Hey Team,
First two issues are live and up for grabs. Issue three is coming soon. I wanted to post previews just for fun and to test something. I’m also trying to decide what Issue Five is going to be. How many of you have started your own magazine? Why don’t I know about it” And for you pros, explain to me the downside of publishing your work the way it was intended to be seen. Who else will do it? My life has taken on new complexity since I started this series, which I knocked off in record time, and I fear I won’t have the same freedom to pursue this work as I had a few short months ago. But, you might have the time. Be fearless. Good luck, make great mags.
Comments 10
Got the first one, waiting on the mail for the second one.
I’m trying to put something together. Trying to do it more in a zine style like the Blandscapes from Nate Matos. I like that format, it seems less formal and, because of that, I feel I can be more “free” with what I put in there. My main problem is that every time I go into my Lightroom library, to try to pull stuff to make the first issue, I end up getting lost in years of photos and I never finish selecting stuff. I guess I either have problems focussing on my target or I just get overwhelmed. Suggestions? Anyone?
Author
EB,
Ya, you gotta find a way to make sense of it all. It’s on the difficult parts of making work all the time. Finding it, making sense of it all. No better way than going to print. For me, the edit is at least 50% of photography.
Hi Erlantz,
I know how you feel. It is easy to get overwhelmed. I think as ‘the’ photographer we can get so sentimentally attached to the images they start to feel like our children and then we simply can’t not use or include them. Trying to be your own critic when editing is not natural. It is easy to forget that photography is a separate discipline from the creative side of doing anything with the images once they are made.
If it offers you any help I find once I get my choices together it easiest to simply start laying them out in book form whether that is by using small prints and mocking up a book or using the layout software. Usually I find that how the images pair up and flow from page to page helps with further editing. Inevitably there are images that are redundant, don’t match up and / or break up the flow & feel of the book.
That and as Daniel always says, with self publishing it is easy to just do it, order it, live with it, share it with people who’s opinion you value. You can change, alter or delete anything you need to the next time. I have even ordered the same book with different paper types just to see which one feels better…the difference can be amazing.
Just do it ….and have fun!
All the best,
Jason.
Author
JT,
You are now officially me. Expect drastic changes in your life.
I have both of the first two issues and find them both very useful in my own though process.
Now that my situation has changed, I’m giving thought to actually publishing something… What that might be will be figured out over the coming weeks as I put in some serious windshield time on the road. What trips, what stories, whatever….
Author
Larry,
Just bite the bullet. Give yourself limits and go for it.
No magazines from me, just one-off book after one-off book (some of which you have seen!)
I don’t seem to have sustained creative energy, just lumps and bursts, but I guess that’s the point right? To learn that continuous output groove. Good, bad, somewhere in the middle, just keep making things on some kind of schdule, keep the energy up.
I know that’s how you really get better – make more stuff, try more, fail more, succeed more, keep the wheel turning.
Damn it, reading your blog goads me to more and more labor. It’s like having a job! Curse you!
Author
AM,
You are printing, that’s what matters. I realized I’ll never have free time unless I’m in jail or dead, or perhaps both.
I’m still waiting for #3 and #4 to be released they I will order them all to help save on postage but I’m really looking forward to having them in my hands. For #5, any new work on the horizon?
As for me?
I have ideas, lots of them. Some are marinating, some are just random thoughts I’ve jotted down to pursue further. I hope to make some more progress soon when day-to-day family life with two small kids lets me. In whatever form it will be, it will be in the Trade size. Not too small, good in the hand and can easily be chucked in a bag to show others on travels. I try to set myself small project goals that I can chip away at when I get some rare free time. I’m making progress, albeit slow.
Author
Paul,
Three and four will be released soon. I would have done it by now but my life has been in new territory for the past few weeks. Still sorting things out.