Torn posters on kiosk, University of Minnesota (Click to enlarge)
Painted wall, Reykjavik, Iceland (Click to enlarge)
Some of my photography is heavily influenced by modern painting, particularly the colorful post-impressionist and abstract art of the past century. Aaron Siskind photographed torn posters and painted walls in black and white; I do so in color. Cities around the world are bounteous sources of fragmentary, more-or-less-random, colorful "wall art". On the University of Minnesota campus, the kiosks on which posters are stapled and then torn down become rich lodes of abstract color and texture.
Those of us who take a lot of photos are always wondering what to do with them. The recent development of "print on demand" books has provided what I think is a great solution: choose the best photos from a trip or project and make them into a book. For a modest cost one can have a professional-seeming book that is easy to hold, browse, and store, will amaze your friends, and will give lasting pleasure. I've made such books of photos from our trips from the past few years, and am gradually working backward.
Up to now I've done 17 books. In no particular order, they''re
Albuquerque Urban Colors, Iceland, Puerto Rico 2007, North India, South India, Antarctica, Chile and Argentina, Greece 2007, Las Vegas, Australia, Montreal, New Zealand, Hawaii, Vancouver, Normandy, Glacier National Park, and Rome and Campania.
The books are made by Blurb and are available for inspection (click on a cover thumbnail to see a preview of the first 15 pages) on their web site at
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=victorb&commit=Search
or go to http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/ and search for victorb.
