I’m working on my 4th published book of photography titled: Manhattan – Black & White Narrative. For 12 years I’ve been shooting the streets of Manhattan with my old Nikon 2000 film camera from the 1980s with a 50mm 1.4 lens. I’ve tried to capture the city in all its elements (rain, snow, sun & fog); at all hours and during all seasons.
My photography is a combination of street, architectural and documentary photography in a narrative format. I’ll divide the book up by the neighborhoods the city is know for and also by winter snow and the rest of the year. The city has changed a lot since I started the book in 2006, after returning from grad school in photojournalism at the University of Montana. Place’s like “Florent”, Hogs & Heffers and the meatpacking warehouses themselves in the Meatpacking District. The closing of Times Square to traffic in 2009 gave way to a few months of garden chairs floating around Times Square. Elaine’s restaurant closing on the Upper East Side where I rented a couple different walk-up apartments. The tree-fort art installations in Madison Square Park. Rainy mornings in the East Village, Noho and Nolita. The construction of the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero. Snow storms in Gramercy Park, Soho and Tudor City as well as a winter blizzard (or bombogenesis) in Washington Heights, Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side. Christmas Day on an empty Park Ave and Central Park West the morning after a snow storm. Sunny summer days in Chelsea, Central Park and the Upper West Side. Store windows on 5th Ave and at Bloomingdale’s.
Manhattan is an amazing, diverse and beautiful place. I’ve tried to capture still vignettes of the city during another decade of change in the long visual legacy that is the center of New York City. Please see my Instagram page to see many of my photographs and a bit about my travels this last year. I am currently the Director of Chase Edwards Contemporary art gallery in Bridgehampton, NY.
I’ll be using the funds to publish a 320-350 page 11×12 inch, hardcover, duotone printed book. My three previous books have been sold in independent bookstores in Manhattan (Strand), Philadelphia (Joseph Fox & Brickbat) and the Hamptons (Book Hampton, Harbor Books, Southampton Books) as well as design and home stores (Home Nature, Marders, The Beach Home, etc). 800 copies of my Philadelphia Documentations (2015; 1000 copies) books have sold (480 copies of 500 of my Jersey Shore Summer (2015) book sold and 300 of 500 copies of my Hamptons photography book: Water, Wood, Sand & Stones (2016) have sold. The books range in price from $65-$100 each. This book is printed overseas and is bookstore quality with duotone printing. It can cost $10-$25 per book to print depending on how many are printed. My hope is to raise enough money for Manhattan: Black & White Narrative to print a First Edition of 1,000 books. I will need to raise at least $15,000 to print 1,000 copies. I can cover some of the cost of printing, delivery and shipping which could run close to $25,000 for 1,000 copies. Once I raise $10,000, I will begin the printing process for 500 books. The cost of shipping and delivery is included in the price of this book but only for the Continental United States as shipping rates to foreign countries is prohibitive.
Thank You Levels:
For a $10 donation you will get one (1) name of your choice on the “Thank You” pages in the front of the book. For a $20 donation you will get two (2) names of your choice on the “Thank You” pages.
For a $50 donation, you will receive a book (delivered or shipped) and get one (1) name of your choice on the Thank You pages. For $100 you will get two (2) books and two (2) names on the Thank You pages; For each $50 increment, you will receive an additional book and name on the Thank You pages up to $450 ($450 = 9 books and 9 names on the Thank You pages).
Imagine Circle Level:
(your name will be printed in the front of the book with an image of John Lennon’s Imagine Circle in Central Park)
For $500 you will get 10 books and a signed & numbered 11×14 inch archival digital print (value $200) of any of my photographs with your books and 10 names on the “Imagine Circle” pages at the front of the book.
For every $1,000 increment donation you will get 20 books and a signed & numbered “medium” sized print (approximately 20 x 30 inches; value $600) archival digital print (each print is unique and different in size so the print sizes will vary) as well as 20 names on the “Imagine Circle” pages.
The books will be finished and delivered by the end of November 2018. I hope you see the artistic value in this project and I thank you for your support. I’m sure you will love the book!
John