Finally, I've Created A Book of My Photography

So after years of doing photography and wanting to put a book of my photography together, early this year I finally found the time to sit down and start a long process of creating a collection of my work that's going to be published in a limited edition coffee table book. And so in this video I want to talk a little bit about the book, about the process behind creating it, and finally to ask for your support on Kickstarter to help make it happen. Forever ago when I first started out in photography, social media didn't exist and all of my inspiration came from books. I spent so much on photography books from photographers whose work really inspired me. Photographers like Joe Cornish, Art Wolff, Galen Rowell, Steve McCurry, and so many others. There's something really special about sitting down and opening a photography book, taking the time to slowly go through the pages, being transported by the images. Despite all the access we have to images via the internet on our phones and on computers, I still really believe that the only way to really appreciate an image is by seeing it in print. Images that we see online, on devices, with so many other things that want our attention, notifications and emails coming through, and the fact that most platformers want you to keep scrolling onto the next image. So the engagement we have with images becomes quite superficial, which really doesn't do justice to the hours that can be spent waiting for the perfect light or for the subtleties and the nuances of composition that go into the work. But when we pick up a book, it's a deliberate act where we choose a book, we sit down, we choose to give time to it and to get lost in the pages of photography. We take our time on each page lingering over the images and appreciating the different elements that go into its creation. We focus on the book in our hands, we give it all of our attention and really engage with the photography in a way that we simply don't when we see images on a device like a phone or a laptop. And besides that, images just look better printed than they do on screen. There's a tactile quality to a printed image that just gives it a beautiful life of its own. And so it's something I've always wanted with my work and while I've been selling a print collection for a number of years, my mind has always kept turning back to doing a book, something that collects all of my favorite work together and presents them in the absolute best way possible. So the first step was finding a publisher because I really want the book to be as high quality as possible, something that really feels beautiful to touch, great in the hand and something that reproduces the images at the same level as a high-end print. Something that people will want to pick up time and time again and so finding a publisher who's used to working with photographers, who understands how important print quality is, paper quality is and what a photography book should really feel like, that was the first step. So I was introduced to Heinrich at HRH Publishing by my friend Shem Kompion who is one of South Africa's just best known wildlife photographer who recently published his book The Rift with HRH Publishing and from my first conversations with Heinrich, it was clear that having worked with so many photographers before and being a photographer himself, he understands all the things that go into making a book full of images something really special. Print quality, paper quality, getting the colors and contrast exactly right and then creating a flow of images that works throughout the book. So the next step was trying to come up with a theme, some way that the images could flow through the book. Now I've been a landscape photographer for around 20 years and my image portfolio, it's quite diverse with images from all over the world at different times of year but I didn't just want to throw the images together in a way that felt random. I wanted a way that the images could work together and complement each other across the book. So in the end I decided to collect the images into five chapters with each one dedicated to the element that is fundamental to the landscape. Mountains, desert, water, trees and the human landscape with the last section featuring images where man-made or human elements, things like cabins in Moffaton or farmhouses in Tuscany, feature very strongly. Once I decided on that I started the process of going back through my work, choosing which images I wanted to put in the book which took a long time. I wanted to avoid repetition, for example there are a number of locations that I've shot many times and I was also wary of recency bias where images that I'd shot more recently, they're kind of more present in my head than the older work. So I wanted to go back through all my work as objectively as possible and once I'd done that I worked with the publishers to find the images that work together in terms of colour, framing, location and then have those colours flow through the chapter to try to make the book feel as organic as possible. And then the final step was preparing all the images for print, going over everyone, checking for any blemishes, dust spots, over sharpening, particularly on some of the older images to just make sure that the image files were the best that they possibly could be for printing. The result is a collection of images that I'm really proud of. It's a result of 20 years of my work and it's taken me so long to create this that I wanted it to be the best that it could be, something really really special. Many of the images in here have never been available in print and in the very unlikely event that I ever do another book, none of the images here will be featured again. This is really going to be a limited print run. I'm just doing 500 copies and once they're gone that's it. So this is the only chance anyone will have seeing these images in print form. And because of this I want the book to be the best it can be and feel like a collection of prints. So it's a large coffee table book, it's 32 centimetres by 26 centimetres, 144 pages with over 100 images printed on 150 gsm matte art paper. That's a standard book. There will also be 50 copies available as numbered limited editions which will come in a beautiful cloth bound presentation box with the image inlaid and then a full title and each one will be numbered and come with a signed certificate. Now limited print runs of high quality books like this are really quite expensive so I'm raising funds for the print run by doing a Kickstarter campaign. Now the way Kickstarter works is that you pledge to buy one of the books and if I hit the target I need to reach to get the books printed then the book goes into production and then it will be delivered to you as soon as it's printed. So I wanted to make a range of offers available to people who want to help support the book. So in addition to your standard book and limited editions you can also get bundles of the books with limited edition prints which will be made available for the book and these are prints that you can't get in my print shop and there are also discounts if you buy more than one book, things like that. Now because the print run is so small at just 500 that means the unit cost for each book is actually quite high and so to ensure the book is made I've pretty much removed any profit from the book. The price of the book will go completely to covering the production costs to paying the publisher who put the book together and then for covering the cost of distribution and the cut that Kickstarter will take. I really want to make this book a reality as I said it's probably the only time I'm going to do one so I need to reach the Kickstarter target and so to try to help with that I've decided to have some other special offers in addition to the book to help raise money. For example I'll be offering online editing or critique sessions for people who pledge a certain amount so in addition to the book you'll get a one-to-one session on whatever you choose editing critique whatever where we go through your images and we look at the steps that you can take to improve your photography or your editing and then there's also going to be a pledge where you and a partner can stay free for two nights in an apartment in Lisbon and in the afternoon we'll do a one-to-one street photography workshop where I'll take you shooting take you around Lisbon and show you all of my favorite spots. Now both of these things are things that I don't usually offer so it's a pretty unique opportunity if you think that's something that might interest you. You can find all the details on the different offers and how you can support the book by visiting the Kickstarter page I'm going to put a link in the description down below as well as well as on my website. So if you've enjoyed my photography and you've supported the channel over the years then I really hope you'll help me in supporting these books. I can't tell you how much it would mean to me and how much I'd appreciate it. Thanks so much for watching thanks for all your support over the years and as ever good luck with your photography and now please, go and buy a book.