These days, more and more photographers are making photobooks. They’re sick of what they’re seeing online on social media; and so they’re working to turn off all the extra stimulation around their images. Most importantly, they’re sick of competing with every single little thing for attention. But a photobook? Yes. It makes a whole lot of sense. We’re going to explain why you’d make a photobook to begin with.
Think about it this way:
- Social media: for daily happenings
- Website: for your very best work
- Photobook: for an expansion of projects that you’ve done that you don’t think will necessarily do well on social media and are instead much more important to you than being fleeting moments.
When you make a photobook, you’re making a statement about the work that you’re putting out there. We’ve reviewed tons of photobooks out there and we can say for a fact that they’re statement pieces that photographers are making about their own work.
Olga Karlovac surely makes a statement about her images and the fact that they look like beautiful charcoal sketches. Until Death do Us Part is considered high art in some ways. Jamel Shabazz Albums is a statement about his work that we don’t quite see anymore. The way it’s laid out also forces us to interact with his work differently. Truly, these photographers had something to say that’s very special. Some decide to put it together later on after shooting a lot. Others, like Cig Harvey, shoot with the intention of making a book to begin with.
If we really had to think about it, making a photobook has to be something you’re passionate about. When you were younger, you were probably told to write five-paragraph essays. Later on, those were changed to five-page essays with double spaces. Lots of folks do little tricks to make their essays seem longer than they really are.
The photobook isn’t the essay that you’re forced to write; it’s the essay that you’re compelled to make people pay attention to. And it’s most importantly your job to make them think about it.
In my life, I’m surrounded by folks who’ve made me realize that I’m not just a journalist. I’m sure a photographer. And now folks are telling me to make a photo book. So I’ve got ideas about various photobooks I’d want to make because I’ve got so much to say and so much I think folks should be paying attention to. My purpose with these books is to make emotions come to life on someone’s face. At the same time, I don’t want the images to look dated at all. The photographs should be timeless in a way — or at least not pander to the idea that social media is defining my photography.
A fantastic photographer to look at for inspiration like this is Phil Penman. His photography books are incredible, and it’s easy for you to fall in love with every single image he makes. His statements often have to do with love — at least in my eyes and my mind. His photographs remind me to fall in love with what’s around me every day and to look at things totally differently.
If you haven’t started considering making a photobook of some sort, then give it some serious thought.
And more specifically, make a photobook if you’ve got work that absolutely no one else can or has made. That doesn’t mean you should take all the random images you shot, and that got upvoted on Reddit. Make a statement with your work.