Photobooks & Zines
A community for photographers drawn to the photobook, whether you are starting your first or already have a shelf of your own. Some members arrive with a folder of pictures and no idea how they become a book. Some have made a dozen and want to make a better one. Some come to help others, or to put finished work in front of people who will look at it properly. All of them belong here.
An online home for photobook making
Built around the things bookmakers actually need.
Design and production, editing and sequencing, printing, binding, publishing and distribution: the craft, set out clearly and added to as we go.
- Narrative and story
- Editing and sequencing
- The book as form
- Publishing and distribution
- Printing and production
- Zines
A crit room where work in progress gets read carefully by people who understand what you are attempting.
- Crit room
A shelf of members’ books: finished work, shown properly, with the thinking behind it.
- Members gallery
A reading room of recommended books, essays and references, gathered by the community rather than scraped from a list.
- Reading room
- The Index
Smaller spaces for swaps, meets, studio days and general chatter. This is the informal side, where most of the useful things get said.
- Studio day
- Swaps and meets
- Projects in progress
- Chatter
The home of the group: news, discussion and the wider field. Start here if you are new.
- Welcome
- Noticeboard
- General discussion
The heart of it
The studio is where books get made.
Work independently, at your own pace, on the project already in your hands. Or take part in a group activity: a project brief with a start and a finish, or a guided path that takes you step by step through a format.
Briefs give the year a shape. Something to make, a cohort making it alongside you, and a review at the end. Guided paths are there when you would rather be led. Either way you are never working in isolation. The wider community is always in the room.
Live sessions, courses and conversation
Structured learning, and the people who do this for a living.
Structured learning you can work through at your own pace.
- Photo-Book Making
- Photo-zine Basics
- Bookbinding Fundamentals
- Advanced Layout & Design
Makers, printers, designers and publishers, including visits streamed from the places books are actually produced, so members anywhere in the country can put their questions directly to the people doing the work.
- Live sessions
The seasonal briefs and the cohorts working through them together.
- Brief 1
- Cohort chat
Books are objects. Sometimes you have to hold one.
Advisory days, workshops, showcases and other events run through the year, giving members the chance to bring work for discussion, handle other people’s books, and meet the makers behind them.