Newsprint and the Contemporary Photobook: Part 4, Rob Hornstra

I became aware of the Dutch photographer Rob Hornstra with his book 101 Billionaires, a project based in the former Soviet Union depicting the quotidian lives of the average citizen in the new capitalist economy through portraiture and text. Since making this book and the follow-up after the 2008 economic crisis, 101 Billionaires: The Crisis Edition (Down to 49), Hornstra has been working with writer Arnold van Bruggen on the The Sochi Project. The Russian resort town of Sochi will be the location of the Olympic Winter Games in 2014. For this is a donation-funded project, Hornstra and van Bruggen will continue to document this region of Russia as it prepares for the massive changes brought about with the advent of the Olympic Games. As part of this ongoing project, Hornstra and van Bruggen produced a newsprint publication/exhibition On the other side of the mountains to raise awareness and funding. Here Hornstra discusses the newsprint publication. More info The Sochi Project or to donate visit the website.

MM: Why did you, the designer, or publisher choose newsprint for The Sochi Project On the other side of the mountains?

RH: We don't work with a publisher. So we is me, the writer Arnold van Bruggen and the designers Kummer & Herrman.

This is from our sketchbook at thesochiproject.org

The production had a number of preconditions: at each location we would have use of a piece of wall, but it was unclear how much. Furthermore, 'something with the internet and projections' was expected. In addition, we wanted to give visitors something they could take away, which fits the strategy of The Sochi Project. And if possible, we also wanted to carry out guerrilla campaigns in the various festival cities. The budget for all of this was €3,000.

Based on the success of the poster exhibition in Rome and our introductory newspaper, the question arose of whether we couldn't combine all these elements in one product. And so the idea of a multi-functional newspaper-cum-Do-It-Yourself exhibition was born. A couple of quick calculations revealed that a 64-page newspaper would result in an exhibition of 1.20 x 6 metres. This, combined with an adapted, more public website, would be it.

MM: Does this choice relate to the subject matter or concept of this specific book?

RH: The choice relates to the concept and it fits the subject. But there are more media (for example a small book) which fit the subject.

I wrote before how we came to the concept.

 

MM: What are your thoughts on the non-archival nature of this material and how it relates to this publication?

RH: I wonder what the criteria are for archival or non-archival material. I mean, a newspaper maybe exists for a few years. A c-print maybe for a few decades. A book for a few hundred years maximum. What does it matter? Is a hundred years enough to say that the object is archival material? And if we make digital files from this paper, are these digital files archival material as well (it showed how a newspaper looked like, also after a hundred years).

All of this is not my first concern. We just want to make what we want to make.







MM: Do you think there is a modern movement that prompted this move towards affordable materials aside from economic reasons?

RH: I wouldn't call it a movement. What you see is that we (photographers, documentary makers) slowly start to move away from all traditional stuff and definitely not only because of economic reasons. We should start thinking from scratch what to do with our work over and over again. I believe an important reason for this is that right now everything is possible. The crisis in the editorial world gives photographers a lot of freedom. You don't have to think about publishers or magazine editors anymore. You can do whatever you want. Personally I never think about editorial stories anymore. Sometimes it happens that a series appears to be successful in magazines. So if everything is possible and if you don't have to think about editors or publishers or who ever, that mean that you have all the freedom in the world. Why not distribute your work via IKEA instead of DAP? You reach much more people if you distribute your work via IKEA. I am not seriously investigating this idea, but what I want to make clear is that we have to delete all our old fashioned ideas and start thinking over again from scratch. I think the self-published newspapers are only the start of many new ways of publishing in the upcoming years.





A newspaper has many of course advantages before traditional books. It is cheap, you can reach many, many people, you can give it away for free, the attitude is magnificent rough and it feels serious and so on and so on. It is a brilliant product.

By the way you also have those great free supermarket advertising newspapers which are printed on a little bit more sophisticated paper. Also very thin, but white and a little glossy. We already informed if we could use this material as well, but it starts from 100,000 copies (at least here in the Netherlands).

_________________________________________________________

			This handmade Collectors Box is a gift to all gold donors for The Sochi Project.For every year they are a gold donator, they will receive a numbered andsigned C-print. This C-print won't be for sale in galleries or anywhere else.For more information, please click on the link image above or visit the donation page.

Follow-up on Newsprint and the Contemporary Photobook

Thanks to those who emailed my as a follow up to the Newsprint and Contemporary Photobook Series (No. 1 with Soth and Roth, No. 2 with Gottlund and Willing, and No. 3 with van der Weijde, Mazzeo and Gossage)

David Schoerner at Hassla emailed me the link to rgb transferences, 2010 by Pierre Le Hors. Le hors used the medium of newsprint to produce his publication on the occasion of his MFA Thesis. It is offset-printed on newsprint in an edition of 1000.

Sean Cousin's mentioned that I neglected to included Geert van Kesteren's Baghdad Calling
(printed by Drukkerij Robstalk). Cousin's states (and I hope he does not mind me quoting him):

"While bound as a book, the vast majority of the images are printed on newspaper, bar the text and images by Geert van Kesteren - the majority of the books images are by other individuals. Additionally, many of the images are derived from mobile phones. It is one of the most interesting books I have picked up in a long while. 

The combination of mobile phone images - as well as stills from moving images - and newspaper print is interesting: it excentuates the rudimentary nature of both."

Mentioning Baghdad Calling, I have to also list the follow up book by van Kesteren, Why Mister, Why? 

Cousin has a blog and has the link to The Newspaper Club in the UK in his signature. This might be the answer to the comment on an earlier post about whether any POD companies use this type of paper. 

Finally, I did not mention Hackney Rag with photos by Stephen Gill and Vintage Time Photography 1960s with photos by Kishin Shinoyama. Both books are 40 pages and published on newsprint by ArtBeat Publishers in Japan as part of their Lumen series. Thanks to Ashley Buttle for reminding me of these books.

Addendum to Last Post on Newsprint

I neglected to include an important addendum to Michael Mazzeo's interview about Down These Mean Streets. I am listing the comment below an adding to the previous post. 

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 jpgs and scans of his journal pages, before sending them to the designer.

Newsprint and the Contemporary Photobook: Part 3 : John Gossage, Michael Mazzeo and Erik van der Weijde

In this third entry on Newsprint and the Contemporary Photobook, photographer John Gossage writes about Here... Half Blind and Michael Mazzeo about Will Steacy's Down These Mean Streets-- both published in conjunction with 2010 exhibitions, Gossage's work at Rochester Art Center in Minnesota and Steacy's work at Mazzeo's NYC gallery. Finally Erik van der Weijde speaks about his series, Foto.Zine and specifically the latest Foto.Zine No. 3. 

If you have published or know or other related publications, please feel free to email me melanie@melaniemcwhorter.com. I would love to know about more and the answers to these questions. Also, email some great newsprint printers so I can share with others.

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.