“There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.” - Emile Zola
As I have become more confident in my skills as a photo-documentarian and artist, the need to better curate my work has increased dramatically. In my view, the value of photography as an art form lives in how we present photographs. This presentation speaks to how we honor our stories and embody them for future generations. Recently, our studio began working with Queensberry to produce our custom and hand-crafted albums.
Founded in 1969 by Heather Baugh, this New Zealand based and family owned business delivers the finest wedding albums I have experienced to date. Additionally, Queensberry offers unparalleled customer service and their presentation materials are a pleasure to showcase during our studio consultations. A few weeks back, I shared the New York Engagement Story of Janet & Chip. After seeing their proofs, the couple decided to commission two 9×9 matted albums to present as wedding gifts for their parents. With the support of Queensberry, we were able to custom design and receive these exquisite parent albums in record time…
Each Queensberry album is individually shipped in a gift box. A vellum leaflet is enclosed detailing best practices for the care and maintenance of your album. Online proofing serves my clients and their wedding guests remarkably well, however, this technology is a basic standard offered by most studios. For the digital age, Queensberry albums are a clear and present reminder that print is NOT dead and craftsmanship is NOT digital. There is truly no digital or mass produced alternative to a classic hand-crafted album.
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Letterpress branding, coarse archival papers and other under-stated details further accentuate the craftsmanship of every album.
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Album cover materials include: silk, leather, suede, micro-leather and buckram. For their albums, Janet and Chip commissioned the “Raspberry” silk cover with gold motif backing around the central cover image. Each pagemount is fitted with metal edges to better preserve and protect the pages.
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With pagemount album design, each photograph is individually matted with a custom-sized overlay. Janet and Chip selected the “Ivory” matte color with a “Mist” overlay for their design. For your consideration, all photographs are finished with a thin protective coating that offers increased durability to the images.
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My photographic style is understated. Working with album craftspeople who incorporate this value into their presentation and is very important to me.
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This is one of my favorite page layouts in the entire album. I appreciate the subtle hints of gold in the photographs and the presentation on the page.
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This past week, I had the pleasure of meeting with Magnum Photographer Constantine “Costa” Manos. As Costa explained, mediocrity is in great supply across many creative industries not excluding photography and book design/craftsmanship. As we spoke, Costa was himself was refitting a better quality and newly designed jacket onto American Color 2; his latest book set for release July 15th, 2010.
As one the few living photographers to have served under Henri Carier Bresson, Costa began his career at Magnum Photos in 1963. In his words, “A successful photo is something you have never seen before and will never see again”. Right now, we are living at a time where millions of images are uploaded to the internet daily. Considering the ubiquity of photography, it is important that we all continue to honor the legacy and craft of this work in its professional form.
For this reason, I am overjoyed by my studios collaboration with the artists and craftspeople at Queensberry. Together our work provides a greater added value for my discerning family of clients like Janet & Chip. Although photography and albums will never replace the real life experience of your celebration, both elements serve to highlight and document these fleeting “magic moments” of your story.
UPDATE: Explore Janet & Chip’s finished album design exclusively at The Queenberry Blog. A special thank you to Nigel Hicks at Queensberry for featuring this story.
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