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...