JOHN GOSSAGE
MM: Why did you, the designer, or publisher choose newsprint for Here...Half Blind?
JG: I found that there was the opportunity to publish my self-designed, catalogue for my show at the Rochester Art Center in the Rochester Post Bulletin Newspaper ( 40,000 copies) a few days before the show. Thus Newspaper = Newsprint.
We also did 500 copies at the end of the run on slightly better grade paper for the permanent catalogue, the one you have seen.
MM: Does this choice relate to the subject matter or concept of this specific book?
JG: Yes, all the photos had to be big to deal with the lack of normal reproduction standards. The subject was a two week shooting in Rochester, so to have a chance to get "HERE" to just about everyone "THERE" it was perfect.
MM: Do you connect this object with other related materials, contemporarily or historically-- zines, pamphlets, etc?
JG: No, it's is a Newspaper in the old sense of the word, 40,000 copies on Wednesday, maybe 500 copies left on Thursday.
MM: What are your thoughts on the non-archival nature of this material and how it relates to this publication?
JG: It is an interim report for me, since I am publishing with six different publishers this year, I'm pretty sure that these pictures (which are part of a larger project of mine) will be published in a well reproduced book in the future.
Gerhard Steidl in fact has already agreed to do it.
MM: Do you think there is a modern movement that prompted this move towards affordable materials aside from economic reasons?
JG: Yes, so that all of the high reproduction problem are moot. There is a belief I have noticed among the best of the young, that a good picture is a good picture, no matter how it is reproduced. A belief I completely agree with.
MICHAEL MAZZEO
MM: Why did you, the designer, or publisher choose newsprint for the
Down These Mean Streets?
MAZZEO:
I had very specific reasons for publishing an actual newspaper to accompany Will Steacy's project, Down These Mean Streets. Will has been photographing working-class America for his entire career and his work is very much rooted in American journalistic ethics – his family has worked in the newspaper business for 4 generations which, of course, this has been a major influence on his character and his photography. The concept of publishing the photographs as reportage including the artist's notes, maps and journals in a newspaper format made perfect sense to us.
The inspiration for the
Down These Mean Streets newspaper came while walking around the New York Photo Festival with Jörg Colberg, of the
Conscientious photography blog. While looking at publications and talking about Will's work and upcoming exhibition, I just happened to pick up a small newspaper containing photographs by a Dutch artist. Jörg, already familiar with Will's newspaper background, immediately made the connection and urged me to pursue a similar route. His encouragement gave me the confidence to take on the project which I knew would have top be produced within a few weeks time.
My assistant on the project, Alex Brown, began contacting printers around the region and eventually found one who specialized in college newspapers. With school out for the summer, the presses were quiet and he was more than willing to give us a great price, simply to cover his overhead. He then worked with Steacy gathering jpegs and scans of his journal pages, before sending them to the designer.
MM: How does this choice relate to the subject matter or concept of this specific publication?
MAZZEO: Down These Mean Streets is a news story, a very timely exposé of a very unfortunate conditions facing much of our nation. How better to disseminate the work than by quickly and inexpensively distributing it as a traditional newspaper. On another level, the newspaperstands as an icon of American industry in decline.
MM: Do you connect this object with other related materials,ontemporarily or historically-- zines, pamphlets, etc?
MAZZEO: We considered pamphlets, zines, broadsheets, school newspapers and metropolitan dailies when discussing layout and design with our designer, Bonnie Briant, but the overall design was always meant to reference the typical American tabloid style newspaper. Bonnie knew immediately what I was looking for and she did a brilliant job in incorporating the various materials into a beautifully designed, coherent and smart publication.
MM: What are your thoughts on the non-archival nature of this material and how it relates to this publication?
MAZZEO: Down These Mean Streets is about America's abandonment of its inner cities – crumbling infrastructure, lack of resources, dilapidated structures, broken lives – but it isn't a message of hopelessness. It is more of a call to arms. The newspaper works right into this.
It might deteriorate and possibly fall apart, becoming part of the environment, but hopefully it will be appreciated and saved, or at least recycled into something new.
MM: Do you think there is a modern movement that prompted this move towards affordable materials aside from economic reasons?
MAZZEO: Perhaps, but my reasons for taking this particular route were not
based on trends or economics.
ERIK VAN DER WEIDJE
MM: Why did you, the designer, or publisher choose newsprint for the Foto Zine series?
EW: with quite many photobooks, even those which treat not so ground breaking issues, i feel enormous pretentions. in size, printing, binding or paper quality. as i see this foto.zine series as smaller thoughts, or sketches in a way, i look for an approach as unpretentious as possible. these separate series, or thoughts, can change in a month time. and so do many publications; next month, next issue...the paper doesn't have to last an eternity; the thought won't either...thickness of the paper can also give a weight to a subject that is photographed, right? so this ultra thin paper is also my statement about these subjects. they are just loose thoughts, they don't deserve the weight of a thick paper. so the choice for this paper is a conceptual one, rather than an economic one.
MM: How does this choice relate to the subject matter or concept of this specific book?
EVDW: oops, i guess i answered that above...
MM: Do you connect this object with other related materials, contemporarily or historically-- zines, pamphlets, etc?
well, of course i'm aware, but i solely make my decisions in a conceptual way. form and content have to be as closely related as possible. so not in a single zine, but if you would ask "why a zine in the first place" i would say i would connect my zines in a zine tradition (hence the title), but looking for new forms of showing photography within this DIY tradition.
MM: What are your thoughts on the non-archival nature of this material and how it relates to this publication?
EW: as i said before, the 2 main reasons for me to use the non-archival are
1) not to be pretentious in any way
2) to underline the, uhm, impermanent or perishable (?) character of the subjects. i am aware that photography is very much about the preservation of memory, but on the other hand, we cannot remember everything, right? it's different when you have this great photographic project depicting certain places in the US, which are mostly unseen by the population, but all together show sort of an underlying grid in american society...(what's her name again?
showing CIA hq, nuclear waste site, transatlantic telecom cables arriving on u.s. soil, etc). if that book would be on newspaper, hm, i think it would miss the point...(though it would still look good.)
MM: Do you think there is a modern movement that prompted this move towards affordable materials aside from economic reasons?
EW: oh yes, i believe photobook making is becoming much more conceptual. maybe also because more and more books are self published, where the photographer/artist makes all decisions. even design decisions, so it becomes much more an artists' product; more conceptual. if you would put out a photography publication, the logical step would be to choose a nice, archival, paper. that's how it's, historically, done. but many younger artists are looking for new ways to publish. re-invent the photobook even, maybe. this is some thinking out loud by me, because i just don't believe in the paper choice as an economical reason. i mean, if you can get the money to publish a book, you can also get a little bit more for a "better" paper.
