I have, for the most part, always worked in project form, working my way through a specific subject or form of expression. Most, though not all, of these have been presented in the form of exhibitions. Some have become books. I just sent off my latest book for publication so maybe it’s time to make a little summary of the photobooks I have published so far.

July 1980

July 1980 was my first real project and became my first book. During the month of July, 1980 I photographed and kept a diary every day, in a sort of stream of consciousness manner. I purposefully did not think about what I was doing, nor did I make any  plans from one day to the other. In the fall of 1980 I went through the photographs and the writings and tried to make a “little package” out of them. The book was published by BILDiBOK in 1987.

Loretta

I discovered that printing books is expensive and I didn’t have any money to print any more for a long, long time. 

Then in 2007 I received a little stipend to prepare a course in on-line book publishing. I thought there would be no better way to get the experience and the teaching materials than to publish my own book. I took as my subject "Loretta", a collection of poems and photographs from WAY back, the early sixties. I had everything ready, I had first collected the material together in its final form back in 1978, but then of course, there were no easy and cheap printing methods.

I was quite pleasantly surprised. Though BILDiBOK’s quality was better, it was not better by much, at least with these kind of pictures. The book is published in/at www.lulu.com and some of it can be seen here: Loretta. You can see some of it (in lousy resolution) if you click “preview”.

Digital books are great! Not only is the quality amazingly good, you can order just as many as you want or need. I’ve still got boxes and boxes of “July 1980” in the basement but only about 7 “Loretta”. When I run out of those seven, I just order more!

Me Just Me

In 1998 I was in a European project of selfportraits. We took a selfportrait on the last day of every month and in 2001 we had the grand opening in LeMans, France. It was great fun to take part and I made many friends. In 2008 I got the idea that maybe we should do it all over again "Ten Years Later". Two of the LeMans crowd, Alain Langlais and Martine Leonard jumped on the train and off we went. It was quite a change for me: a picture every day and in color and digital no less! Just to make it more fun I used an old Sony Mavica.

Now I was in the world of digital pictures and the Internet. I edited the pictures as I went along and sent out weekly pdfs on a regular basis. Therefore, when the end of the year came round I immediately started the layout for my next book “Me just Me” It was my first book with Blurb and I’ve stayed there ever since. http://www.blurb.com/b/4633636-me-just-me You can see the whole cotton-picking book if you click the orange banner “preview book”

Grated cheese and breadcrumbs

Loretta is primarily a poetry book with pictures. It is the first of a projected series: “Grated cheese and breadcrumbs”, “Tuesday afternoon”, “I gotta go back to L.A.” and maybe one or two more, we’ll see.

I just sent off “Grated cheese and breadcrumbs”, that is, after having ordered and checked one book, I ordered ten more. It’s really nice if I say so myself! Look at it here: (http://www.blurb.com/b/2709984-grated-cheese-and-breadcrumbs). You can preview it also.

HOWEVER: Don’t buy the books through Lulu or Blurb. Why? Because I can never let well enough alone and I make changes to the books after I get them home to me. I take out pages, I put on a cover, I even cut off a centimeter of “Grated cheese and breadcrumbs”. If you want a book ask me and I’ll send you one. I’ll even sign it if you like!