Is Apple making the equivalent of "GarageBand" for ebooks? Wild Speculation.

Rumors are flying, as they always do, at "Cult of Mac." This time it's about Apple's big announcement this coming Thursday (Jan 19). Whatever it is, it is supposed to revolutionize education or textbooks or epublishing or...well, I guess we'll see.  Since I'm a professor and have made online courses I am interested in just how revolutionary it will be.  Call me skeptical, but the fact that several major textbook publishers are going to be there makes me think it can't be all that revolutionary. I don't like the textbook industry much. They charge outrageous amounts for mostly boring material. Since I love photobooks, I can't help but think it absurd that a first year French textbook with one star reviews (such as "I whole heartedly regret purchasing this book.") costs the same as a gorgeously printed,  hard cover, slip-case, Steidl, two volume book on Berenice Abbott that has 5 star reviews (like this one: "This is a special book. I was going to give it to my son who is a professional photographer, but selfisness has overcome me and its staying right here in my library"). Which would you rather spend $133 on?

I can gripe about this in good conscience because my students don't pay a dime for my online textbook, which, with podcast downloads and interactive exercises throughout is more user-friendly than most.

But why bring any of this up on a photography blog?

Mainly, because while we are in the wild speculation period, I would like to speculate that maybe Apple's announcement will be some sort of GarageBand for ebooks, and that if it is, maybe it will be something that can really bring photobooks to the iPad.

Right now, anyone can author an ebook, but not a photo ebook. There are just too many limitations on file sizes and formatting. If you want to do a photobook, you need to make it an app—and how many of us can author apps?

What if iBookstores could be filled with self-published photobooks that could be sold for $1.99 but reach a huge audience? I'm not talking about Steidl, but rather about all of those photographers who are lucky to be able to afford a "limited edition of 20" (unless you're also do a larger print run, "limited edition" is usually code for "that's all I could afford to publish.")

Considering how many photographers are running around showing portfolios on their iPads, it's a wonder Apple has come up with something that would allow them to create books they can sell. I would LOVE to have a library of photobooks on my iPad, especially ones I could buy from lesser known photographers for the price of apps. I would LOVE to author a few photobooks and sell them for $1 on an iBookstore.

Maybe the big announcement won't have anything to do with that. Maybe it will just be "ooh. look. textbooks by big publishing houses on your iPad." But until Thursday, I can imagine something better.

A thought from John Szarkowski's lecture on Atget

Atget, Avenue des Gobelins (via Wikipedia)

 Last week I watched the dvd "Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on Eugène Atget." The production values were complete crap so I was happy to have borrowed it from the library instead of paying the $45 it costs on Amazon. You'd never know that it was a product of the 21st century. The content, however, was first rate—not surprising considering we get to hear a legendary curator talk about a legendary photographer.

Szarkowski had strong opinions on what makes art meaningful. Of Atget, he says :

It is important to remember that we value Atget not because he loved French culture, but because he made original pictures out of that material. Thus, he enlarged our sense of what the world was made of and of what photography might be for.

Contrast that with his comments on Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz took a lot of photos of clouds that ostensibly represented his philosophy of life. Szarkowski was not a fan:

I’ve spent a good deal of time looking at these cloud pictures, and I think it is time for me to admit that I still don’t know what Stieglitz’s philosophy of life was. And I’m really not certain that I should care.

To be fair to Stieglitz, check out this youtube clip and see what you think:

 

I'm sure Szarkowski could have said something profound about the cloud photos, but he was trying to make a point about self-expression as an artistic goal. He goes on to say:

I might as well also confess that the goal of self-expression seems to me a deeply inadequate artistic goal. It’s not simply that it is too easy. It seems to me that it is virtually unavoidable. Think of your own friends. Which of them, on reflection, has managed to avoid self-expression? (even if sometimes you wish they had)

If self-expression is "deeply inadequate" as an artistic goal, what, then, would constitute a praiseworthy goal? I think Szarkowski's answer to that is at the very end of his lecture when he praises Atget's use of photography:

He [Atget] practiced photography not to express what he knew and felt, but to discover what he might know and feel.

This strikes me as an insightful distinction. If we only use photography to express what we already know and feel, we are greatly limiting what it can do. If, on the other hand, we use it to investigate the world, to examine possible points of view, or to see things we might not otherwise notice, then we move beyond narcissism and into a broader view of the world. This is not to say that we are not expressing ourselves—after all, it's unavoidable. But if we use photos to discover what we "might" know and feel then it might change who we are. My own example of how photography can change a point of view relates to my of moving between Utah and France. I poked fun of my tendency to want Utah to be France back in 2008 with my "Extreme Makeover" project:

 That was around the time I really started to shift my opinions about Utah. Once I had made fun of my own unrealistic expectations of wanting Utah to somehow offer me the same things as France, then I could start using photography to see other possibilities in Utah. Amazingly, by 2009, I was running around taking photos of Salt Lake City like mad just nights before leaving for Paris for a few months. That had never happened to me before.  This reminds me of what Szarkowski (I believe it was him, but I could be wrong) reportedly said to William Eggleston when encouraging him to take photos. Eggleston (as his wife tells it) said that there wasn't anything pretty to take photos where he lived, to which Szarkowski replied "Well, then take pictures of the ugly stuff." That's what I started to do in Utah—not because I was trying to say that Utah was ugly, but rather that I wanted to appreciate Utah on its own terms. And it worked because taking photos finally made me see things I had managed to ignore for years.
 
Hmm. Maybe this means that I like Paris more because I've taken more photos of Paris. rrright. Or maybe not. Let's not get carried away.

The Photo-Eye best of 2011 photobook list

Crime pays. At least as far as photobook topics go. The following all made their way into the best of 2011 lists at Photo-eye bookstore. Last year, there were a lot of cars--especially smashed ones. Is this the year of CI photobooks?

Under House Arrest.
SEBASTIEN GIRARD
you'd think plants were criminals by the way we use them in domestic situations :)

Redheaded Peckerwood.
CHRISTIAN PATTERSON 
 a book about a teenage crime spree. 2nd most cited on best-of lists. A week ago you could buy it for $65, but now it's going for $300 on Amazon. How's that for criminal?


Gomorrah Girl.
VALERIO SPADA
 about a girl accidentally killed by mob violence in Italy.


A Criminal Investigation.
WATABE YUKICHI 
 crime scene photography


Believing Is Seeing.  
ERROL MORRIS 
conspiracy theories and a lot of Abu Ghraib.

Tooth for an Eye.  
DEBORAH LUSTER 
 Homicide New Orleans style


People in Trouble Laughing Pushed to the Ground.  
BROOMBERG & OLIVER CHANARIN 
 protests, acts of terrorism in Belfast, etc.


Sicarios.  
JAVIER ARCENILLAS 
 Latin American assassins 


Interrogations.  
DONALD WEBER 
"the hidden meaning of the bloody 20th century"
 
Looters.  
TIANE DOAN NA CHAMPASSAK
 Looters in the London riots

Another big trend this year: other people's photos. Whether from Google, police archives, newspaper clippings, or family albums, it seems that everyone is using other people's photos in their books. Will the trend continue in 2012 or will it be that's so 2011?

For the crime-weary, however, you'll be glad to know that the most-cited best-of 2011 book was:
Illuminance.
RINKO KAWAUCHI
What is Kawauchi's photography about? Well, the publisher quotes the following: "there is always some glimmer of hope and humanity, some sense of wonder at work in the rendering of the intimate and fragile."
Hope? Humanity? A sense of wonder? 
How nice to know that in the year of CI photobooks, hope is still alive.

New Year 2012: time to (ugh!) assess last year's goals

highbrow/lowbrow Paris 2011 Marc Olivier

The big change last year was that I officially killed the monthly special. For the most part, I haven't regretted it, but there's a tiny chance that I might bring it back. If I look back at what I thought I was going to do during 2011, it was an abysmal failure in all but the overarching goal. First the failure.

• I planned on doing lots of interviews. I did none.
• I planned on doing more posts about photo books. I did a few.
• I planned on making real-life retouch a regular feature. I didn't.
• I planned on doing micro tutorials. I did a couple.
• I planned on doing more posts about actual prints and displaying them. I didn't--at least not so much on my blog. On Pinterest, however. I have a board of photo display ideas with 88 pins and 146 followers.

So what did I do? Well, I worked on my overarching goal—the "epic fail" project. I decided that I wanted to publish/display in art venues my photos. I documented my failures and the failures to fail. I started out the year with a feature story in jpg magazine. Then I tried a few contests. I got 3 photos accepted to f-stop magazine and another 3 accepted to a show at the Kiernan Gallery. I also submitted to 2 shows where I didn't get in.

What did I learn?

1. Submitting to shows is expensive and getting accepted (framing and shipping) is even more expensive. I don't think I can afford success in that area right now.
2. I questioned my motives for caring about a certain kind of recognition. As a result, I think I care more about doing what pleases me.
3. Seems contradictory, but I also care more about doing commercially viable work than I did last January. Given the fact that I have commercial representation, I kept wondering why I spent more time trying to get into galleries (and spending money) and less time sending out work that could end up in homes (and actually earning money). Not that I have to choose, but I was ignoring the latter for no good reason.

Last thing from last year: I started a movie blog with some friends but realized that I don't have time to commit to it. Maybe I'll do a few posts during the Sundance Film Festival, but I think I'd rather just do a short critique via Pinterest or something.

Which brings me to the current obsession: Pinterest. It's very addictive and has been a great source of inspiration. My blog + my pinterest boards are a lot better for me and anyone following me than just the blog. I pin about books, tutorials, products, interviews, etc. If you follow my blog and don't already follow me on Pinterest, you should really check it out.

What about 2012?
The long term survival of any non-commercial 1-person blog depends on how useful it is to the person writing, so it's all about adapting or dying. My plan is to keep it honest. In other words, to post about what I'm interested in and what I'm pursuing. Like my "about me" section says, I'm a "distractable dilettante"(i.e. I like to dabble and, unlike most, I see that as a positive thing). So this will likely mean:

• more posts about photo books I'm reading
• a variety of projects
• an occasional tutorial
• another attempt at making "real life retouch" happen

I'm teaching another photography class this semester, so I'll post about it and share links to some of my students' work.

Since my overarching goal last year was the one success out of all of my plans, I'm going to set a new goal for 2012: epic success. Why not? I'm going to experiment with the business side of things. Unabashed commerciality. Shameless optimism. Let's see how that goes.