The dining table was covered with multiple printed photos, more than I thought at the beginning. The day started picking up the prints from the local printshop. They were printed on regular paper, nothing special. Then, start cutting them, to have single photos rather than sheets grouped together. The first time moving them from the digital space into the physical one.
I have been wanting to do something else with my photos for a while. Sharing them on social media is one thing. Too ephemeral, just a couple of seconds, if any, for someone to see them. Although I’m not sure if seeing is the right verb for what we do in social media. To scroll through them, better. To move from one to the next. A photo competing against a video. Instagram is no longer what it used to be. So, let’s move to the physical space.
Why the move? To make the process and the results tangible. To have a medium that can be touched, that allows me to come back and observe again, to look for the detail, to see the imperfections, and the rhythm in photos. To notice.
After cutting all the photos, the organisation started. First: identify what photos are a yes, which are a no, and the maybes. The goal was to start trimming down the body of work, to make it more consistent, and to tell a story. A story of breaks, taking the time, and summer.
Part of the process. Drawings and sorting.
Once I had the selection, I spread all the photos and started sequencing. Notice which photos work together, which ones are contrasting. Take a photo from the maybe pile to bridge part of the story, or to tie together a sequence. It’s a paragraph, but it was days of work. Of letting the sequencing rest, getting back to it, make some changes, repeat.
Then, move back to the digital realm: Start building the book. Design a page language, margins, spaces to breathe, text, typography, sizes. All in relation, thinking about the details while working on the whole. Thinking about the whole while adjusting millimetres of space. It’s a dance between scales.
The work now is a prototype space. There’s a dummy, I printed it and held it in my hands. The first moment seeing everything together is special. There are, still, some roads to walk to get it into its final form. But for now, it is something that I can hold, I can flip the pages, see the images, and start making adjustments.
I’ll be keeping you all posted on the process and details of the book/zine. It’s more than a zine, but probably a bit less than a book. Let’s see. Follow along.