On May 18-19, Patterson will share his bookmaking expertise in a workshop at Red Hook Labs in Brooklyn, NY. In anticipation of the workshop, PDN asked Patterson via email to share a few insights about creative photography bookmaking, building a photographic narrative, and about the differences between an artist book and a trade book.
Conceptually, an evolving book is interesting for a variety of reasons, and it is equally problematic I think. If I compare my first and third edition, what does the presence of new images tell me as far as the “story” is concerned? The addition of new images does change the story, and even if it is ever so slightly.
In 1958, Charlie Starkweather and his fourteen-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate murdered Caril’s family and hit the road on a two-month killing spree. This month, Christian Patterson releases the third pressing of his acclaimed photography book…
It was via Badlands that photographer Christian Patterson discovered the case. Struck by the story, Christian subsequently made a photo series, entitled Redheaded Peckerwood, which was hailed by many as a shining example of the potential that photography books held. The series and the book are conceptual, highly ambitious, visually striking, and thematically absorbing
Christian Patterson’s Redheaded Peckerwood (also see the publisher’s website and my review) made it onto so many “best of 2011” lists that it was by far the most popular book last year. A body of amazing depth and sophistication, it is a shining example of what the contemporary photobook can do. There now is a second edition, and I used the occasion to talk with Christian about the book
By now, you have probably seen Redheaded Peckerwood being picked the most by the various people (me included) who compiled a “best of 2011” list. As subjective as such lists are, I’d like to point at one very simple fact: In Marc Feustel’s tallying of these lists, the book was picked by 19 out of the 50+ lists, far ahead of all the other books
