Crime bosses, politicians, movie stars, artists. JFK, Marilyn, Elvis, Andy Warhol, Vince Lombardi — LIFE, in fact, for the last fifty years … as represented by LIFE magazine photographer Bill Ray.
This astonishing work of photojournalism is a literal jaw-dropper … I’ve been drooling on my desk all day. The photographs, naturally, are amazing, but Bill’s terse, ironic captions and extremely well-crafted accompanying narrative humanize this amazing documentary of international all-stars.
Bill writes, “I’ve often joked that only twice have I been in the presence of a living God, once with Frank Lloyd Wright, and the other time with General Douglas MacArthur.”
The man takes great photographs, writes phenomenal text, and communes with Gods … what more could we ask for?
If there were a Recommended Daily Allowance on cuteness, the penguins in this Chicago Tribune feature just might exceed it. For considerably snarkier comments, see Digg.
Less snark, more ‘zine? Well, can’t make too many promises, but take a look at Wired for a retrospective on San Francisco’s annual Zine Festival.
All sorts of crazy things are going on with print — check out this New York Times online article about Esquire’s forthcoming digital cover. Or, for another take on using technology to promote print, try Media Bistro’s article on authors using Twitter to promote books.
Innovation everywhere … and much of it the direct result of a paradigmatic shift towards People Powered Products, a concept that Blurberati all-star and all-around-great-guy Chad Jennings discusses in this Iconoclast interview.
Using pictures to tell a story is hardly a new idea — witness the cave paintings at Lascaux, or Egyptian pictographs, or even GoFugYourself.
Telling complicated stories with pictures has grown easier and easier as technology advances, and with this handy article you can practically turn your digital photographs into a full-length novel.
But if you want to use words to complement your photographs, BookSmart’s got you covered. You can import even large amounts of your text by clicking on any text box, and just copy-pasting your text from Word (the pasted text will “flow” through adjacent text containers until all text has been automatically flowed into your book).
Need some inspiration on writing great captions or content?
Start with this article on photojournalism, then take a look over here. Or, practice by submitting your captions to captioning contests like this one. At a loss for words? Challenge yourself to come up with one hundred new caption ideas in one minute, because the more ideas you have, the more ideas you’ll have to choose from.
We’re very serious people here at Blurb, and we disapprove on principle of anything that smacks or irony, satire, or parody. So it was a real blow to all of us when Real Dan Lyons used Blurb to make his best-of Fake Steve Jobs blog book. And then to go and make another book of the whole entire blog! — we were devastated.
So devastated, in fact, that we had to harass Dan about it in person — here’s what he had to say for himself:
BB: Who is Dan Lyons when he’s not FSJ? Do you have kids? Favorite reading material? Embarrassing habits?
RDL: I’m the proud (but usually exhausted) parent of 3-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. I spend as much time with them as possible. I read a few blogs pretty regularly. I’ve been a big Andrew Sullivan fan right from the beginning. In the tech space I read Alley Insider, Valleywag and AllThingsD pretty much every day. With music I tend to go on binges where I buy a bunch of stuff by one artist and go crazy on them until I’m sick of it and then I move on. Right now I’m having a Ramones phase.
BB: Ramones, eh? Hmmm … how did a Ramones addict get the idea to create Fake Steve Jobs?
RDL: There were some CEOs who had started blogs, and I thought it would be funny if a CEO did a blog that wasn’t full of PR spin — if a CEO turned out to be this obnoxious, abrasive blogger. It seemed to me that the parody would work on two levels. On one level it would be a parody of whichever CEO I chose. But on another level it would be a parody of bloggers in general. So it would be a blog that made fun of blogging. I chose Steve Jobs in part because I’m a big Apple fan but also because I thought he was ripe for parody.
BB: Why do you think the Fake Steve blog took off the way it did?
RDL: I think it took off at first because there are so many Apple fanboys and they spread word of the blog. And the release of the iPhone and all the Apple hype and mania helped too. Originally, I just made up random jokes about what I imagined life inside Apple was like — but then I started following the news and using Fake Steve as a vehicle for covering news. That’s when the blog really started taking off, but also I think people enjoyed being able to participate in a comedy blog, send in ideas, make up funny captions or funny photos, and see them published. I really think the audience was the biggest reason for the blog’s success. There are a lot of funny, clever people out there.
BB: We’re flattered!
RDL: (Grumble.)
BB: Have you sent an autographed copy of your book to the real Steve Jobs?
RDL: No, because I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate it. I’m pretty sure he’s got a restraining order that prevents me from contacting him in any way.
It’s not you, it’s us.
The Blurb website will be down for maintenance this Friday (July 18th) from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. PDT (that’s 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday, July 19th, GMT). We’ll be down again on Sunday (July 20th) from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. PDT (or 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. GMT). The site will be inaccessible during these times, and you won’t be able to upload books.
In addition, both the Book Preview feature as well as our GroupBook Facebook app will be unavailable from Friday at 11 p.m. through Sunday at 2 p.m. PDT. During this time, anyone that tries to view your book’s preview will see a message explaining our downtime.
We know, this isn’t great news for some of you, but a little maintenance goes a long way around here. Thanks for your patience.
CMYK is a design magazine that highlights emerging artists and aspiring creatives. Their newsletter caught my eye today with the headline –
“Have you self-published your own book? CMYK Magazine would like to hear your story for possible inclusion in a future issue.”
Well, what do you know? We have a whole community of visual communicators (that’s you) out there creating amazing books every day. Entry is as easy as sending an email. Here’s the skinny:
CMYK Magazine is looking for a student, recent graduate or professional in any area of visual communication who has self-published his/her own book (or has had worked with a publishing company). We will discuss the process and how the Web has made self-publishing more accessible to designers, illustrators, photographers, etc.
Email your story to CMYK Magazine (remember to include a link to your Blurb book) directly at yourstory@cmykmag.com. Just a paragraph is fine. Please respond by Thursday, July 31, 2008.
Best of luck — and don’t forget to let us know if your story is selected.
We’re big eaters here at Blurb. Today’s pasta? Gone in the blink of an eye. (Along with yesterday’s cookies, and last week’s leftover refried beans. Mmmm.)
Maybe we were all so hungry ’cause we were looking at photographer Laura Berman’s From Farm Field to Kitchen Table. This deliciously photographed book is also Laura’s portfolio, and it beautifully showcases a whole range of food … while underscoring the visceral relationship between the eaters and the eaten.
Before becoming a photographer, Laura worked for the Canadian nonprofit FoodShare, and the FoodShare ethos of “transforming our relationship with food” is evident in her work.
Laura does a great job of representing the inherent beauty found in fruits and vegetables, but the quality of this book goes beyond aesthetic appeal — she really tells a story with each and every photograph.
Hungry yet?
