Making photo books was a big thing at university. Tutors were pushing all the time for books to be made and several were. I ventured into the realms of a handmade, albeit bound by a proper book binder, book at considerable cost but with individually hinged pages, pages that  I had printed myself. I also used on-line publishing services and even made small artists sketchpad books within which I pasted contact prints from my medium format images. The latter proved very popular and sold at auction. There is something about hand crafted artefacts that other humans like.

I produced booklets of my Edgelands series for the Ipswich and London shows this year but designed a new book for the RPS competition. I had no end of trouble with the on-line firm but at least one of the two originals was correctly colour produced so I sent it in. I was amazed that this being the first RPS event where I have submitted hardcopy, that I got on the shortlist.

The on-line catlogue can be seen here http://tinyurl.com/kmkmroj#sthash.Sb6JDJIH.dpuf

Gerry Badger of ‘The Genius of Photography’ fame was the final judge and he rightly crticises the typographical aspects of self-published books. I find that aspect, the what to leave out aspect coupled with placement on the page the most difficult.  That said, owing to the production issues I had with the original company, I may well re-design a version of the book with a different publisher. Every time I design and print a book, even with the same images, I am amazed at how different I can make them look and feel.

All the images in this book were made using Kodak Porta 400.

I clearly have a lot to learn.