Another book in the works
You might remember that some time ago I put together a small book of my photos, all square format and bound with a simple Japanese stitching. I still like it, but since then I’ve wanted a book that was 1) bigger but not too big, 2) easier to hold open, like a real book, and 3) bound with a hardcover. So I got on the Internet and started learning about casebinding. To put it simply, it’s a method of creating several signatures (Sheets of paper folded in half and then tucked inside one another. You can see the six signatures in the photo.), sewing them together (that’s a challenge I’ll face later this week) to make a text block, and then creating a hard cover for the text block. Look at the top of the spine of any hardcover book (I know that the few people who read this blog have books around) and you’ll be able to identify the signatures. Whew!
Since my inspiration for this book is —- unapologetically —- Eliot Porter’s Intimate Landscapes, I scoured my archives and made some new images to fit the theme. I wanted the photos to show me in the act of getting closer, looking down or within what’s part of the grand landscape. Many of these are from recent hiking excursions in the desert Southwest, others as old as 2014. I was looking to make 6 signatures of 6 photos each, 5 photos to fit a 5 x 8 space and one 9 x 6 photo for the center spread of each signature. Each signature is held together by a theme —- water, color, texture, leafiness, monochrome, curviness. I also wanted plenty of white space to isolate each image. I used Inbe paper from the Awagami paper factory in Japan because I wanted something that was pleasant to touch. I’m still working on the order, and I’m thinking about adding a seventh signature to hold the center of the book.
I resist the urge to make one signature nothing but flowers since you see so many flower photos that are less than inspiring. I know, I’ve taken hundreds myself. But maybe I could focus instead on flora you might not see in the larger landscape. This one was shot in a typical vacant lot in central Chicago surrounded by tall apartment blocks and the din of evening traffic. I don’t know; I’m still thinking it over.
Another thought I have is to pull together some photos of nature reclaiming its territory. I have quite a few along this idea; some natural thing like gravity (here) or plants or weather metamorphosing the man-made into the natural. I just don’t know if it will fit with the overall theme of the other intimate landscapes. Either way, I’ll keep you up-to-date as I progress.