Four new photo books from three photographers

I’m a sucker for photo books. If you make one, I’ll probably buy it.

Three photographers I follow published photo books this summer. The first is Ed Worthington, who goes by The 6 Million P Man online. Check out his site here.

His books usually show Italy through his Yashica-D TLR on color negative films like Kodak Ektar. But thanks to COVID-19 he’s stayed close to home for his new book, It’s Allright Around Here, Isn’t It?

Home is Cardiff, Wales, UK. This is one man’s view of his hometown — the places he knows, the places he goes. That includes walking trails and rail lines, neighborhoods of row houses, and the sea (which I assume must be the Bristol Channel). I’m sure these places are common to the Welsh, but they’re exotic to this midwestern Yank.

Ed offers little commentary in his book, just a few paragraphs on the inside front and back covers. He lets the photographs speak for themselves otherwise. They’re presented plainly on each page.

Ed didn’t say what cameras and films he used for these square photos, but they have the same look and feel as his other work. You can buy a copy of this 52-page book from his Etsy shop here, for £8 including worldwide shipping.

Karen Freer lives across the channel from Ed, in Bristol. You might know her from around the Internet as karenshootsfilm or as sisboombah. Follow her blog, Filling the Time, here.

Karen and her wife honeymooned in Catalonia in northeastern Spain last October. She shares photographs of the region in her new book, Filling the Time in Catalunya.

Karen chronicles the place she and her bride visited, including Tossa de Mar, Girona, Blanes, and Barcelona. This colorful book is like an old-fashioned slide show of all the places they visited on their trip.

The photos are set on colored pages, either the red-orange of the cover, or a turquoise, or a mustard yellow, that harmonizes well with the photos and helps make them pop off the page.

Karen and her bride made these photos on Lomography and Dubblefilm films. You can buy a copy here on a variable-price model. The book starts at £3 plus shipping. If you pony up £7 or £10 plus shipping, you’ll get a print with your book.

Finally, Eric Swanger lives in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He takes long drives into remote places, mostly in the western United States. There he photographs what he sees with vintage film cameras, often on films expired decades ago.

Sadly, Eric no longer blogs. But you can follow him on Instagram here or on Flickr here. He posts his photos and commentary in both places.

He continues his series of delightfully named Conspiracy of Cartographers photo zines with Issues 8 and 9, released simultaneously.

For Issue 8, Eric shot a 1914 Kodak Brownie box camera mostly on fresh Kodak T-Max 400 and Ilford Delta 400. Eric doesn’t normally use these smooth films; he prefers a traditional grainy look. He hedged his bets by developing everything in Rodinal to bring out some grain.

Eric’s photos and the embedded commentary are a paean to the back roads, where you can still see America at eye level. This is lovely, lonely work that gives a good view into America’s vastness.

In Issue 9, Eric shifts to a simple Imperial Satellite II camera from the early 1960s, into which he spooled Tower Panchromatic film expired since 1963. This film was produced in Belgium and sold at Sears as part of their Tower line of film gear.

Eric made these photographs at about the same time, and in many of the same places, as the photographs in Issue 8. This book is about the images, ghostly as they sometimes are, backing paper markings bleeding through. They’re artfully arranged on each page, frame lines often present and some images bled off the page to bring focus to some particular element.

In case you can’t tell, I’m a great fan of Eric’s work.

You can buy Issues 8 and 9 as a bundle from Eric’s Etsy shop here. He uses a variable-price model that starts at $12 plus shipping.

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Comments

13 responses to “Four new photo books from three photographers”

  1. brandib1977 Avatar

    I love seeing the world through other people’s lenses. Thanks for the recommendations!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      You’re welcome!

  2. fishyfisharcade Avatar

    I pushed the button on my first zine this week. Hopefully it will look ok when I get it some time next week. Even though I’ve seen the images countless times, this will be their first time in print!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Nice! I assume you’ll offer copies for sale? I look forward to it.

      1. fishyfisharcade Avatar

        Provided they don’t go disastrously wrong somehow, I’m more than happy to pop you a copy in the post.

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          I’d love to see your work in print!

          1. fishyfisharcade Avatar

            Thank you. When the zines arrive I’ll drop you a line and get your details to post one over to you.

  3. Steve Mitchell Avatar

    Very timely….I have just created my first book to see what it might look like. Unfortunately the price for one or two copies is a bit on the high side, so I will wait until I see how folks respond to it before I take the plunge into a volume print…..

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      This is why I do print on demand (e.g., Blurb) for my photo books: no inventory to keep.

      1. Steve Mitchell Avatar

        This is what I have done but $57 per copy will probably mean it does not become a best seller ;)

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          Oof. Yeah, it’s challenging to keep the book price reasonable on Blurb.

  4. yuri rasin Avatar

    Thanks for recommendations Jim!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

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