LONG LIVE PRINT

Print is the final destination for my photography. Print is my nirvana, my photo Super Bowl. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but for me print is photography full circle. Back when I was regularly shooting film I would make prints in my home darkroom, nowadays the Canon Pro-10 and Canon Selphy scratch that itch, and oh boy does it itch.

Over the last couple of years I’ve made countless prints at home, from 11x19 to postcards, self published at least 25 books or zines, and this doesn’t even take into the account the hundreds of frames of instant film.

Case and point a recent family trip to Los Angeles. I knew a print project would come out of it, as with every trip. What exactly, not sure, but I knew it would be a zine of some sort or at least a postcard to send to friends.

Thus, 1 Hour Photo was born.

A mock up for an 8.5'' × 11'' magazine.

A layout I was experimenting with for an 8.5'' × 11'' magazine.

My go to for self publishing is Blurb, but this time I chose their sister company MagCloud. I wanted to try the MagCloud digest format, something Blurb doesn’t offer. Self publishing doesn’t have to be expensive, I made this 44 page 8.25''x5.25''digest for a total of $7.48, that’s it, cheaper than a roll of Kodak Portra. Self publishing doesn’t have to be complicated, MagCloud has templates for Microsoft Word, Pages for Mac, to Adobe InDesign. I’ve never used InDesign before and one of my goals this year was to be decent enough to layout a zine. Mission accomplished. If I can do it, you can do it. I have ZERO design experience, ZERO!

I made this digest for a total of $7.48…cheaper than a roll of KoDAK Portra.

One of the best things I’ve done as a hobbyist photographer was look inward, and started to shoot for self. No more algorithms, no more urge to post. That’s all been replaced by a need to create. I get giddy when I see the inket print spit out the printer or open the mailbox and see that a zine has arrived.

Tangible, tactile, real. Long live print.