Interview with Darius Himes

Darius Himes, for about 10 years, was my co-worker at photo-eye and editor of photo-eye Booklist. He is currently an independent curator, writer, consultant and co-founder of Radius Books. (photo shown here by Miriam Romais).

MM: How did you become interested in photography?

DH: I could hear a clicking sound while in my mama's belly and I discovered, after entering this realm of life, it was a camera that produced that sound. So, pursuing photography was just a familiar kind of thing, you know?

MM: You received your undergraduate degree in Photography from ASU where you studied with Bill Jay and Mark Klett. Why did you chose to attend ASU for your undergraduate degree? What do you feel is the most important lesson each taught?

DH: I grew up in a village in Iowa. When I was 18, I simply wanted to get as far away from small-town Iowa as I could. So I applied to ASU (which was a world away from Iowa). Bill Jay taught me how exciting history can be, and to always be diligent and full of humor. Mark Klett didn't teach me anything, because I actually didn't have him for any classes. But Margaret Moore taught me how to make it through Photo 101, Mary Anne Redding and James Hajicek taught me how to run a gallery and handle 19th century photographs, Eric Kronengold taught me how to use bleach and toner and a view camera, and William Jenkins taught me how to think more critically than my farmboy brain had ever thought possible.

MM: Why did you move to Santa Fe?

DH: I came to Santa Fe in 1998 to work with you at photo-eye, Mellie. Duh. No, seriously, I came out to Santa Fe primarily to attend the Graduate Institute at St. John's College, (the best liberal arts college in America). But Santa Fe was a beacon of cool art and photography and I wanted to be in that environment as well, so I stayed after graduation. I was already working for photo-eye part time and was offered a chance to work full-time.

MM: Do you feel conflicted about being a photographer and pursuing other avenues in the photo world? Does your ability and desire to produce images help your understanding and empathy regarding photographers in the projects you choose to promote?

DH: No conflict at all. I feel that because I'm a practitioner, I have a deeper understanding of not only what it takes to make an image but the creative, internal processes that are involved in making work. I still consider myself, first, an artist and photographer, and second, a writer and editor and publisher.

MM: Radius was founded as a not-for-profit organization. Why did your chose to establish the imprint in this way and what is the mission of the organization?

DH: "RADIUS BOOKS encourages, promotes, and publishes books of artistic and cultural value for a wide audience. Our projects are distinguished in both form and substance: beautiful objects by important artists of all ranks." We are non-profit because of our vision that the role of the arts can play in society, which means that we see education and distribution of books to libraries as key to our mission, and those things require funding. Being non-profit allows us to fund-raise to support that mission.

MM: How did Mark Klett's book Saguaros develop as a concept and why did you produce the book with exposed boards and loose binding?

DH: Mark's Saguaros project was something that all of us at Radius had known about for many years. In fact Mark has sent it to me when I was at photo-eye, asking for publisher recommendations. When we were at the design stage, we talked about it needing to be rather large (it's 12x15 inches) but also rather non-traditional. David Chickey suggested the binding, which allows the book to lay very flat and also has a very rigid feel. That rigidity mimics the very rigid, linear profile of the saguaro cacti. The exposed edges of the board also calls to mind the spines and ribs of the cactus plants. It all seemed to come together for that book.

We really try to have the design and the materials complement the subject matter in a conscious, appropriate manner. For example, with Michael Lundgren's new book, Transfigurations, the photographs are very experiential and are all made in the desert. So we used an uncoated paper for the cover, which gives it a very textural, dusty-type feel. We then debossed the word Transfigurations on the cover, in a small font-size, and used a black foil, so that when you look at the title it sort-of shimmers and recedes from your eyes amidst the grays and lights of the desert landscape. It's gorgeous.

MM: Who designs the Radius books? Where are the books printed?

DH: In many ways, the books are created through collaborative processes involving the Radius team (of David Chickey and David Skolkin and Joanna Hurley and myself) as well as the artist. We often start with a concept and then discuss it amongst ourselves, bringing different books to the table as examples of things we're thinking about. The editorial content, such as the overall book concept, editing and sequencing of images, as well as what text to include, and by what writer, is approached in much the same way. But David and David oversee the production of the books. As far as printing is concerned, we have printed books in Italy, Germany, China, Singapore and the U.S.

MM: How do you select your photo projects for Radius? Do you accept submissions?

DH: We accept blind submissions, although this is not a very effective method for finding projects, as most publishers will attest. Generally, the four Radius Books member are all very aware of what's happening in the art world. We read a lot of magazines, travel to art fairs, participate in review events, and just generally try to stay informed. There are, of course, any number of great artists out there that we would love to work with, and some of them we have approached, while others have approached us.

MM: How would you recommend that photographers get funding for book projects? Do limited editions help?

DH: The question of funding/financing projects is a complex one. The quickest answer is to say that putting out an "illustrated book" such as what we're doing requires a team of people that generally can include galleries, museum curators, collectors, and local arts organizations that like to sponsor great projects.

MM: You recently finished coordinating the judges and symposium for the Photography Book Now competition, sponsored Blurb.com, the premier print-on-demand company based in San Francisco. How do you feel that the POD industry has affected the current publishing industry and do you feel that this will have a positive or negative affect on the future of publishing?

DH: I love it. I wouldn't have gotten involved with the folks at Blurb if I didn't think it was a good thing. POD is a fascinating phenomenon and opportunity for photographers and writers. It's the equivalent of how blogging changed the face—and is still changing—the face of journalism. The Photography Book Now contest proved to everyone that the book is a central form of expression within contemporary photography, and the symposium was an indication that lots of folks are interested in hearing about the book industry overall. It was a lot of fun and it's going to happen again in 2009!

MM: You curated the new issue of Nueva Luz magazine. How did you choose the photographers and the theme of this issue?

DH: This project was actually very dear to me. I was given the chance to curate a group of photographers for Nueva Luz, a magazine that has historically championed underrepresented and minority artists. I proposed writing an essay that addressed the concept of "race" as an identifying concept, and chose four artists that I think are also working in a similar vein (though I wasn't looking for direct corollaries). What emerged was an essay that I'm very proud of and which essentially asks people to consider the thesis, which I'm not pretending to have made up, by any means, that there is one human race made up of people of many colors (and cultures). There is an essential unity that underlies our vast and valuable diversity, and that the unity of humanity is often lost in the mix of discussions about race. You'll have to buy the issue to read the essay and see the work! The photographers included were Sanaz Mazinani, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Hank Willis-Thomas and Ian Ramirez.

MM: What blogs do you read? What magazines?

DH: I read your blog, Mellie, first thing every morning. (I like to look at your profile pic with my coffee.) Just teasing. I have subscriptions to Squash Gardening at Home, This Old Cabin, and Damengambit Quarterly.

MM: Which photographer has had the most impact on your life?

DH: That's impossible for me to answer! Personally, there are numerous photographers and artists that have created shifts in how I understand the visual medium, and those shifts happened at different points in my life. So, in the past decade, spending a great deal of time with the work of Lee Friedlander, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Martin Parr has dramatically shifted the way I think about the medium. Masao Yamamoto, Stephen Shore and Daido Moriyama have had a definite impact, as has the work of Roger Ballen. And to be honest, the work of Michael Lundgren, whose work we have just released in a new monograph called Transfigurations, is still penetrating into my consciousness. Mike just gave a talk in Tempe at ASU and I was blown away (even though we'd already published the work!). He is thinking about—and photographing—landscape, particularly the desert landscape, in a radically new way. That'll require a separate blog post to discuss.

MM: You have an extensive photo (and non-photo) library. What is your favorite photo book? What is your favorite non-photo book?

DH: Another impossible-to-answer question! I don't have one favorite photobook. I want to be buried with ALL of them. Haha! There are so many gems out there. One overlooked gem of a photobook, which is mostly writing based on photography, is Crime Album Stories by Eugenia Parry. Parry is one of photography's preeminent (and overlooked) writers; this volume was a quasi-fictional book based on groups of police-record photographs found in a 19th century album. I devoured the book when it first came out. As far as authors and literature, I would list the following: Titus Burckhardt, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Shoghi Effendi, Aquinas, Plato, and David Sedaris.

MM: Aside from Radius, of course, who are some of your favorite publishers?

DH: Without hesitation I would say, as far as small presses go, that Nazraeli Press, Twin Palms Publishers, Chris Boot, and J&L Books rank as some of the best. On a larger scale, what Lesley Martin has done with Aperture in recent years is nothing short of brilliant, Phaidon books continues to rock the casbah with gorgeous, hard-hitting, well-conceived titles, and who can ignore Steidl? Rathole books is now putting out some seriously interesting titles. And the most underrated publishing program in America is, in my opinion, that of Fraenkel Gallery. I wish I owned everything they've published to date.

Ron Jude on press with The Ice Plant in Korea

Ron Jude discusses going on press for his new book Other Nature to be released by The Ice Plant in Fall 2008.

I began working on the basic concept of Other Nature several years ago, and since then the idea for this book has gone through numerous revisions. Only a few of the original photographs made the cut for the final sequence. Tricia Gabriel and Mike Slack from The Ice Plant in Los Angeles agreed to publish the book in late 2007, and they set a target release date of October 2008. We came up with a final image selection and sequence in L.A. in early 2008. The various design elements of the book were being worked on through mid-June or so. As we were shooting design ideas back and forth, drum-scans and light jet prints were being made of my negatives. The light jet prints were sent to Samhwa Printers in Seoul, Korea at the end of June. This was the start of what’s known as the “pre-press” process.

During the month of July, Samhwa scanned the prints, and placed their image files into the finalized InDesign document that Mike and Tricia uploaded to them around the time I sent them the prints. Samhwa then generated "wet proofs" of the book layout and reproductions. During the proofing process you check for any basic layout errors or typos (we found a couple), and you also make color corrections to each individual image. I was sent one set of proofs (I live in Ithaca, NY), and the staff at The Ice Plant got another set. After we independently checked for errors and color corrections, we had a lengthy conference call, during which we compared notes and agreed on what needed to be communicated to Samhwa for the next round of proofs. This information was then given to Jacques Marlow, who typically handles all coordination and communication between The Ice Plant and the printer.

About a week before we were scheduled to go to Korea for the press check, we each received a second set of proofs. Things looked vastly better than they did on the first-round, but there were still a good number of images that needed further corrections. This time we waited until we got to Seoul to tell them what sort of fine-tuning needed to be done. We were hosted by Samhwa Printing for a little over a week in August. This allowed us to check and approve every step of the process. The following photographs represent the basic steps involved in the printing of my new book Other Nature, which will be released by The Ice Plant (and distributed by D.A.P.) in October.


1. Samhwa has a vast printing facility with several floors of presses and binding machines. This is the Heidelberg 4-color (+ varnish) offset press that we used to print Other Nature. Once the proofs are deemed “ready-to-print,” plates are made and the printing process begins.



2. The press operator’s station, where minute adjustments can be made to the color and registration.


3. From left to right: Tricia Gabriel, me, Irving Seong, Samhwa’s liaison to The Ice Plant, and the press operator. We’re looking at a sheet of reproductions under a 5000K lamp, and discussing possible corrections.



4. Comparing the sheets coming off the press with the original prints.




5. The press operator making adjustments to each image.



6. Once a sheet of images looks good, and you’re satisfied that no further corrections need to be made, you sign off on the sheet by putting your initials on it. At that point, the press operator prints the entire run for that sheet. It can be a terrifying commitment, worse than marriage or bungee jumping.



7. Mike Slack checking a few details with Irving before the sheets are stacked onto a palette.



8. A palette of page sheets, ready to be cut, folded, and bound.



9. The cover images are printed on paper with an adhesive backing. They will eventually be laminated and trimmed, and then adhered by hand onto an embossed area of the cover.



10. Cloth is wrapped and glued onto book-board for the cover. These are the elements that will be foil-stamped on the spine, blind-stamped on the back-cover, and stamped with an area large enough on the front to accommodate the cover image.



11. The spine and back-cover stamping plates.



12. This is the foil-stamping machine. It’s a hot-press stamping machine that simultaneously embosses and adheres colored foil to the cover and spine.



13. A proof of the blind-stamped area on the back-cover of Other Nature.



14. The saddle-stitching machine that cuts and sews the book pages together.



15. The final step of the process: the cover is adhered to the sewn book pages.





Going on press for the printing of photography books is essential. As anybody who has done it will tell you, it can be a nerve-wracking experience, but it’s something you have to do if you have any hope of your reproductions resembling your source photographs. I’ve done it a few times, both with my own books and with a couple of books by other artists, and, although I now have a pretty clear sense of how the process works and how to effectively communicate nuanced corrections, I still find it stressful. I’m used to working very slowly on my printing. When you’re printing a book, however, you have to make quick decisions, and be able to translate your corrections from RGB to CMYK. Also, once you commit to a sheet of pages being printed, there’s no going back. That said, it’s also an immensely satisfying experience to realize a book in its final form after months (sometimes years) of planning. It’s also a way to exercise some control over this final, important phase of your project.

Interview with publisher Michael Abrams

Michael Abrams is the publisher of Loosestrife Editions. His first book, Berlin in the Time of the Wall, established Loosestrife as a high quality book design and publishing company. Since this first book, he has published the work of Anthony Hernandez, Waiting, Sitting, Fishing and Some Automobiles, John Gossage, Putting Back the Wall
and Secrets of Real Estate (© John Gossage, shown left), and a book of his found photos titled Strange and Singular.

©Michael Abrams. Strange and Singular

MM: You started Loosestrife in 2004 with the outstanding book (and one of my favorites) of John Gossage’s work titled Berlin in the Time of the Wall. It is 464 pages, casebound, slipcased with and acetate dustjacket. Why such a monumental project for your first publication and why John Gossage?

MA:I’ve collected photography and photo books since the early 1990’s and by 2002 was looking for another outlet to continue my photography interests. Around the same time John Gossage and I met through a mutual friend. He had just published Snake Eyes

and I casually mentioned how cool I thought it would be to publish photo books. The Berlin book had been percolating for some time but he warned me that it was an “impossible” project. Within a few weeks we had formulated an approach that would work for both of us. That was the start of our publishing efforts and great friendship.

MM: You just won the coveted honor for Rencontres d’Arles Prix de Livre for your book Strange and Singular. This book is a unique concept in that each book has 3 different found photos blown into the text block. How did this project on vernacular photography and applied text come about? Where did the photos come from and does their inclusion have something to do with the concept?

MA: I started collecting vernacular photographs about 5 years ago. I was fascinated at the similarity of my reaction to a great snapshot as to an Arbus or Friedlander. The experience of finding an image that holds one’s fascination and curiosity is what draws me to the medium. Collecting the vernacular material is also a bit of a protest against the monetization of the photo collecting process. It’s a wonderful way to hone your eye and find pleasure in a simple image free from the financial aspects of collecting.

One day John said ….these pictures you’ve put together are really great, I think there is a book here. I initially thought he was BS’ing me. But after looking at many of the books which utilized snapshots or found images I came to believe that the material could be presented in a more insightful way. I wanted to create a book that was true to the attributes of the work. It’s intimacy, its ability to reveal the parts of ourselves that we don’t readily expose.

As a photo book collector I’m very much attuned to what it feels like to hold a book in your hands-- to experience it, by way of scale, materials or references to other books. The original pictures inserted in the book serve a few purposes. First, they are a way of physically experiencing the material and breaking down the wall between the original object and the printed page. Secondly, they also create surprise and wonder to the process of paging through the book. You come upon them and initially think –what’s this doing here…..will there be more?

MM: The aesthetic of the three artists you have published—John Gossage, Anthony Hernandez and yourself— are very similar. Why did you select the three artists whose work you have published so far?

MA: There is certainly an aesthetic to the book design which comes from John. He is attuned to how a book operates and creating an additional dimension to the photo book experience. Each of these books has a strong relationship between the material and the book craft.

MM: How do you accept proposals? Or do you accept proposals?

MA: We’ll call you……..

Half joking but we both have day jobs so we operate differently than most publishers. We usually have a relationship with the work or the photographer. We’d encourage work that matches our aesthetic.

MM: Who designed and printed the catalogues? How many did you print?

MA: John is the design chief. We printed in China and except for the first Berlin book we find 1,000 copies is the right number for our books.

©John Gossage. Berlin in the Time of the Wall

MM: Do you recommend a photographer or publisher go on press for the each book?

MA: It’s amazing how much nuance there is in the printing process. I’d highly recommend it.

MM: How would you recommend a photographer get funding for his or her project aside from personal funds? Have limited edition prints with your projects?

MA: We’ve done some limited editions and they can help. However, I think they have been overdone and I’d be curious to see how well they are selling. They work best with well established photographers where the limited editions provide an attractive opportunity to own a print.

We look to a set of prints from the book as a means of funding a project. It’s really the compensation for the break even or loss on a project. It’s very difficult to make the numbers work without some level of outside support. A champion of your prints is a good place to start.

MM: Who is your favorite photographer or one who has impacted your life and work?

MA: John Gossage has been my photo mentor and helped me enter this world in a way I could never have found on my own. I’m naturally drawn to the subject matter and aesthetics of Friedlander, Eggleston, Shore, Adams and Baltz.

©Anthony Hernandez. Waiting, Sitting, Fishing and Some Automobiles

MM: In your personal work, are you influenced by other mediums other than photography?

MA: I’ve become fascinated with collage and Ray Johnson in particular.

MM: What blogs do you read? Magazines?

MA: B54 is the best blog by far on photobooks. Modern Art Notes. Adam Bell. Maybe Alec Soth will come out of blog retirement and grace us with his insights.

MM: What is your favorite book, photo or otherwise?

MA: The City in History by Lewis Mumford and The New West by Robert Adams.

MM: Do you have an odd or funny photography related story?

MA: Gerry Badger is in charge of funny photo stories…….usually drinking and sex are involved.

Interview with publisher Morten Andersen

©Morten Andersen from Fast City

Morten Andersen is an Oslo-based photographer who has published five books under his imprint of Hit Me! Books: Fast City, Oslo F., White Nights: Rocknroll photography, Leira and Fast/Days.

MM: Who designed and printed the books? How many did you print?
MA: I have designed all the books myself, only had some help with fonts and the technical parts from a friend who is a pro designer.
The different books have different editions:
Fast City: 1200, Days of Night: 1000, Oslo F: 500, Leira: 450, White Nights: 800 , Fast/Days: 1000 and forthcoming; ass time goes by: 1000

MM: How would you recommend a photographer get funding for his or her project aside from personal funds? Do limited edition prints help?

MA: I made a ltd edition of 15 for Days of Night and and an edition of 30 for Fast/Days and got some money from that, but it haven’t made a big difference for me. As I mentioned earlier, it is a problem to get money back from the different booksellers. Money comes in small amounts here and there often after a looooooong time so the money have to be in place before the release date. I had some support from official foundations but the first one was financed from insurance money after someone stole all my camera stuff and other items from my apartment, the next one is financed with a bank loan for building a new bathroom ....:-D

©Morten Andersen from Oslo F.

MM: There are similarities between your work and that of Anders Petersen and many Japanese photographers, most notably Daido Moriyama. Did these photographers have an impact on your work? If not, who is your favorite and/or most influential photographer?
MA: They have both been very important for me. Anders was one the first photographers I discovered when I started in the early 80s and when I first saw Moriyama and some other japanese photographers in the Aperture issue Black Sun in about 1990 I was totally taken by that. But before that I had already looked at William Klein who I believe was important for the Japanese photographers also... but yes, they have both had an big impact on me. Other old favorites are Lee Friedlander, Winogrand, Eggleston and Kertesz.

MM: In your personal work, are you influenced by other mediums other than photography?

MA: It was my interest in music who led me to photography but of course also film, literature and other art and stuff around you influence you.

©Morten Andersen from Fast/Days

MM: What blogs do you read? magazines?
MA: I read 5b4.blogspot.com. I seldom read magazines, but I buy a lot of books..

MM: What is your favorite book, photo or otherwise?

MA: One of my favorites from the last years is Emi Anrakuji’s first one-- not so crazy for the latest one but love the first. Other favorites are Poste Restante by Christer Strømholm, Showground by Paul Kooiker, Invisible City by Ken Schles, Waffenruhe by Michael Schmidt, Solitude of Ravens by Fukhase, and various Moriyamas books.

I am also a fan of Jack Pierson, Annlies Strba, Franz Roh, Christopher Wool, Boris Mikhailov, Nan Goldin and others; but find a lot of the photobooks coming out these days quite a bit boring...

MM: You obviously love music and have worked as a photographer for the music industry. Do you have a favorite group or genre of music to photograph? Why?
MA: When I started shooting in 1980 it was of local punk bands and it has been a lot of them since then. I almost don’t shoot bands anymore but I worked close with the Norwegian deathpunk band Turbonegro from 1990-1998, a great band and great to shoot. My next book is entirely dedicated to them, 315 pictures, 512 pages. Due out in September!!

I listen to a lot of different music but my all time favorite band is of course the Stooges.

©Morten Andersen from Leira

MM: Do you have an odd or funny photography related story?
MA: There might be some but can’t think of any right now........ but if you are in NY October 29th I will have a lecture at ICP and hopefully remember some then...!

Interview with publisher Jonathan Hollingsworth

Jonathan Hollingsworth, with his imprint Just One Guy Press, is currently working on his second book Everybody I Ever Met in L.A. (image from series shown to left) due in November 2008. Here he discusses the experience of publishing the new book and his first book, What We Think Now.

MM: What made you want to self-publish?
JH: With my first book, What We Think Now (2006), I was working against a deadline which was the opening for my first solo exhibit, at the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, alongside exhibits by Alec Soth and Lise Sarfati. Having already worked a year at Twin Palms, I knew the amount of time that goes into the submission process, and subsequent process of publishing a book. This was time I didn’t have. So, given my contacts with Twin Palms’ printers, I decided to publish the book myself. In retrospect, I’m glad I did. It was a learning experience I would’ve never had without taking that gamble.

©Jonathan Hollingsworth from What We Think Now

The downside was that I never found a distributor. I contacted a few, and we discussed the prospect of working together, but their terms would have made it difficult to recoup my investment in the print run. Ultimately this meant that I did everything myself: generated every invoice, packed every book, called the bookstores three months later when I still hadn’t been paid. Fortunately the latter wasn’t a common problem!

MM: Why did you choose to produce the books in the format you selected?
JH: Originally, I was going to print the book as a hardcover, but later decided to print softcover. The book is about young people’s take on the war, and so I wanted young people to be able to buy a copy without thinking twice, which is why I ultimately chose a format which was more economical. I was really happy with the outcome—people often comment on the quality of the printing—and while high production values are important, I was more interested in publishing a book that made a compelling statement, rather than publishing an art object too precious to be handled by the guests.

MM: Who designed and printed the catalogues? How many did you print?
JH: I designed the book myself: creative autonomy was the big perk of self-publishing. Samhwa in Seoul printed a run of 1,000, which was essentially the minimum. Two years later I have 100.

MM: How would you recommend a photographer get funding for his or her project aside from personal funds? Do limited edition prints help?
JH: I’m the last person to answer this question. In fact, I could take a lesson or two on the subject, as all my ventures have been personally funded. The execs at Bank of America send me postcards from Jackson Hole, Hawaii and Iceland . . . I’m going to be offering a limited edition for Everybody I Ever Met in L.A., so we’ll see . . .

©Jonathan Hollingsworth from Everybody I Ever Met in L.A.

MM: Who is your favorite photographer or one who has impacted your life and work?
JH: Duane Michals was an early hero. His use of text and image was a big influence, and judging from my work today, still is. Three days after I started working at Twin Palms, Duane showed up to start working on his latest book with us, The Adventures of Constantine Cavafy. He and I sat side-by-side in front of my computer, all day for a couple of days. The heart-in-the-throat deference lasted five minutes. He insulted the shirt I was wearing, so of course I had to point out his choice of pink socks.

MM: In your personal work, are you influenced by other mediums other than photography?
JH: Of course. I think I’m influenced by everything, so it’s hard to list all of my influences, diplomatically.

MM: What blogs do you read? Magazines?
JH: No blogs, except, um, yours. The New Yorker comes to my house once a week and I look at the cover, and toss it onto a stack on my shelf, and then feel very anxious about the growing tower. When I have the time, I read fiction mostly. I studied English literature in college, so it’s a habit I still haven’t kicked.

MM: What is your favorite book, photo or otherwise?
JH: My favorite is always the latest. Right now I’m reading The End of Alice by A.M. Homes, about an incarcerated pedophile and his correspondence with a 19-year-old paramour, home from college for the summer. And I just saw Chris and Don, the documentary about Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, which gave me hope that I might not spend the rest of my life with a pug named Gladys. If I had a pug named Gladys . . .

MM: Do you have an odd or funny photography related story?
JH: Two weeks ago I went down to Memphis to meet with William Eggleston for the signing of the remaining 1st editions of 5x7. It was a really hot, humid day, and I was hard at work opening towers of boxes and pulling out stacks of books, and he, very hospitably asked if I wanted some water, 4,000 year old spring water, he specified. Of course I did, but ironically, it was served in a tiny Dixie cup, the sort you might get at the dentist. Later, he dropped an Alka-Seltzer tablet in his cup of water, and casually sipped, as though it might have been an espresso, between signing books.

MM: Do you like man boobs?
JH: Only on myself.

Interview with publisher Mehdi Saghafi

All images this entry © Mehdi Saghafi

The third interview in the small publisher series is with Mehdi Saghafi. Saghafi published his limited edition book on Treasure Island this year. Here is what he had to say about the project.


MM: Why did you choose to photograph on Treasure Island?
MS: Treasure Inland was my first photography project in 10 years and my first medium/large format work. I was shooting social landscape/documentary images with a Leica rangefinder for most of photography career. I wanted to do test the water for doing photography again and wanted to do something using a panoramic camera. I rented a Linhof and on the way back to San Francisco to return it, I decided to check out Treasure Island. In my early days, I visited many of the military bases in the area as a visitor and took photographs in their museums of military displays, and thought it might be interesting to see Treasure Island after it had been decommissioned and given back to the City of San Francisco.
Unfortunately, I did not get any interesting images from the initial visit; they looked like generic photo-essay. About that time I had purchased a Koudelka book from photo-eye on Wales (titled Reconnaissance Wales). This book had about 16 plates and I thought here is an idea--do 20 images on Treasure Island. If I could complete an interesting project, then I would buy a Linhof and do photography again. So choosing Treasure Island was more like a class/work assignment than a personal choice.

MM: Can you give a brief history on this location?
MS: Here is what I wrote in the book about the location: “In 1935, the shoals north of Yerba Buena Island were chosen as the sight for the International Expo World Fair. To build the 403 acre island, 29 million cubic yards of sand and gravel were brought from the bay and Sacramento Delta area. Because the fill contained washed out dirt from the gold mining days of the Sierras, the island was named Treasure Island. Once construction was completed, Treasure Island hosted the fair in 1939 and 1940. But in 1941, the military rented it from the city of San Francisco to serve as a military base for the war. In 1993, it was closed and given back to the city.”

MM: How long did you work on the project before you decided to self-publish?
MS: I gave myself six months to do the project. It took about two months and three visits and something like 50 rolls of film to get a sense of the place and direction for the project. I had about four images by then and they are all in the first half of the book. By the time I stopped, I had visited it over ten times and had a box full of negatives. I edited down to 26 images.
I did not have my darkroom then, so I scanned the images and printed them on Epson using carbon pigment ink. Within two months after the project I finalized the order of images with help from my friend Alex Azam. I printed them on inkjet, folded and glued the final plates and took three sets to a local bookbindery. I had my book.
The decision to publish came a few years later. When I was aspiring young photographer, my dream was to have a book by the age of 40 (I did the project when I was 40). Soon after Treasure Island, I started on my best project yet on the Sacramento Delta. After 2 years on the delta project, I looked at the Treasure Island book and still liked it and thought it had substance, so I decided to get it published.

MM: What made you want to self-publish?
MS: Not being a good hustler and knowing how I wanted the book, I decided to self publish. I take care of my kids in the day and work in the evenings, so I do not have much time for photography let alone marketing, making connections and talking to publishers. I gave myself a budget of $10000 for 500 books and set out to do it. Between the time I decided to self-publish and finding the right printer for the price, it took over 7 months and my budget was not correct.

MM: Who designed and printed the catalogues? How many did you print? How about the limited edition?
MS: I did all the pre-press work myself. My friend Alex suggested the font. I bought an Epson 750 scanner, liquid mounted all the negatives and scanned them. I made the tritones in the Photoshop and used InDesign to do the layout. We ran the press for about a 1000 copies and I had them cut and fold for 500 books. The Paper, Mohawk egg shell, was almost as much as the press run price!! The rest of the cut plates were not folded and 26of them where used to make the limited edition. I saved about 100 of each plate unfolded to use as posters and promotional materials.

MM: Why did you decide to do 26 different prints with the limited edition?
MS: I had seen a copy of Black Triangle (by Josef Koudelka) as loose plates and I really liked it. To see plates unfolded was as close as looking at the real panoramic image, so that decided the format for the limited edition (LE). Then I needed to choose the print for the limited edition. I thought why not make each one unique and allow the collector to have what they like. I guess I could have let the print choice open and see which image was most popular with the viewers, but I decided to make them all unique.

MM: How would you recommend a photographer get funding for his or her project aside from personal funds? Do limited edition prints help?
MS: I used personal funds, so I would not know. The limited editions help unless you do all the work and make the boxes or keep the materials very simple. For me, it was important to make the limited edition presentation the best it could be. Now, if you are well-known your gallery may pay for it all and you can charge few thousands and actually pocket some money. But most self-published books that I have bought are labor of love, expensive to make and sell and have been very nice.


MM: Who is your favorite photographer or one who has impacted your life and work?
MS: It has changed with time. When I started, I fell asleep to a W. Eugene Smith catalog of his complete work from Center for Creative Photography, followed by books by Robert Frank and Walker Evans and later, Gilles Peress, Josef Sudek, and Josef Koudelka. I like Smith passion. Minamata is by far my favorite work by him. He summed up all his years in that book. Frank opened a window for me, teaching me not be bound to the “perfect print or composition”. I was inspired by Sudek for his love of beauty in the ordinary; Koudelka, the panorama; and Gilles Peress, love of humanity. Peress’s last two books are the hardest books for me to look at and they make me cry every time.

MM: In your personal work, are you influenced by other mediums other than photography?
MS: Yes. Literature and poetry are a big source of inspiration for me. Being from Iran, I am more attracted to the eastern poetry and darker literature. I believe there is always hope and as dark as some of my images maybe, they are not hopeless.

MM: What blogs do you read? Magazines?
MS: I have not been doing any of this in the past 5 years. I subscribed to Lenswork and Aperture for a short while, but they got stale. I liked Afterimage newsletters while Bruno was the editor but they were struggling and do not know if they are still around or not. I like photo-eye newsletter a lot. I get to see new photographers and books weekly and that takes care of my fix.

MM: What is your favorite book, photo or otherwise?
MS: If there was a fire and had to save 3 books, it would be my Treasure Island, Black Triangle, The Silence.

MM: Do you collect photo books? Did some of the books influence your decision to publish the book in the panoramic format without the gutter?
MS: Yes. I have descent collection. With the exception of self-published and panoramic books, I only buy what I really like. I buy self-published and panorama books because they are unique. Koudelka’s Reconnaissance Wales influenced me to print my books in this same format. I saw is first there, but instead of cardboard cover, I used cloth with the original silver print embossed in it.

MM: Do you have an odd or funny photography related story?
MS: The price of the binding of Treasure Island had jumped to $20 a book by the time I was ready and had it sorted. I could not afford to bind it all anymore, so I decided to bind only 200. So I had to produce 200 Images, so a friend and I worked for about 8 hours and when I went to hang them to dry, I had a photo installation.

After all is said and done, I think doing a book was a great thing. It was frustrating and tight due to money, but if you wanted your own book today it is much easier than ever before. If you are doing a more traditional book, it will be much cheaper for perfect binding. Since all pages in Treasure Island had to be glued together individually, it was labor intensive and expensive.

Mehdi Saghafi is happy to answer any questions. He can be contacted at msandcdg@sbcglobal.net.