Holler Ghosts, Bookmaking, and Such

I spent some time playing around with making a couple of books this weekend. I made this one as a Christmas present for my in-laws. I took a walk on a crisp winter morning on their property in Elgood, West Virginia and made a series of square photographs (using the Fuji X-Pro1's in-camera setting). There's something especially beautiful about walking their holler this time of year. I chose nine photographs to print (using Inkpress Media duo matte 80) along with a quote from one of my favorite writers, Breece D'J Pancake. This was my first attempt at binding a book and I can't believe how much fun it was. It measures 5" x 7". I made a second one using 1/32" birch plywood for the cover, not realizing it wasn't really flexible enough to practically use as a book cover. I'll chalk that one up to inexperience...

“I'm going to come back to West Virginia when this is over. There's something ancient and deeply-rooted in my soul. I like to think that I have left my ghost up one of those hollows, and I'll never really be able to leave for good until I find it. And I don't want to look for it, because I might find it and have to leave." - from a letter to his mother Helen Pancake that Breece wrote in Charlottesville, where he was studying writing.

This little book measures 2.5" x 3.5" and is based on a new series I'm working on called Miner Pride. It's a crudely made book, printed on a color laser printer and I made the cover from an Ilford paper box top cut to size. I used double-sided tape to hold the pages together and a strip of masking tape to bind the covers. Such simple materials yielded an incredible amount of fun. That's what it's all about, right? (I also made a little video here.)

Holler.

Testify

I've started working on a book for my Testify photographs. I'll confess I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing, but I'm having fun. That counts for something, right?

Several months ago, I bought a BLACK PINE saddle-stitched journal (it measures 7.5" x 9.5"). I didn't really have a plan for it at the time, so I put it on my bookshelf and forgot about it. Over the last few weeks, I created a new edit of the Testify work and posted 60 images on my portfolio site. I didn't spend a great deal of time sequencing the images online, but I wanted to get them out there, to get some feedback, to see how they worked together, if at all.

I decided to make some cheap 4" x 6" prints (laid out on my dining room table below) to see the work as a whole and some place other than a screen. I remembered I had the BLACK PINE journal and, after checking, there were exactly 30 blank pages and 60 prints. After a couple of evenings and a roll of two-sided tape, I put together the first book of the work.

Over the next few months, I'll be working on a PDF layout of the work as well writing the text for the book. If there's any interest, perhaps I'll put out a zine. I really like what Michael Friberg's done here. (I can't wait to get mine in the mail.)

Thanks for looking.

Postcards: Tangibly Yours

Florida-based photographer Melissa Lyttle, recently reconnected me with my love for snail mail. She writes about her postcard project here. Getting her postcard in the mail inspired me to do a little project of my own.

I have three sets of six postcards that are yours for the taking. These aren't museum-quality prints, they're simply inkjet prints on heavyweight matte paper, handcut, and imperfect. The catch? Of the set of six cards you receive, I'd like you to mail or give away five and keep one for yourself. Stick it on your fridge, use it as a bookmark, or write your grocery list on the back. Just share them. And if you'd like to send something back, that'd be awesome too.

Contact me at rogerdalemay [at] gmail [dot] com if you'd like a set. Remember, I only have three available and I'll send them to the first three folks who request them.

And you can (and should) follow Melissa on Twitter here.