Building SEVEN: The Mock-Up

On Friday I got my hands on the mock-up of the physical book that will this spring become SEVEN, my 160-page fine-art book. If you know me at all you know I’m not given to hiding my enthusiasm and I’m pretty sure I’ve been grinning about this all weekend. The cover is embossed, and a little understated, in a warm gray Italian linen. The paper stock feels amazing in the hand. And, measuring 12 inches by 12 inches, it looks fantastic on a coffee table! The printer does this so you can live with it in your hands a while, and get a sense of the weight and feel of the book before you commit it to print. It’s done that for me. It’s also made me really impatient to get it done, though that won’t happen any sooner than planned.

Now I’ve got to finish the interior. I’ve got much of the book laid out now, thought it still awaits my final images from Antarctica, Kenya, and Hokkaido as I try to get as much new and until now unseen work into this book. What I have got laid out looks great, and has helped me re-imagine some of my own work and see new themes and ideas. Some of the work is being re-presented for the first time in black & white (though in this book it’ll be duo-tones), and a good chunk of it will be work I’ve held back and not shown until now.

We also set an all-in date for me. On March 11 I will be submitting all the layout and image files and the pre-press work, like converting my monochromes to duo-tones, will begin. Then it’s on to print, for which I’ll be present, and after that to binding, and I hope to be there for that as well.

For those that have asked, pre-orders are still a while away and at this point I’m guessing it’ll be April when we make the formal announcements about pricing, special editions, and how to get your hands on one of the 1,000 copies.