In Part 2 of Newsprint and the Contemporary Photobook, Nicholas Gottlund and Grant Willing discuss their publications Wild Prayer and Svart Metall. Gottlund started Gottlund Verlag in Pennsylvania in 2007. He has since published books by Henry Roy, Coley Brown, Andrew Laumann, Peter Sutherland and others. Grant Willing is a New York based photographer who exhibits widely and recommends books and writes for the Humble Arts blog. In this interview, both artists talk about their publications.
Read Nicholas Gottlund's interview on this blog from September 2009 and an interview with Grant Willing on Too Much Chocolate from June 2009. Both books were printed at Linco Printing.
NICHOLAS GOTTLUND
MM: Why did you choose newsprint for Wild Prayer?
NG: I wanted a light ground for the book, but one that wasn't pure white because of the low-contrast quality of images. I chose a very bright, heavy 50lb. newsprint, which I was pleased with.
MM: How does this choice relate to the subject matter or concept of this specific book?
NG: The choice to use newsprint was entirely based around the type of black + white images as well as the way light bleaches or fades objects left outdoors. I wanted the material to help communicate that notion as well as possibly evolving on it's own with time.
MM: Do you connect this object with other related materials, contemporarily or historically-- zines, pamphlets, etc?
NG: The lineage of newspapers and newsprint-based publications is long. I don't think that my book is connected to them other than on the most basic level. I say that because it is composed entirely of photographs and functions differently. There is within the last few years a trend of using newsprint to produce photo-based books. Hopefully Wild Prayer will fit in with those other books of it's kind.
MM: What are your thoughts on the non-archival nature of this material and how it relates to this publication?
NG: The nature of the material played a key role in the book. I think you need to be attentive to the qualities of any paper you deal with in printing. Newsprint is rough, irregular and unstable... that's what makes it exciting to work with.
MM: Do you think there is a modern movement that prompted this move towards affordable materials aside from economic reasons?
NG: I think that is has become common to use newsprint for publications which accompany exhibitions when there isn't a budget for a formal catalog. It's an inexpensive way to create non-traditional promotional material for shows. The format allows for a range of experimentation.
GRANT WILLING
MM: Why did you choose newsprint for Svart Metall?
GW: I chose newsprint for Svart Metall because I wanted to mimic the crude production quality of black metal music. Black metal is known for having really poorly recorded music, usually done with inferior equipment in someone's basement. Newsprint seemed like something that could convey this pretty well since it's gritty in how it feels and can't hold the best range of tones. I decided to print it on a 50lb. stock, though, that is a lot brighter and thicker than typical newsprint. I wanted to do this so my photos still looked decent and so it wouldn't feel quite as much like a zine, but it also recalls the tactility and feel of an "inferior" paper.
MM: Do you connect this object with other related materials, contemporarily or historically-- zines, pamphlets, etc?
GW: I think it relates to fanzines from the music scene a bit, but the content is fairly different. The overall aesthetic was definitely inspired by this, though. I didn't get too much into zine culture when I was younger, so its mostly the ideas of self-publishing behind this that are more inspiring to me than actual content of zines.
MM: What are your thoughts on the non-archival nature of this material and how it relates to this publication?
GW: This didn't factor too much into my decision to use newsprint really. I think that the inevitable decay of this publication definitely fits with the subject matter, but it wasn't as much a consideration as the tactility of the material itself. I don't have a problem with it being non-archival, I think it's kind of nice that it will change over time. I also don't think this thick stock fades nearly as quickly as typical newsprint; I've had a stack of these books sitting near a window for a year and they haven't started to fade at all yet.
MM: Do you think there is a modern movement that prompted this move towards affordable materials aside from economic reasons?
GW: I think it has been prompted by the DIY movement; even though its not entirely new to use affordable materials for publishing, it has definitely been gaining popularity recently. Self-publishing is getting bigger and more prevalent than ever it seems, and printing on newsprint is one of the most affordable and simple ways to just simply "put something out there." I think the publications that consider the consequences of using newsprint obviously work the best, whereas publications only using newsprint for cost don't seem to be quite as strong. It all depends on the appropriate material for the subject matter; some books need to be produced in a lo-fi manner, others need to be more extravagantly produced.
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