Singular Images

December 18, 2018

Book workshop with Medium Festival – revised dates & special Discount available

Filed under: Art, Photobook, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 9:35 pm

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Guide book-dummy, 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

First; my Developing a Creative Photo Book workshop dates for Medium have been changed to March 23 & 24th, 2017. Thus the workshop has moved to bit later, one weekend exactly, from what I had announced last month. This should still be a wonderful spring weekend to spend in San Diego having some creative and intense fun to help you move your artist book forward. You will have a chance to spend some quality time at our destination hotel for this event: Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club in San Diego.

Second, if you act fast and register before December 25th, 2018, you can obtain a 15% discount! Okay, actually you can obtain a 15% discount for any of the four 2019 workshops, including mine, being provided by the Medium Festival, which include Susan Burnstine’s “Developing the Personal Narrative”, Brandon Thobodeaux’s “Bridging Fine Art & Commercial Photography” and scott b. davis’s “Advance Platinum/Palladium Printing”. good stuff!

As a reminder about my workshop: The goal of this workshop is to discuss each photographer’s vision, mission and objectives for the publication of a photographic project and then to gain an understanding of how these conceptual aspects translate into a book object. Fundamental to the book development process is learning aspects of the editing, sequencing of the body of photographs and in the context of a book design to shape and narrate a story. The purpose of this workshop is to provide photographers with the building blocks to move from a complex unorganized mass of images into a refined edit and subsequently sequence to create a pre-visualization of their book concept.

Registration and more information can be found here.

Let me know if you have any questions, and please take advantage of this holiday discount. Just saying….

Cheers!

 

November 12, 2018

10 years of photo book inspirations

Filed under: Art Market, Books, Photobook, Photography, Projects/Series — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 5:43 pm

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Guide to Self-Publishing an Indie Artist Book, 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

As many of you know, in addition to writing this photo-blog in which I discuss my photographic projects and other odds and ends, I am also the Editor of The PhotoBook Journal. I started The PhotoBook Journal (TPBJ) shortly after starting this blog back in 2008 when I noticed that there was an extremely strong response to the book reviews of the photobooks in my personal collection. At that time there was really only one other photobook review site by Jeffery Ladd, which he has since ceased contributing to. So now 10 years have passed and we just passed the 500th photobook review! That’s a big Wowzer!!

Meantime, I have continued to acquire more photobooks in my collection, as well as receive donations (aka submissions) for consideration, photobooks that either I could not afford or not sure I would acquire. I realized that one aspect that I could provide with TPBJ is to review a broad and diverse range of International photobooks to expand the potential creative consideration for artists, photographers and collectors.

In turn this diversity of books has also inspired my photographic and photobook practice. I will also admit that writing the TPBJ has forced me to think a little clearer about the intent of a photographic project. Likewise I think the editorial responsibilities have drastically improve my writing skills; no longer an engineer writing a cut and dried specification or technical report, but now thinking of how to create an informative and inspirational narrative. Wow. I think my high school English teacher would be stunned by the transformation.

Likewise, I have been able to hold some of the most inspirational and brilliantly designed and printed photobooks that have published over the past 10 years. I also think that we have also helped to launch a few photobook artist careers, as the only prerequisite for consideration on TPBJ is a well thought out and executed photobook project. Thus many, many photobooks that personally inspire me for my own book practice; the books in my collection set the bar pretty high as well as provide some very creative alternatives. This led to Ciociaria being published by Edizioni Punctum (still available), and my three self-published limited edition artist books; Pine Lake (sold out), Bluewater Shore (just a few left) and this year, Middle Ground (still available).

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Middle Ground, published 2018, copyright Douglas Stockdale

Which in turn has lead to my photobook design workshops and subsequently to mentoring other artists, photographers, and publishers as to how to move their personal or business practices forward. Such as the photobook by Christine Kaplan, On My Walk, that I provided the book design and editing which she self-published this summer. The workshops and mentoring led to the publication last year of Guide to Self-publishing an Indie Artist Book last year & which is still available ($19.95 USD plus postage; message me if you would like a copy of this or the others doug@douglasstockdale.com)

All in all, the last 10 years has been an inspirational and wonderful ride; thanks for supporting me on this interesting artistic journey!

Cheers,

Doug

November 1, 2018

Book workshop with Medium Festival of Photography

Filed under: Art Market, Books, Photobook, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 9:07 pm

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Guide book dummy, 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

I am very excited to announce that I will be providing my Photo Book Design Workshop in conjunction with the Medium Festival of Photography next March 23 & 24th (rescheduled, was 16 and 17th), 2019. This two day workshop will take place in San Diego at the Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club. A great location to be in March.

You can register now at: https://www.mediumsandiego.org/developing-a-creative-photo-book/

This two-day Workshop is an opportunity for artists and photographers currently working on or planning to start a project that will result in a book publication. Whether you plan to make book submissions to a publisher or self-publish your artist book, this workshop is meant to help you create a book that meets your vision.

The goal of this workshop is to discuss each photographer’s vision, mission and objectives for the publication of a photographic project and then to gain an understanding of how these conceptual aspects translate into a book object. Fundamental to the book development process is learning aspects of the editing, sequencing of the body of photographs and in the context of a book design to shape and narrate a story. The purpose of this workshop is to provide photographers with the building blocks to move from a complex unorganized mass of images into a refined edit and subsequently sequence to create a pre-visualization of their book concept.

I hope you can join me for a fun and intense two days learning the basics of book development and how this will help you move your project forward. Likewise, the editing and sequencing methodology you will learn is equally applicable to creating a strong review portfolio or organizing a gallery submission.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers!

 

September 12, 2018

Introduction to PhotoBook Design – October LACP workshop

Filed under: Art, Art Market, Books, Photobook, Workshops — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 4:36 pm

Introduction to Photo Book Design with Douglas Stockdale (Two sessions)

Introduction to Photo Book Design workshop

Los Angeles Center for Photography

Next month, October 7th and 14th, I will be repeating my popular two-day workshop in conjunction with the Los Angeles Center for Photograph (LACP). This workshop focuses on the fundamental development of a book; understanding the artists intent and how that then translates into a book object in the editing, sequencing and layout of the book supported by the book’s design attributes.

The two-day goal of the workshop is for each person to leave with a first rough draft of their book dummy of their personal photographic project. I will provide both creative and practical book design options and project critiques to help those attending to move their book publication forward.

After a morning of studying limited edition artists’ books, trade books and zines, the remainder of the first morning will be spent understanding each artist/photographers publishing objectives. Subsequently I will include discussions on the elements of book design, essence of project editing, image editing and sequencing, the purpose of a physical book-dummy, concluding with a hands-on fabrication of a saddle-stitch dummy book/zine.

The second session delves further into the book dummy development and includes discussions about the business elements of (self/indie) publishing a book, critical book production elements and making a publisher submission. The remainder of the day students will continue working on the development of their dummy book as a collaborative project as well as some one-on-one time with each participant.

The feedback I have received over the years is this workshop has been critical to many artist and photographers for their publishing success; helping provide clarity on their project and providing creative book design options. So whether you are developing your very first book or your book project is one of many, I think you will find our time together to be really inspiring.

I hope you can join me for this fun and yet intensive workshop.

This workshop is being held at the LACP facilities: 1515 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA

Let me know if you have any questions,

Cheers!

 

October 3, 2017

Intro to Photo Book Design workshop outline – Second Edition self-published

Filed under: Art Market, Photography, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 10:01 pm

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Introduction to Photo Book Design workshop outline, 2017 Copyright Douglas Stockdale

In the middle of last month I wrote about updating my workshop outline for Introduction to Photo Book Design that I lead for LACP. Thus this last weekend, with the help of the workshop class, we self-published the second Edition of this awesome course outline. As expected, the workshop members enjoyed the experience and this little self-publishing task reduced a little bit the self-publishing mystery.

This Edition was of course another huge undertaking; one stiff cover with three folded sheets, thus 12 pages for the course outline. Then using the long-reach stapler (home-studio book binding equipment), each participant bound their own book. The Edition size is a whooping 18 copies. These will be signed and numbered on the last day of the workshop this coming weekend. Okay, perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek with a tiny presidential style over-statement.

One thing I had an opportunity to play with is the double-sided matte inkjet paper that is sold at Staples but made in Germany. They did not have any of the Epson double-side presentation matte in stock and having waited to the last moment to buy this, I had to improvise. This double sided paper is pretty decent, probably with a little more optical whitener, nevertheless printed nice. I can see where I am doing some experimental photo proofs, using this paper may be just fine versus using the Epson presentation matte as well as save a few bucks.

Biggest headache for the day was trying to get the double sided ink jet paper to feed through my Epson desktop printer/copier (Workforce WF-7620). The Staples paper weight of 170 g/m2 is only slightly heavier than the Epson’s 165 g/m2, so not sure what the deal was. I was using my Epson 4800 to print the image on the front outside cover and then the Epson desktop to print the copy. So I had to revert back to using the Epson 4800 to print the cover’s inside and outside copy, but even then the paper was a bit touchy going through the Epson printer three times. I now have a work around to run the paper through twice, so that should help when preparing for the next workshop.

I have found a couple of typos in the second edition, so I will see if this little self-published booklet evolves into a third edition. Ought to be making the 12 copies of the first edition all that more valuable!

Having developed the course outline earlier this year, then as editor/proof-reader for Eanne’s Self-publishing Guide, all of which came together when I wrote my Guide to Self-Publishing an Indie Artist Book. My Guide appears to be on target for release at Medium in San Diego at the end of this month.

Cheers!

 

October 2, 2017

L.A. Street photography last weekend

Filed under: Photography, Workshops — Tags: , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 11:14 pm

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Los Angeles street graffiti 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale 

While in Los Angeles this weekend to lead my Intro to Photo Book Design workshop at LACP, I thought it pure serendipity that some street graffiti of a shadowy book reader would be right in my pathway. Especially after I had posting a couple of photographs on Instagram of some book readers I had come across while roaming one of the SoCal ocean beaches. I took this street-art as a really good omen.

Below are some urban landscape photographs made this same day. While I am not sure that I am a street photographer, it sure is starting to appear from my photographs that I may indeed have that inclination. So while thinking about this, I am also starting to think that my photo book Ciociaria may have a healthy part of street photography as one of it’s main ingredients, up to now I have calling a photo-documentary. Also guessing there is a lot of overlap between photo-documentary that comes about due to street photography. hmmmmm.

Cheers!

Doug

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September 13, 2017

Introduction to Photo Book Design workshop – class work-book edits

Filed under: Art Market, Books, Photography, Projects/Series, Uncategorized, Workshops — Tags: , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 10:39 pm

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Introduction to Photo Book Design, self-published 2017, Douglas Stockdale

In preparation for the next two-day workshop  Introduction to Photo Book Design that I will be leading for LACP, I am in the process of making the edits to my first self-published work-book that I use for this workshop. This will soon become the Second Edition of this work-book, while the First Edition is now in the hands of the hands of the first workshop participants from earlier this year.

As in past workshops I lead not only do those attending learn something as I do as well as what is working and what is not for the group. There are a lot of changes to consider as the whole book publishing market and process is constantly evolving. That in conjunction with the feedback I received on the workshop expectations. Thus as my workshop needs updating and it’s necessary to make some tweaks in my course outline work-book.

My process for making changes is to use sticky-notes as to what I need to edit as illustrated above. This may appear like a massive change, but it is essentially tweaking some fine points. Expand that, deleted this, modify how I discuss this aspect and add this into the mix.

The work-book will be assembled and bound on the beginning of the first day of the workshop by those attending to help illustrate how easy it can be to self-publish a book. There is no question that photobooks can become very complex works of art as a book-object, but the underlying concept is pretty straight forward. Part of how I try to create some fun into this intense and practical workshop.

So come join me!

The workshop is being held at the LACP facilities: 1515 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA

Let me know if you have any questions

Cheers,

Doug

P.S. Other self-serving stuff that I need to keep repeating: I still have a few copies of the Bluewater Shore edition that are available (and another book review for Bluewater Shore that will be posted soon). So email me (doug@douglasstockdale.com) if you are interested in more information. Note Pine Lake is no longer available.

September 5, 2017

Introduction to Photo Book Design – Fall workshop – LACP

Filed under: Art Market, Photography, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , — Douglas Stockdale @ 10:36 pm

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Introduction to Photo Book Design – This Fall (October 1 and 8th), I will be repeating my popular two-day workshop in conjunction with the Los Angeles Center for Photograph (LACP). This workshop focuses on the fundamental development of a book object. The two-day goal of the workshop is for each person to leave with a first rough draft of their book dummy of their personal photographic project. I will provide both creative and practical book design options and project critiques to help those attending to move their book publication forward.

After a morning of studying limited edition artists’ books, trade books and zines, the remainder of the first morning will be spent understanding students’ publishing objectives and how that translates to a book object such as editing and sequencing a project for a book. Subsequently I will include discussions on the elements of book design and the purpose of a book-dummy, concluding with a hands-on fabrication of a saddle-stitch dummy book/zine.

The second session delves further into the book dummy development and includes discussions about the business elements of (self) publishing a book, photo book production and making a publisher submission. The remainder of the day students will continue working on the development of their dummy book as a collaborative project.

I hope you can join me as these are intense, yet fun, workshops.

The workshops are being held at the LACP facilities: 1515 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA

Let me know if you have any questions,

Cheers!

July 12, 2017

LACP Book Marketing workshop schedule change!

Filed under: Art, Art Market, Photography, Projects/Series — Tags: , — Douglas Stockdale @ 12:13 am

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I was just notified by LACP (Los Angeles Center of Photography) of a schedule conflict for my Marketing Your Photo Book one-day workshop that it has been rescheduled for Sunday, October 29th. This workshop will NOT occur on Saturday, July 22nd as previously announced.

The good news is that all of my workshop materials and break-out sessions are completely ready to go.

I am really sorry for the inconvenience!

Doug

July 7, 2017

Marketing Your Photo Book – Workshop at LACP

Filed under: Art Market, Photography, Workshops — Tags: , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 8:37 pm

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Photograph 2016 copyright Douglas Stockdale

Just a brief followup reminder from my earlier announcement in April that there is still space available for the LACP (Los Angles Center of Photography) workshop Marketing Your Photo Book which I am leading. Marketing and selling a photobook has similarities to photographic prints but there are enough nuances that if not addressed can end up with you having boxes and boxes of books in your garage, not in your audiences hands. You don’t want to have your first photobook become your last photobook.

Marketing Your Photo Book – This is a one-day workshop being held on Saturday, July 22nd (Note: schedule change: workshop will occur Sunday, October 29th) in Los Angeles. This workshop is is intended for photographers and artist who are preparing to publish their work in book form, whether self-publishing or working with an established book publisher. I will provide creative and practical approaches to marketing your photo book.

The morning will be spent understanding your publishing objectives and how that translates to a marketing plan. This will include discussing the basic elements of a marketing plan; what is being published and sold, who might purchase it, where to sell it, how to price it and how and when to promote it. Issues to be discussed include; how soon to start working on a plan, book economics and buyers price points, buy or create a mailing list, selling self-published books, and do’s and don’ts of using social media and web sites. During the workshop, I am planning a series of breakout sessions to enable development of each person’s specific marketing plan for their book.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Cheers!

PS Marketing is a big aspect of my mentoring services ;- )

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