The Hand-Made Photo Box...

   I like the idea of creating hand-made books to hold your photographs but I took a class at the Maine College of Art in November on creating boxes which offers an alternative method of preserving images.  This concept allows you to keep loose prints of your work as well as a booklet describing the project.

   The box can be made any size and the space that will hold your photographs can be any depth of course.  This is a small box, about 5 X 7 inches.  It can hold around 36 4 X 6 prints depending on the thickness of the photo paper they are printed on.  The tray sits above the prints on supports (not directly on the prints).  The whole thing folds up quite neatly and can go on your bookshelf.  I've learned that fine art photographs should be stored vertically and this box does that very well. Prints should be separated by acid free tissue, of course.  An inventory can be printed in the booklet but just in case the prints should become separated from the box, your name, date, and the location in the image should be recorded on the back in pencil.

   Finding ways to store and catalog your photographs has recently been occupying my mind.  Of course, e-books are now a wonderful way to do that and I'm looking into that possibility for my Poetry of Place project but there is something wonderful about also having the physical print to hold and look at.  This is a perfect way to do just that.  Here is a link to a tutorial by artist Jana Pullman for making a single tray box.  If you don't wish to tackle a project like this, you could commission a book artist to make one for you.

The Handmade Box

A Place for the Heart to Rest...

   I have been experimenting with a new book form.  I adore making books.  I love the slow, methodical process.   I relish the engineering challenge and the idea that I am creating an object that will survive me...a place for my photographs and my thoughts to rest.

   I encourage people to explore creating their own books to contain their images and not to simple log on to some on-line book company.  There is an essential quality of the hand-made book that the on-line companies cannot duplicate.  They are works of the heart as well as the hand.

   We have become a culture of "faster and more" rather than "slowly and with care".  Making your own books simply requires patience and attention to detail...no great creative genius is necessary.  The internet is a wealth of information and resources. Some are more complex than others.  If you become enthralled with the idea, look to your local adult education department to see if they offer classes.  For a starter, you can look over my Pinterest board...

Hand-Made Books for Photographers

   These books are a place for your heart, as well as your photographs, to rest.  Picking one up, one that you have carefully and lovingly crafted, makes you smile, even before you open it up.  Feeling the richly textured, hand-made papers is a far cry from the cold uniformity of the commercial photo book.   Even the little things that make your book less than "perfect" - and there will always be something - is an important part of its quality.  (Remember wabi sabi?)

    Inside are your images and hand written thoughts nestled between the pages you alone assembled.  Someone, years from now, will know how important they were for you because you took the time and care to make this "work of heart".  Isn't that incentive enough to create one?

   Read my original post on The Folded Scroll Photography Book to see how this all got started...

The Folded Scroll Photography Book...

   On my trip to China in 2002 I was first introduced to Taoism.  Its philosophy would later inform my camera work but at the time, it was the beautiful scrolls of calligraphy and ink painting that drew my eye.  I especially loved the idea that the art form could be rolled up and stored in a relatively small space.  The art and thought contained in the hanging scrolls were meant to be savored and studied for a time and then exchanged for another, often seasonally.  We in the West are so use to hanging our art on the walls of our homes permanently, never taking it down unless we are re-painting the walls and then, most often, it goes right back up in the same place.  This leads to our becoming so use to its presence that we no longer notice it let alone meditate on its meaning and place in our lives.  It is purely decorative. The Chinese story scroll - a smaller version of the hanging scroll - could be rolled out and read inch by inch.  In time this evolved into the folded scroll or what we now call the concertina or accordion book.

Book cover with hand-made paper.

   Hand-made books have always been a fascination for me and I've adapted this particular form to contain my photographs, in this case, my "good crop" of photographs from my trip to France this summer.  Unlike other book forms, it can stand on it's own, displayed on a shelf or  table.  The pages can also be turned like an ordinary book should you chose to look at it that way.  I can take it out, enjoy it for a time and then put it away.  Its small size makes it intimate and easily looked at.  Like the traditional hanging scroll, it is never constantly on view and so more appreciated when it is brought out.  The hidden benefit of this is the light sensitive prints are protected while they "rest" on my shelf.  I have many of my prints hanging in my home but in time, well, you just run out of wall space!  The folded scroll book solves that problem beautifully.  For greater protection, slip cases or small boxes can be make to hold the book and they look lovely on your book shelf.

Front six images...the book can be turned to view the other six photographs.

      Below is a YouTube video that will give you step-by-step directions for making your own  accordion book.  I used two sided tape to attach my photographs to the pages.

How to Make an Accordion Fold Book - Emily Embrescia Joyce

 

Have Fun! 
...and check out my Hand-Made Books for Photographers on my Pinterest site for more ideas including making your own field journals.