APUG book of photos

[Ian Grant]

The issue isn't whether Michael/Lodima is involved at all, I don't have a problem either way, rather that there needs to be far better communications and other peoples involvement in overseeing the project.

Unfortunately because of this there is a need to go back to the start because very few options have been looked into, and as I keep stating so far there has been incredibly low response to the whole idea.

At the moment decisions are being made with disregard to the wider community. You'll note that a Moderator has strongly recommended the Blurb route.

As Thomas pointed out so far the whole ide has swung on one persons thoughts, that needs to be based instead aroud what Sean means by "the community will be involved".

The basic idea is sound not the approach and should get good support if the whole community is allowed to have an input into how the project is run & work is selected rather than being dictated too. There's a complete lack of willingless to listen at the moment despite many of the points being brought up before.

So far you've had too many people saying they don't want to be involved. Get a group of respected members involved and that should change.

Ian

[Michael A. Smith]

Someone wrote on this thread that they did not think their work would not be considered because it was urban architecture if I were the one selecting the photographs. I am not sure why you would think that. Do you think my interest in subject matter is limited?

Do you know that over my career I was commissioned to photograph five American cities--mostly recently Chicago--where I photographed only urban architecture. To this person: I probably have made more photographs of urban architecture than you have.

Often, because my first book, Landscapes 1975-1979 was awarded the Le Grand Prix du Livre at Arles in 1981, I am thought of as a landscape photographer. Nothing could be further from reality. I photograph cities. I photograph people--and have a book of portraits (The Students of Deep Springs College), with another book of color portraits on the way, eventually. All subjects are fair game, so no one should think I am only interested in landscape photographs.

Michael A. Smith

[bill spears]

Ok, I haven't posted much here for a while but following this discussion and seeing requests for input from other apuggers, my general feelings are this:

My preference would be for a high quality museum style book and I like what I'm hearing from Michael at Lodima. I know it could be expensive and sounds a bit elitist but I'd like to see Apug and the craft of traditional photography presented to the highest order. I'm not so sure though about just one person doing the selecting. I'd have every bit of confidence in Michael Smith but couldn't there be say two other highly respected jurors to balance out the decisions ? As for the competition aspect, this is unavoidable but it would at least encourage people to put forward their very best work and be an 'aim' which is always good for ones own creative development. I agree with others aswell that this shouldn't be rushed, although to coincide with the 10th anniversary would be good.

I'm not though, against the idea of the other proposal to have a POD book which represents an overall picture of Apug members work and in which more people could participate. I just think it'd be nice to get a message out to the wider public perhaps, that traditional methods of photography can be truly stunning and a fine art top quality production with selected images in it would be the best way to get this across.

[Michael A. Smith]

Thomas: Paula and I will be in the Twin Cities on Thursday (Minneapolis or St. Paul) afternoon and perhaps for a while early Friday afternoon (Friday in St. Paul). Want to meet and talk. Look at photographs, both ways?

Michael A. Smith

[Michael R 1974]

Mr. Smith, that was me. In retrospect it was an error to imply you wouldn't be interested in my style of photography. I was generalizing based on what I see in publications and galleries these days. The point I was really trying to make in that paragraph is that whatever the probability of acceptance of my work by a skilled jury might be, the probability of it being selected by an APUG gallery vote or panel of APUG "experts" would be significantly lower. It's just not popular enough.

In any case, my views are probably irrelevant at this point. I don't know what the goal of this project is. Is it an APUG anniversary book that, as someone suggested, should be content by people who have been subscribers for a long time? Is it supposed to be a book of high quality fine art that could come from anyone on APUG? Is it a book of photographs by the most prolific posters? Is it a book of the most popular images by some kind of vote?

Anyway I've never participated in a photography contest of any type so I'm not sure if this is something I'd want to try, but I'd be more interested if it was juried vs some other method.

Regards
Michael Rosenhek

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Thomas: Paula and I will be in the Twin Cities on Thursday (Minneapolis or St. Paul) afternoon and perhaps for a while early Friday afternoon (Friday in St. Paul). Want to meet and talk. Look at photographs, both ways?

Michael A. Smith

Thursday I've got plans since about a month that I can't drop out of without looking like an idiot, but Friday might be a possibility. Let me try to re-arrange some commitments, and we'll see what we can do.
Where in St Paul are you going to be? Please PM me.

- Thomas

[Andrew Moxom]

I'm in the Twin Cities.... Where are you guys going to be?

[Ian Grant]

There needs to be an alternative ways forward.

There is some discussion going on privately and I know that some others and mysel would like to see Bill Schwab approached, he's a well trusted member of the photographic community and commands great respect here on APUG and would be an excellent choice to oversee the project.

There's a total lack of rationality at the moment around this whole possible project, it really does need a fresh start.

Ian

[mike c]

This is an open forum as far as analog photography is concerned, there are alot of people reading this thread with interest but do not want to get into a rules issue or book or POD issue, just want to participate in photography. Take a poll with the options we have now before we run out of steam. I bet once these issues are resolved there will be flood of images sent in to be selected.

Mike

[Ian Grant]

Mike not all the options have been looked into so it's still far too early to put forward possibilities for people to vote on unfortunately.

Even then the possible outcome could change depending on the numbers of a subcfribers participationg and potential sales. It's about building in mechanisms to cater for eventualities to ensure the project Joel has suggested goes ahead regardless.

If APUG subscribers control the project and the selection then if sales are too low for say a Lodima/MAS publication it's easy to switch to a different printer, or ven POD/Blurb. And no-one has approached equally good lower cost alternative publishers yet.

There's a lot of work needed and we must to have fully costed breakdowns of the alternatives that may take a week or two. We have nothing yet from Lodima Press, all the work is put out but there's APUG members who (work in that field) could do much of it at no cost and that's deliberately being over looked.

Let me add that nearly all the critics of the current proposals would like to see this project work, but with a new framework ditching some ideas trust upon it. It's an APUG project not one run by an outside company.

Ian