Learning log assignment 3

Deciding on my focus:

As I am publishing a book and researching widely about publishing, for this assignment it made sense to write an analytical text around the publishing sector of the photographic industry. At the outset of my publishing journey I had no idea whether I would self-publish or be published-in fact frankly I had no understanding of the processes at all.

Things began to fall into place when I attended at photobook fair at Ffoto Gallery in Cardiff and spoke with  publishers, self-publishers, book sellers and photographers. I visited to gain more in-depth knowledge of a publishing and how the role fits into the broader economy and/or arts community. My focus was already on exploring the differences between self-publishing and publishing.

I was also looking for inspiration/angles for an essay on publishing. Are there any publishers working with students at an affordable level? What are the current developments in publishing?, and ideas on how to publish myself. See my visit notes: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/sustaining-your-practice/syp-research/ffoton-gallery-cardiff-book-art-fair-13-7-24/

I had particularly useful conversations with Brian Carroll, publisher or Offline Journal (documenting Welsh photography), David Mayne self-publisher and Walter Waygood, a prolific photobook self-publisher and photography lecturer, see my blog entries above.

This visit completed the gaps in terms of how I would publish my own project. It gave me some good ideas and leads for this assignment:

• Publishing in Wales, or Welsh based photographers? too niche
• Reasons why photographers chose to publish or self-publish
• Why photographers publish zines rather than books?
• Funding for photobook publishing? not an area that I need to explore myself
• Affordable publishing? hard if impossible to find anyone doing
• Sustainable publishing?  too niche
• How the future is looking for photobook publishing? too broad

My conversation with OCA postgraduate photographer Anna Sellen (17.6.24) also fed into these ideas: Where is publishing going? What new is happening? Doing it differently or sustainably? Why do we have to pay so much to get books published? Small publishing houses? Any publishers working more cheaply with students?

Making my dummy book for assignment 4 gave me more insight into publishing, especially self publishing, and helped me to frame my questions to put to those in the industry for my primary research.

I sent a survey out to 32 in the photobook publishing industry, see blog post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/sustaining-your-practice/assignments/assignment-3-syp/a3-syp-primary-research-survey-questions/

FAs a result of this I was invited to interview one photobook photographer who had been published, and had some useful responses to my questions, see blog post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/sustaining-your-practice/assignments/assignment-3-syp/a3-syp-interview-for-primary-research/

See pdf of Survey responses on my blog post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/sustaining-your-practice/assignments/assignment-3-syp/syp-primary-research-responses/

After this I began writing my essay for which I found I had plenty of primary research and could back this up with secondary sources.