| Planning Your Photography Book (Online)

Create your unique photo book with expert guidance. Benefit from lectures, research, thematic direction, and personalized organizational tools tailored to your project, transforming your images into a compelling photography book.

Note: This workshop will be held in a live, online format utilizing the Zoom platform.
Class meets for 4 Saturdays, May 11, 18, 25, and June 1. from 12-3pm ET.

This four week workshop is designed for photographers with strong ‘works in progress’ who are looking to establish their next steps in turning a desktop folder of images into a comprehensive photography book. Each week will center around a particular theme relevant to developing a photography book, with the goal of determining both what our vision is for our work and where our work fits into current publishing trends. Sessions will be structured around lectures, research assignments and organizational tools geared toward students projects and individual needs. Students will leave the four weeks with a comprehensive understanding of their work, and a clear idea of where they are taking it. This is a study of your future photography book and the photography books that have already been made by others.

Week 1:

Students will introduce their projects for group critique, including project statements and elevator pitches. We will explore through writing exercises their strengths and weaknesses, and establish their workshop goals. The lecture will cover the narrative potential of photography, and different approaches to storytelling; from traditional photography books to the use of text and image. Students will be encouraged to determine ways they could experiment with the narrative potential of their projects.

Week 2:

We will study different approaches to publishing, including looking at a variety of publishers and their distinct personalities (including approaches to content/ form as seen through the lens of each publisher). We will look at photography book awards, and break down current trends seen here. We will discuss the pros and cons of publishing with a publisher vs self-publishing, and what the costs of each are. Finally, students will be asked to research the above and make a case for where their work might belong if they went through traditional publishing avenues, vs how they would approach self-publishing.

Week 3:

We will study the relationship between content and form, and how this can elevate a photography book or alternatively be distracting and unnecessary. Students will put together a folder of design references building off the photography books and publishers they researched in the week prior, these will include examples of design that they are drawn to but also design references for their own bodies of work. We should be considering what is the content of our projects/ and how design might emphasize this. Students will also be asked to prepare a number of organizational tools, from shared templates, that will provide structure and support when taking the next steps with their projects.

Week 4:

In our final week, students will present comprehensive projects for group critique, this will include new drafts of elevator pitches and statements, the narrative direction of the work, where they see the work being published (both traditional and non-traditional routes), design notes and their timelines/ mailing lists, etc. Students will leave confident in where they are taking their ‘works in progress’ and where they see this work existing with larger audiences.

This four week workshop is for photographers looking for motivation and structure, they are guaranteed to have a busy and productive month. Theory and research-based, it is the perfect companion class to the more practice-oriented in-person workshop “Photography & Storytelling: Thinking About The Photo Book”. 

As someone once said; the lucky photographer is the prepared photographer 😉

All images copyright Madeline Morlet.