo but I like to feel an image... somewhere in one of those photo chakras I just made up right now... head, heart, gut, groin, shin... somewhere, some meaning, yes?
I will give feedback as to why I am or am not interested in your work. I will make it as polite or unvarnished as you like. I would truly appreciate anyone's interest in such a project and would be grateful to see work. And then, I also am aware that my opinion, at the end of the day, is just an opinion. There is always somewhere else to turn when seeking interest in your work. And like many of you, I have been rejected so many times I cannot recall. It stops being a worry after a while. But it is important to be constructive in criticism. There will be times that I like the work and won't include it. Editing is a strange thing. We'll see what happens.
Some random facts about my idea which might give insight into the type of work I hope to see...
* I enjoy ideas above technique. ~ It is not enough for images to be made with the affect of a toy camera. There is a lot of heady work out there, and there is a lot of quality craft out there... an image or set of images will have to have both intellect/feeling and craft to get my attention. Or it will have to be insanely unusual if poorly made. Or it will have to be unfathomably crafty if lacking intellectual heft.
* I have a somewhat dark, ironic sensibility. ~ I am not however thoroughly jaded. I do like sentimentality and sweetness and beauty but I don't live in an ideal world and so I like a little bitters with my blinders.
* I am drawn to work that incorporates people. ~ Mark making, graffiti, sidewalk art, ambient public art/architecture etc... might, emphasis on might, make the cut. A landscape that has mystery or spirits or dessication or some kind of implied narrative might make the cut. I do have a few landscape photogs among my favorites.
* Conceptual work / Staged Work / Specific Portraiture / Outtakes from Commercial Work... Maybe. ~ No sense in closing doors to anything just yet.
* Flowers and cats and that giant swing thing from the fair and such will have an uphill battle because these generally are not my thing. ~ But feel free to bury me with your cat or flower or giant swing work if you are a believer in it.
* I am a heavy user of Holgas & Dianas but I suspect I will take a pretty lenient attitude to the equipment used. ~ I have never been one to spend time quibbling over what is toy or not toy. I will probably have to draw the line somewhere but fast, cheap and handmade or plastic should probably get us there. I may not even bill the work as 'toy' at all.
I am not sure about page number / image count or number of images per artist. I am unlikely to do something formulaic like an image a person or anything like that. I feel that large group shows often fail precisely because the end result looks like some kind of all you can eat buffet with only a single dollup of foodstuff in seventy two different steam table trays. All you can eat, with not much of anything you might like. There is usually some goodness in any group show but cohesion is often the victim. I will hope to have a cohesive and fluid body of work. Which may mean 6 artists times 8 to 12 images a piece. Or it might mean 17 artists with 1 to 7 images a piece. It will be an intuitive edit without any editorial limitation.
So, all of that said... I open the discussion or invite commentary here or directly via my email: elgordo(at)eyecaramba.com
* Please don't post your images in this thread though. ~ I will take them via email. I am simply looking to bounce my idea around here, if you don't mind, and I don't want to give feedback in a public thread as it will gum up the works I fear.
I have long enjoyed the open and collaborative nature of this and other communties and so am looking to kick this idea around and to begin work in sort of a dialogue + brainstorming + petty squabbling type of way. I already feel like pummeling Leon.
Woo hoo!
Gordon
Principle Instigator
Candela Books
Edited to Add:
I am not yet sure about my own participation as an artist within such a book. I feel that writing an intro or foreward is a possibilty and including an image or two there may be appropriate. Depending upon the count of artists and the number of pages, and even the book design, I may consider including myself. I may not. Or I may feel that my work doesn't fit? I suppose that could happen but likely it might and I will then struggle with the vanity aspects of such inclusion. I could perhaps prepackage the book and before publishing it under Candela's imprint, shop it to other publishers as an end around the vanity idea... I haven't arrived yet at a definitive answer to some of these questions.
