Glasgow’s Winter - Photo Book Kickstarter
I’ve made a new book!!
Well, I’ve started making a new book, and with Kickstarter’s help I should have it finished by the end of July. It’s a portrait of the city, and that hellish Winter we just survived, in all it’s brutal, beautiful glory. To find out more, and to see what rewards are on offer, check out the Kickstarter page. For the story of how it came to be, read on below…
A Year in Glasgow
During lockdown last year, without the freedom to photograph events and families, I dug out my film photography equipment and started shooting on the streets of Glasgow. People, places, precipitation - wherever I saw something beautiful or interesting, I put it onto film, and I started building up a wee library of Glasgow magic. Playing with the kit was fun, but once I had the photos developed…. what was I gonna do with them?
I’m used to finishing a project and sending the files or prints off to the client, so all these photos sitting in a folder on my hard drive just didn’t feel right. I realised that if I shot another roll of film, I’d be able to capture the feeling of the season changing, from Summer to Autumn. That’s where Glasgow’s Autumn was born, a short 16 page Zine that I got a few test prints of, and intended to just show to friends.
At this point I was already looking into Kickstarter and how it worked, so as an experiment, I popped Glasgow’s Autumn up on the crowdsourcing platform to see what would happen. Wow! I had set a pretty small goal, about £150, as I only expected to sell a few copies to friends, but within 24 hours not only had it reached that goal, it had tripled it! The support from friends and the kind words from strangers was a bit overwhelming!
Thanks to my amazing Kickstarter backers the goal was totally smashed, and I’d set out a number of stretch goals - better printing materials, and more pages. What I ended up creating was a rather lovely 52 page photo book, capturing the beauty found in imperfection and impermanence, and it was entirely down to the Kickstarter backers and their faith in the project. You can check out the finished book here.
Once I held the book in my hands, I knew I had to continue this project, so decided to expand it into a year-long series. Meaning I had to get to work on Winter!
Since then, I haven’t left the house without the tiny Olympus Pen EE camera pictured above. It’s a half-frame camera, meaning it captures two portrait images side by side on the film; they’re a bit grainy, a little hazy, but full of character and energy. This definitely isn’t a project that calls for crisp, sharp, perfect images. It’s the imperfection that makes a city like Glasgow so wonderful, and my hope is that it’s the imperfection in a wee camera like this that gives these books a special, nostalgic, magical quality.
Using it has been a fantastic exercise for my photography-mind, as I don’t have any control over zoom or focus, and limited exposure control - leaving me to concentrate on composition and stories; trying to find scenes that fit well together side by side, and the best place to shoot them from.
Putting on my walking boots, and heading out into the city with this little photo machine in my hand has been such a great motivator to continue training my eye and keep creating. After this bizarre 18 months, creating and connecting with others have become my two priorities in life, and making these books has been a big part of that realisation.
Glasgow’s Winter
This Winter seemed to last forever - I reckon it was nearly 5 months before we felt anything like Spring. So in that time, I covered a lot of ground! I photographed places from Paisley to Bridgeton, Ruchill to Newton Mearns. The hardest part therefore has been deciding which photos will go into the book. Autumn and its 50 pages gave me a target to aim for, and at the moment it looks like I’ll be settling somewhere around 70.
As Spring brought the easing of restrictions, that meant I was a bit busier with photoshoots, so the second installment is launching a little later than planned, but I think that’s a good thing; being able to see these images with fresh eyes. It’s also allowed me to plan ahead, and prepare for the Spring and Summer editions; connecting each book with thematic and visual easter-eggs. You can probably tell I’m excited about it!
So that’s where the project currently stands. Head on over to the Kickstarter to read/watch more about what to expect in the books, and check out the different rewards and add-ons you can claim as a backer. Every single pledge means the world to me, so thank you or taking the time to check it out!
Here is the link - please feel free to share it with anyone who loves Glasgow, Winter, or Photography!