Above is the cover for Critics at Work: Interviews 1993-2003, edited by Jeffrey J. Williams and published last month by NYU Press. I haven’t read it and as such can’t really recommend it, though it’s surely interesting. I present it here as it represents the first time my photography has been published and I actually got paid for it. Yup, that’s my photograph on the cover.
Chalk yet another one up to the power of the Internet, or at least to the power of Google, that a photo taken in another lifetime (well, okay, only 4 years ago!) and left for dead in the back alleys of this here web domain can be resuscitated thusly, and actually produce dividends. Not a huge windfall mind you, after all the publication run for this bound-to-be-bestseller is only around 5,000 I believe, but nothing to sneeze at either.
Here’s the original photo, taken on Velvia slide film with my Canon EOS. You’ll see that the designer flipped the image for the cover. Although I don’t know how the finished product looks, judging from the proofs the designer sent me last Fall, my photo actually wraps around to cover the spine and back cover of the book as well.
Savvy Hmmn readers will recognize that this isn’t the first time my Salton Sea photos have attracted publication attention. There certainly is something about the place that attracts art designers and the like (as these examples show), not to mention photographers of course. At any rate, whether Salton Sea photos or perhaps something a bit more interesting to me these days, let’s hope for a few more of these things. At the very least they help to raise Naoko’s tolerance level for all the cameras and film and negs and scanners, to say nothing of the time involved.
Congratulations, it’s truly a lovely picture. Is there any chance of your getting hold of a copy? I’d love to see how the wrap around cover design works.
Congratulations indeed and well deserved!
It’s encouraging to see your talent and effort being rewarded. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this were just the beginning of a new and rather large source of income…
We’re lucky we can enjoy the fruits of your labor for free on this site.
Wow, great job! And wonderful pic.
Coincidentally, I just finished watching Val Kilmer’s “The Salton Sea” on HBO.
Nice one, congrats. Makes a great book cover!
Let me also chime in with my congratulations, Kurt…even more so because I just saw the book for myself on the ‘New Releases’ shelves of a popular literary and arts bookstore (St Mark’s Books, near Cooper Union) here in New York City. It really stood out from the others around it! I’m glad to see that the publisher used such good quality stock for the cover – it has such a lovely smooth but still slightly textured feel. Again, well done!
big congrats kurt !!
Kurt, a belated Congratulations on getting your photograph published! But anyone familiar with you work will know this won’t be the last time.
Happy Halloween – love Trev.