Pinhole New York
I’ve been taking pinhole photographs of the New York City area since I moved here in 1991. More recently I’ve also been taking portraits of friends, neighbors, artists, and children wearing masks.
Blurb Print-on-demand Books
I’ve produced close to ten Blurb books of my photos. For the most part the books serve simply to document the various projects I’ve worked onwhile others are prototypes for books I hope to get published. The books are produced using Blurb’s excellent print-on-demand technology — I design the books using InDesign, print them to PDF, and upload the PDFs to Blurb. They then manufacture the finished product in one of their plants and send me the finished, bound book.
Blurb offers a limited selection of paper and binding choices. I don’t love them all, and keep hoping they’ll introduce a square size between the 7×7 and 12×12 options they currently offer. But through trial and error I’ve settled on their uncoated paper stock and case binding with a matte finish that I’m happy with . I think they give the finished books the feel of a real book.
I’ve not always been completely satisfied with Blurb. My black and white images tend to print dark, and I’ve run into problems with their ability to center text on the case covers. But they’ve gone out of their way to address my concerns and so for today I continue to use their services. Of the various POD services available for books like these they appear to be committed to the art book niche they’ve carved out for themselves.
Their printing prices feel entirely reasonable to me for my own purchase, but the price points — around $50 for a 100 page 7×7 book — doesn’t strike me as affordable for your general consumer.
Publications
Six of my photographs are included in the book Out of Focus: Pinhole Cameras and Pinhole Photographs by Peter Olpe. The 432 page heavily illustrated book, published by the Swiss art publisher Niggli Verlag, and in 2012 won a Silver prize at the esteemed German Photo Book Awards. In 2009 I was commissioned by United Airlines to photograph a story for their in-flight magazine United Hemispheres about a search for sunken Guggenheim treasure in the New York Harbor.
In the Movies
I license my photos for use on TV and movie sets. They’ve been used on the series “Girls”, “The Following”, “American Odyssey”, “Power”, or “Royal Pains”, “Creed”, and “Billions”, as well as in the movie “Ted2”.
Portrait Sessions
I’ve been hired on a number of occasions for commercial portrait sessions, including by singers Carol Lipnik, Julia Haltigan, and Andy Marino for CD covers. See the results of these sessions in my portfolio. In 2015 I was invited by the design firm Ideo to present my work at one of their Teatime sessions and took a series of portraits of the staff.
Exhibition and Media
My photographs have been exhibited at the Alan Klotz Gallery in New York and in shows juried by gallery owners Larry Gagosian and Molly Barnes, and are in private collections throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. My work has been included on such online design, culture, and art sites as DossierJournal.com, GetAddictedTo.com, Lomography.com, Subtraction.com, and DontTakePictures.com.
Sales
I sell archival and editioned silver and digital lightjet prints of my photos. Photographs are also available for editorial or commercial use. Please contact me for prices and licensing requests.
