Reconnections: Walking Wellington

I have spent the last couple of months working on the Reconnections: Walking Wellington  project. This  is  based on my walking  Wellington around the time of Photobooks/NZ  in 2018  and on my previous visits.  These visits were designed  for me to walk Wellington.

It has  initially been constructed in the form of  a Tumblr blog.  The blog is here and the project starts from the bottom of p. 4.   The impetus for the project was    Photoforum NZ’s recent open call for submissions  for their online gallery  (images of the project only),  and then their call for  submissions the form of a pdf  for their publications programme (text plus images).

The blog was the easiest way for me to construct the project fragment by fragment,  and it is also provides an  accessible way for people to see the project in its embryonic form. The picture below  is an outtake from the project:

There is another outtake here.  Another  outake  is here.

If these submissions are not successful– I am assuming  that they wont be,  given both the nature of publishing in Australia and New Zealand and the strength and creativity of photography in New Zealand —then I  have the basic draft  for a new photobook. This time around I will submit the pdf to various book publishers. If I am not successful,  then, and only then,    will  I consider publishing  it on my own.  I do need to explore the submissions route and experience the normal  series of rejections.  

I am really working blind on producing photobooks.

My guide  up to now has been the ones that I have previously published,  and these have been lo fi,  produced with limited resources and selected  input from editors,  designers and printers. I have decided to see what is happening in the world of  photobooks  by going to the  finals of  the 2019 ANZ Photo book Awards at  the CCP in Melbourne  in mid-March and  checking out  the 2019 Melbourne Art Book Fair at the NGV at the same time.

The Reconnections: Walking Wellington  photobook is more conceptual than my previous ones. The book is envisioned as text on the left side and image on the right side of  the open page, thereby stepping away from the form of the photobook as  primarily  a collection of images. This  type of photobook was what Mallee Routes: Photographing the Mallee 2018 was. I submitted it to  the 2019 ANZ Photobook Awards, but it failed to make the final.    It would not have been  original enough in terms of  the form of photobooks.

The Reconnections photobook, in contrast,  is more conceptual as it has a triadic structure,  there is a text with each image,  and the text consists of  a mixture of memories and theory based on the ideas of  the Situationists.I have no idea how it would compare with other photobooks, hence the need to make the  Melbourne visit to see what made the final of the 2019 ANZ Photobook Awards and the tables of self-publishing photobook artists at the Melbourne Art Book Fair.

Update

Photoforum NZ  has accepted the  Reconnections submission to their   open call for submissions  for their online gallery  (images of the project only).  Geoff Short, the director and co-managing editor, suggested a Wellington based writer —Andy Spain— to write about the images in the online gallery.  I have accepted, but  I have yet to hear  from Geoff   whether  or not Andy has accepted the writing gig.

I have not heard from Photoforum NZ  with respect to their call for  submissions the form of a pdf  for their publications programme (text plus images).