master books
photography_
David Kilpatrick finds a book project which has worked well for its creator – and one for aspiring superstars
Traditional Notes Stephen Power
ISBN 978-1-908308-01-6 The Liffey Press, £18.95
Most photographic books docu- menting music and musicians are the result of a lifetime’s mu- sical interest or music industry commissions.
In late Spring 2011, Irish freelance Stephen Power told the world through Facebook and stock photography forums that he had secured a contract based on a book proposal, Traditional Notes. Regardless of his own in- terest in Irish traditional music, and any photography he already had in the bag, this book was to be produced to a very tight schedule and launched in the Autumn to hit the Christmas market.
Not only that, most of the content was to be new – a punishing schedule of daily driv- ing to meet subjects spread out across all the counties of that surprisingly sprawling small is- land, together with a flying visit to the famous Tønder festival in Denmark where Irish music tops the bill.
The 224 pages of this paper- back are not intensive reading. The written notes are simple, set in a large type which no-one will find taxing on the eyes. The photographs often stand alone as essays on individuals, instruments or the instrument makers. The style is absolutely unaffected by today’s brief
fashions for HDR, the ‘dragan look’, or other digital dramatisa- tion. Every image is classically handled for realistic colour and tone, making the pictures an objective documentary record. It would have been so easy to have hammed this up with fake- grainy monochrome photojour- nalism, Hedgecoe-style artist portraits – but Power keeps it absolutely straight.
Because most of the book’s photography has been shot in a single intensive season, unlike most music or cultural records it captures the Irish music world of 2011. It’s a sort of publishing time capsule for the future, and one hopes that bodies like the Irish National Portrait Gallery will think hard about acquiring the content in archival print form. It’s unlikely to be done again, or done as well, or by anyone as involved and com- mitted as Power (an occasional Irish bouzouki player himself, and a music shop owner before embarking on a very successful photographic career). We followed the progress of the book through Facebook – now an essential marketing tool – with Stephen’s book launch and signings, orders from book- store chains, orders from music
retailers following surprisingly quickly after the glimpses of his subjects and shoots.
This book is an example of something which UK photogra- phers find increadingly difficult to contemplate, as the UK economy continues to lack the
Setting up a Successful Photography Business Lisa Pritchard ISBN 978-1-4081-2577-9 A & C Black, £12.99
This slim and slightly feintly typeset paperback is cheap enough to appeal to students, which is a good thing, as only students will be naïve enough to think that examples like Rankin (the world’s worst photographer when he set out!), Steve Bloom (repro genius) or Tom Stoddart (sharp end photojournalism) represent ‘photography business’ of the kind you can ‘set up’. Colin Davidson’s events photog- raphy and Julia Boggio’s wed- dings are the only two examples outside the corporate and media environment the author comes from herself.
Apart from the assumption that this world – of commis- sions, shoots, assistants, port- folios, agents, models – is the
enterprising confidence shown in Ireland. You could imagine similar projects working in Scot- land or Wales, but struggling in England. See:
www.theliffeypress.com
Á
norm much of the advice given is good, including reference material with web URLs for organisations. Sample document wording relates to a world very few photographers will ‘set up a business’ in – a world where 48 days a year working at £1,000 a day is proposed as one example for survival. At least this book won’t encourage competition!
Á MASTER PHOTOGRAPHY 15
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