A Book of Prints

The period between 2016 and 2021, when with four friends we published a periodic zine, was amazing. We managed to print a total of eight issues, each with a specific theme. The recent economic crisis killed it off, but anyhow, it was a hugely rewarding experience. Towards the end of last year nostalgia started to creep in. So, I began pondering about handcrafting a one-off book that contained my photographs in the zines. 

Weighing various options and my own capabilities, also trying out a few different ideas, I decided on spiral binding proper RC prints; something I'd never done before. To keep the size reasonable and manageable I also decided to only include the 26 photos from the first four issues. If it looked good, I could produce Vol2 sometime later. I was in no hurry and began printing the photos over several months; one or two at a time during every darkroom session. This is the end-product:

I trimmed each 24x30cm Ilford RC pearl sheet down to 24x25cm for an almost square format. The extra centimeter was reserved for the spiral holes. The print size and location on each sheet was another thing that had to be gauged. The book has four chapters separated with a sheet of blue card, each chapter containing my pictures from that issue. I also printed out and glued the zine covers onto each separator card.

I think it turned out quite OK. Very spartan. Very simple. Too spartan? Too simple? I wish I had the abilities and imagination of a Peter Beard...but, oh well, I am what I am, and it's still better than nothing.