and Hahnemuhle. When you were at school you were probably
taught the importance of presentation, and the same lesson holds
true for photography. Caring about presentation can often be as
significant as the image itself. It shows you’re not just an artist,
but a craftsperson. At least with the home-made print you can
explore the options.
The photo book
If one photograph can tell a thousand words, a book of photos can
usually tell the whole story. A few years ago the only way to get
photographs into book form was to glue prints into an album, or
have a book printed using an offset press. An offset print run of
3000 books was likely to cost about $30,000, and if you only wanted
1000 books, that was still likely to cost you $25,000. The cost was
not so much in the printing of the book but in the set-up: scanning
images, laying up pages, making the plates and setting up the
presses. Pre-production costs were significantly dearer than the cost
of paper and ink. Photographers with a good book idea usually tried
to find a publisher to fund their book, but if this option failed, some
photographers would often self publish their idea instead. Many
photographers have actually self-published books and made money
from their projects, but numerous others have not been so lucky.
Some probably still have boxes of unsold books in their garage,
and in some cases, money owing on failed projects!AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHY + DIGITAL JULY 2015 AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 65