Solo Photo Book Month 2009

March 1, 2009

Solo Photo Book Month, the photographic version of Novel Writing Month, has kicked open the door for the 2009 season.

The idea is to pick a project and then you have 30 days to shoot, edit, and soft-publish a book which will be loaded onto the website.  The project and all its photography and layout tasks must be done within that 30 day period.   Rather than having an set date its just any 30 days starting during the month of May.  The book needs to be at least 35 photographs but is otherwise up to each individual as to how they’re going to get those photos and what is meant by book but you should at least have a PDF together.

I tried participating but due to Things Happening was unable to complete my project.  I choose to do panoramic B&W images of the NYC subway using my Horizon Perfekt.  I have a couple of rolls of film but I never got things together in time.  This year’s project might be the subway panoramic but I’m also kicking around a few other ideas.  I’d like to do portraits but that requires other people which doesn’t always work on a tight time frame.

I’m thinking about taking photos around the 5 places I’ve lived in NYC.  Having a record of the neighborhoods as they exist in 2009 as opposed to how they exist in my memory would be a nice way to exploring how things change so rapidly in this city.   I’ve lived on the upper east side, the west village, the upper west side, harlem, greenpoint, williamsburg, and now crown heights over the past 11 years with stays ranging from 1 week to 4 years in a variety of situations.

I’d strongly encourage others to try.   I’ve seen other people turn a simple idea for a project into excellent books that get published for reals (Kyle Cassidy did not do his Armed America project for SoPhBoMo but it started with an idea and went from there).

Posted in News, Photo Projects