Untitled (Pine Lake introductory text, proof, for inside cover of custom wood frame) copyright 2013 Douglas Stockdale
Serendipity, Fate, Karma, Holy Spirit; many names for what happens or intercedes and allows some interesting events to occur that has nice consequences. What follows is a short story that has resulted in a last minute and well timed addition to my artist photobook Pine Lake.
Let me start with what was suppose to happen: I would be finishing and hand assembling the full edition of Pine Lake for the book launch this week. Instead, I needed some minor foot surgery at the beginning of the week which side-lined me with a bum toe (referred to at times as Mr. Bum-toe). So the final printing of the covers was delayed.
I was to meet with DJ Jazeyeri, who owns As Issued, a fine art bookstore located in Costa Mesa at The LAB, this week about carrying Pine Lake. So instead of bringing him an edition copy, I still only had the book dummy to show him. He decided to carry Pine Lake, as well as a signed trade edition of Ciociaria and my self-published Ciociaria Limited Edition Book + Print. cool! Then DJ asked if some introductory text for Pine Lake could be included and after a discussion, suggested that there was a great blank spot on the inside of the flap of the custom wood frame. Very interesting and a potential that I had missed. I luv this kind of collaboration!
Hmmmmm. Since I had not printed and glued the top covers on the wood frames yet, this was a possibility, so I began to think about what short introductory essay to include. A draw back was the fact that I had already announced what Pine Lake looked like and I had been accepting orders.
All the while I have been doing therapeutic soaking three times per day of my bum toe and to help pass the time I have been reading Trolleyogy, a biography of the late Gigi Giannuzzi who founded the exceptional photobook publishing company Trolley Books. I just read an excerpt where Gigi was not above stopping the printing presses when he was inspired to tweak some changes that would make the resulting book even better as to the intended vision. Well, duh, then so can I. So I hope that those who have ordered Pine Lake will not be troubled by my creative inspirational changes and the inclusion of a short introduction.
The added introductory text on the interior wood frame cover will read:
Pine Lake is a semi-fictional story about a multi-generational American rite of summer. This hand-made artist photobook utilizes photographs presented serially as would family snapshots captured during a fishing trip.
The concept for this book crystallized when I found photographs of my grandfather fishing somewhere on a lake in Pennsylvania. Then I found another small photograph of him standing beside my dad holding their fishing trophies in my Grandfather’s back yard. I can only speculate as to who actually took the photograph, perhaps my grandmother or my mom. While looking through my family archive for more photographs my grandfather fishing I found a faded photograph of my Great Grandfather, probably somewhere in Pennsylvania, holding his fishing catch. Until then, I had not been aware of my grandparent’s interest in fishing. Thus my worn and faded photographs became symbols for the remaining bits and fragments of my family memories. I created this story about what might have been.
Pine Lake is a continuation in my series that explores memory and its preservation.
Cheers!
Postscript: After initially posting this, I encountered some formatting issues with my wide format printer, which was fortunate as it allowed me the necessary time to re-read the introduction. And it became apparent to me that I needed to edit the text further, which is now reflected in the current version above.
Singular Images 