Looking at custom book options for showcasing photos

- I'm sitting here now with photographer Susan K Grant. You may have seen Susan in my latest composition course. She does some incredible work with shadows. But, Susan, for years, you also taught the making of artist's books. And I think a lot of people may not know what that term is. So we got some in front of us. What are these? What is an artist book? - An artist book is a book that is usually some sort of mixed media. Usually has an original photograph in. And they're made by hand. Sometimes they have letter press, sometimes, other forms of writing. And the whole idea of the artist book is to use materials to echo the content or your emotions of what you're trying to express.

- Okay, that's a lofty statement. And we're going to see some examples of that to make that a little bit clearer. Let's start with one of these. He's a pretty simple artist book done by one of your students. Let's start with this one. - This particular book is what we call a oriental stab binding. Has handmade paper front and back. And a ribbon is what holds it together. - And one student produced all of this. - Yeah, this is a small additional, limited edition of ten. - Okay. - And the nice thing about this particular binding is you can make a stack of images and put one binding through one side, so you don't have to have it folded papers.

This is by Elizabeth Claffy. And is actually a collaboration between she and her mother. Her mother is a poet, Elizabeth M Claffy was the photographer. The title is lifespan. So what this book does is she takes her mother's poetry. Which is quite simple and very beautiful. And she has it divided into chapters. This says gifts. And then she has a beautiful inkjet print printed onto some very luscious paper.

And then we see the poem. - Very nice. - This is has the hand torn edge, which is something very very special in an artist book. And we see another poem. Then here we've got quite a few poems until we get to another chapter heading here. - This is, these chapter heads are actually a different kind of paper. - Yeah, this is what, this is a little thinner. More of a tissue, almost. It has a little bit of translucency so you can sort of start to see the little outline of the actual photo itself.

- Right. So for the photographer looking for a way to present their work, this is a very interesting alternative to simply making prints. This also seems to have a number of advantages over just having a book printed by someone. Like an online photo printing service. And the first thing that comes to my mind is image quality is as good as you want it to be if you got a nice printer. - Just stunningly beautiful. I mean this is an inkjet print that would be in archive, you know, like shown in a gallery of sorts. - Yeah. Dramatically better than what you would get from and online bookmaking service.

- But then also, there is of course, the presentation itself. This is a really beautiful object. Made from as you said, very kind of luscious materials. - One of things we look for in an artist book is, that we love, is the tactile quality of it. So there's a feeling. You know we think about the artist book, not only you do, you read it with your eyes, but you read it with your hands. How it feels in your hands. And the textures that we use. - So this is a fairly traditional book. Let's look at ones that does a little bit more what you were mentioning before.

Echoing the content in the form itself. - So in this particular binding, is a double, we might call it a do-si-do, which is two books, usually back to back, these are front to front. And we open it up. And it's a series of two books, you can kind of see bound together. This handmade paper. The edges have been tinted. And when we first open it, it says his worst years, my worst years. And this is the story about a father and a daughter.

Both diagnosed with cancer. Both undergoing treatment for cancer at the same time. And the photographic images are images that are transfers onto the paper. Using a process called dos transfer. And the text is letter press. So we, as we go through the story, we see the two, these are photographs of each of them. And it's pretty much, you know, goes through the story of their life. She made it. He didn't.

- Oof. - So it's an intense, very emotional. A couple of things I might point out. Is kind of the fading of the pages. It sort of has a kind of a skin. A skin color to it. A blood color to it. The edges, you know, the images are fading. Has a real emotional quality. Also we see that almost like a suture. We see that the stitch of the binding is holding it all together. - Very, very powerful.

And the form actually does inform the content. The actual physicality of the book really does present these two stories literally side by side. This is not, you taught this for years at the university level. This is not a difficult thing to learn to do. These different kinds of artist books there are simpler forms and more difficult forms. - It's really, it's pretty simple. I mean they, you can get a boy scout badge in bookbinding. - Okay. Do you have one? - Well I've taught workshops at the boy scouts.

But it's really, once you learn the binding style, it's all about your design. Like, you know, what do you want to make a book about? - Yeah. - The sequence of your images. And you can make it really complicated or really simple. You don't have to use this handmade paper. But it adds a really very personal touch to it. - Yeah. - Well, these are beautiful. In this era of mostly online photo sharing. It's, this is a fantastic way to get your images out there in a different way. As well as get content on the new images.

The mixing of text and so on and so forth. Susan, you still teach workshops in this, right? - I do. I teach every spring at the International Center for Photography in New York City. - Okay. - And some, I'll probably be doing some master classes in my studio and other places. - And people can find out about that on your website? - That's correct. - Fantastic. - Definitely something to check into. Artist books and Susan K Grant. Thank you very much. - Thank you, Ben.