Shawn Records on the road to publishing pt. 2

In the week’s interview feature, photographer Shawn Records takes the opportunity to dig into what led three photographers who he has admired for years- Jason Fulford, Alec Soth, and Richard Renaldi- to become publishers. We also find out what each of them has learned along the way.

This is a two part series; Shawn talked with Jason about his publishing company, J+L Books, and Alec of Little Brown Mushroom, last week.

This week, Shawn interviews Richard Renaldi, of Charles Lane Press.

Again, I’d like to extend a hearty thank-you to Shawn for taking the initiative and time to assemble these discussions, and Jason, Alec, and Richard for participating, it is much appreciated.

Shawn Records: Why become a publisher? Was it for control? Pleasure? Desperation? Fear (of someone else messing your work up)?

Richard Renaldi: One reason I decided to become a publisher is because I love (and have for a very long time) photography books. After my very positive experience working with Aperture on Figure and Ground I had gained first hand knowledge of what goes into making a photography book and that knowledge enabled me to put the pieces together to start a company of my own * (with my partner Seth Boyd).

I also knew that there were limited opportunities for publishing my next project Fall River Boys and knew that most publishers would not see a depressed former mill town in New England as a sellable project.  Thus Charles Lane Press was born in the hopes of publishing 1 or 2 photography books a year. Another factor that you mentioned - control - is certainly a benefit of taking charge of the means of production of your work.

SR: When you did make this decision?

RR: After finishing a 4 month photo shoot for Microsoft ending in Taiwan in March of 2008,  my partner Seth & I took some time off to travel in Southeast Asia. We made the decision on the beach in Thailand. A relaxing place to make  a decision that would eventually result in much more stress in my life than I felt on that day.

SR: You’d put out a great book with Aperture, one of the legendary publishers of photo books… did that whet your appetite?

RR: Short answer is yes, that it did whet my appetite. The longer answer is that originally, I brought Fall River Boys to Aperture. This was the project that I had been aspiring to get published. When the conversation with Aperture began, my editor, Lesley Martin, felt that my color work was strongly worth considering and that I had such a large and comprehensive body of it that introducing my color work first would be wise.

Having a printed book of any of my photographs was something I had always aspired to. That it actually happened for me was a very joyful event in my life and I think I felt at the time that I would be happy if my experience with publishing had stopped there. That it didn’t stop there is probably not too surprising.

Layouts from ‘Fall River Boys‘

SR: Was the experience of publishing Fall River Boys what you’d imagined or did you learn about self-publishing the hard way?

RR: Some things went exactly according to plan and of course there were surprises and disappointments along the way. I was certainly more naive than then I am now about how much is involved in the sale and marketing of a photography book.  Also, I was not anticipating the economy going through all this trauma when I decided to start a publishing business in March of 2008.

SR: What’s the biggest thing you’ve screwed up in all of it?

RR: We underestimated the interest there would be in the European market and didn’t make the plans we should have prior to the books release. We have since been making those connections.

Now we need to figure out a way into the Japanese Book market. Any help? There were some other “screw ups” but I’d rather forget them!

SR: What’s going to be different with the next book you make?

RR: It’s completely different that our first title. The work is more conceptual, color, and it is a large horizontal format. The work pushes the boundaries of landscape photography. It will also have some very exciting and interesting elements to its design. Our designer created a unique type face for  text - just this book.  It’s called Outerland and it is very very cool.

SR: What is the next book you’re making?

RR: I am personally not working on a book of my own work, but I do have a few other projects that I hope to publish down the road.

SR: The Allison Davies book looks beautiful. Do you have something underway after that?

RR: Yes, Shen Wei’s Chinese Sentiment. It will be out in the spring of 2011.

SR: What about the necessity of a press-check?

RR: I think it is important to be there.  Possibly not essential if you have worked everything out solidly with proofing before hand and feel that the production person is trustworthy and invested in the project.

Images from Alison Davies ‘Outerland‘

SR: How did you choose your printer?

RR: Through  a contact we made at Aperture who went on to work as a representative for a printing company in Germany. However we got bids from several other printers for both Fall River Boys and Outerland.

SR: were you on-press for both books (the aperture one and Fall River?).

RR: Yes. It was exciting, nerve wracking, and boring (there is a lot of down time waiting between press checks).

SR: How did your experience with that shape the way you deal with the books you put out?

RR: I think we have strived to provide a printed product that is produced with the highest levels of quality and attention to detail.

SR: What about distribution? How difficult has that process been?

RR: When we were working on Fall River Boys - we met with a distributor that was interested in the project but  we were disappointed to learn that we would only receive 25% of  the retail price for our book. That 25% would not have nearly covered our per book cost so that means of distribution was impossible for us. We decided to develop our own web store and to also develop and foster relationships with the small independent photography and art book stores.

SR: What about the format of the books themselves?

RR: There is no set format - the one constant is that we hope to include our kickass logo on the spine of all our books. Outerland is a bit larger trim size than Fall River Boys because the work benefited from being so.

SR: are we to expect that anything with the Charles Lane imprint is going to be as elegant and well-printed as Fall River Boys or will that change?

RR: We always want our books to be well-printed. We feel it is so important to give the work the respect that it deserve. That said. If we come across a body of work that it is appropriate and suiting to the work to reproduce it lo-fi, then we would be behind that 100%. There are a lot of small publishers of art books and zines that are doing really exciting and cool stuff and my hope is that all these  types of printed matter flourish.

SR: No plans to put out a $15 zine in the near future?

RR: Not at the moment but smaller sized books  (which in turn would be less expensive) I can see on the horizon.