Ethan and I have been hard at work in Rochester, New York with Tom at New Ridge Bindery (585-271-6990) and Eric at Booksmart Studio.

Ethan cut bookboard and cover sheets for over 150 books, added glue to both pieces, and then I brought all the pieces together to make the physical cover. I returned to New Ridge Bindery again yesterday to begin and finish the stamping of the 150 books.  Ethan and I are thrilled at how-well the books are coming together and will ultimately be.  Thank you, Tom, for inviting us into your shop to work on the books. I highly recommend Tom for making portfolios, bookbinding, and book restoration work.  He’s simply the best and his level of craft is phenomenal.

We begin pre-sale soon! Stay tuned.

I had the privilege of meeting Allison V. Smith a few weeks ago in Maine as our paths crossed at the Maine Media Workshops.

The amazing thing about meeting Allison was that as soon as I saw her work I realized that she had applied for Pause, to Begin. Take a look at her work, and you will realize just how difficult it was to select only 15 photographers for Pause, to Begin. I particularly enjoy her photographs from summers spent in Maine with her family.

You can find Allison’s frequently updated flickr here.
Her personal blog here.
You can also buy the wonderful book (Reflection of a Man: The Photographs of Stanley Marcus) of her grandfather’s photographs that she and her mother put together here. The book will remind you how great Kodachrome was.

I was recently looking at Lars Tunbjörk’s most recent book titled Vinter, and I noticed that the layout and sequencing of the book is really superbly done. In case you haven’t seen the book, here is an image of the cover. I recommend taking a look at it if you get the chance.

The book flows remarkably well, especially considering the complex photographs. For the most part, Tunbjörk photographs funny, odd scenes in Sweden’s long, cold, and dark winter. He uses an overpowering flash frequently to bring out these sometimes strange details. Usually in the photographs with flash he creates an interesting effect by photographing through windows and allowing his flash to light the inside of a house. Pattern, texture, and color are all brought to the forefront of the images, and begin to describe the Scandinavian Winter.

What makes the book so remarkable for me is how these busy photographs are displayed. For the most part, there are a lot of spreads with different photographs on both the left and right side. There are only a few full bleed images, most have about a quarter inch border
before the edge of the page. So when first looking through the book, it appears that nearly every page has some kind of image on it. Then I arrived at this spread…

The blank white page on the left bring even more attention to this photograph that is already strikingly different from everything else in the book. The light is soft, the woman is beautiful, and the effect is jarring when I am used to seeing the busy photographs before it. This calm photograph comes in about the middle of the book, and it is not the first or last single image next to a blank page, but that layout tactic certainly brings extra attention to it.

There are a few other photographs in the book that give a similar jarring feeling upon first seeing them in the books sequence. Mostly they deal with some level of surprise, either with focus, light, or subject matter. None of them, however, show a calm beautiful woman, framed in a classic head-and-shoulders kind of way. It is the fact that this image looks different than every other one in the book, and that the woman is beautiful, that it sticks in one’s head a while after seeing it. While, the image itself is still in my head, it is really the feeling of first seeing it that I remember; the calm surprise. I felt compelled to stare at it, and it slowed me down considerably when looking through the remainder of the book. I began to notice all sorts of subtle things that Tunbjörk saw as he took the photographs.

In the rest of the book, I realized that the same beautiful woman appears a few more times, and once in a bed. She is clearly an important person to Tunbjörk, and I find it interesting that I only first noticed her in the soft-light beautiful portrait, and not in the scenes where she is more of a character.

I am fascinated that one simple image can control how I look at a book so directly. It is interesting how the one photograph of a beautiful woman in the book is also the sole image with soft light. I know a lot of this has plenty to do with my other recent posts about beauty in photography.

I have been attempting to write Part II of my post on aesthetics to talk specifically about portraits since I avoided doing so in the first post seen here.

While trying to think of the proper angle to speak about the aesthetics of portraits I was reminded of one of my favorite photographic series called Vector Portraits by Andrew Bush when I saw this post on Conscientious. As Jörg points out, there are other “well-known precedents” to Peter Snyder’s portraits. I believe that Andrew Bush should be considered one of those precedents, but I am not sure how well known he really is. I enjoy Andrew Bush’s series of people driving because there is a great sense of movement while maintaining a terrific sense of humor. Despite the fact that it may seem repetitive to look at several photographs of people driving, these photographs maintain variety within the constraint.  This variety is amplified once the captions are read along with the photographs. The captions ultimately make the portraits “Vector Portraits”, adding a speed and direction to the image. Indeed, the series is quite dynamic with it’s variety.

Woman Meandering Through Various Parts of Pacific Palisades, CA, in the Early Part of 1993 While Singing

Man Heading towards Tunnel at 73mph on a Sunday somewhere in Southern California on an Afternoon in March, 1992

Upon looking for more about Andrew Bush’s Vector Portraits I discovered that he is having a book titled Andrew Bush Drive published of the series in the spring here. The book cover is below with the caption for the photograph.

Woman Driving South at 41 MPH Down 26th St near the Riviera Country Club at 1:30 PM on a Tuesday in February of 1997

From the Yale University Press Website about Andrew Bush Drive:

The culture of cars is an inseparable part of American life. Whether used for functional purposes or recreation, automobiles are expressions of our personality. They also represent the American ideals of freedom, mobility, and independence, providing a unique personal space that is at once private and public.

Andrew Bush (b. 1956) examines this tension between private and public in his remarkable series of photographs of individuals driving cars in and around Los Angeles—a city famous for its car culture. By attaching a camera to the passenger side window, Bush made these pictures while driving alongside his subjects—often traveling at 60 mph. Taking notes on the speed and direction he was going, Bush created extended captions for the images and called the series Vector Portraits.  

I first learned about Bush at a lecture by Jeff Rosenheim who is the Curator at the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To hear Jeff describe the way Bush goes about making the Vector Portraits is remarkable, I am sorry that I cannot do it justice. Simply try to imagine a car accelerating and decelerating often to try to compose a photograph out the passenger window on the freeway all lit by a bare-bulb strobe. No, he never caused an accident.

My only reaction to such an amazing situation can be summed up in one word; brilliant. The whole process, concept, and final images are all equally impressive. I am excited to see what the book looks like.

Pause, to Begin is pleased to announce that the book produced as a part of our competition will be published by Booksmart Studio in Rochester, NY. Susan and I have had the great pleasure of working with Eric Kunsman, the founder of Booksmart Studio, when we produced the catalogue to OX: CIAS Senior Show 2007. We know our second experience will be just as wonderful.

With the wonderful help of Booksmart Studio we will be publishing three different versions of the catalogue.

1. The Catalogue Edition, which consists of a hard cover book.
2. The Deluxe Catalogue Edition, the Catalogue Edition with a slip cover and it will be editioned.
3. The Limited Fine Art Edition Book, it will consist of a higher quality paper printed on a better printer than the previous two, and will be hand sewn. It will also include a print with it from an image within the book.

Booksmart Studio also has a gallery space called Gallery Kunstler. The Pause, to Begin Exhibition will visit there at a yet to be determined time because we are still currently working on having the exhibition travel. Stay Tuned.

Check out Booksmart Studio here.
Apply to Pause, to Begin here by April 1, 2008. We need applicants to make this a reality, so step up to the plate and apply now!