Touch me, feel me

I wanted to start this blog straight after the Image Nation conference in Auckland but I was so swamped with calls from photographers wanting help with their folios that it’s taken until now to get my act together. And even this is only due to the recent publication of Capture Magazine which has an article on putting together folios, in which I am interviewed and this blog is tagged onto my name. Eeek!

So on the theme of folios I wanted to comment on the amount of amazing photography I’ve seen over the last few months in New Zealand alone, let alone further afield from Australia and LA. Many of these photographers are doing amazing work in the fashion arena, or have been quietly shooting beautiful personal series and getting books and exhibitions underway, but want to break into the advertising and design markets.

And many of them have no folio, or a half assed job of a book full of type-laden (bad) ads or tear sheets stuck onto the black background paper of a sleeved folio. The ones which are nicely presented do jump out, although the content is often confused and incoherent.

I have a very firm theory on printed folios. In this day of i pads and laptops and i phones (whilst they absolutely have their place), many creatives still want to hold a beautiful book and turn the pages. Magazines are not backlit and this is where so many ads appear. And if you’re going to take the time to go and see an art director or designer, why not take something that is visual and tactile. A threefold experience if you will.

Together with my photographers I am making some beautiful folios right now. Watch out world, and watch this space.