Re: Diminishing Market

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

J. Redfern wrote:
> 
> >She said that the market has changed so quickly since 1989-90 when he
> >shot the book, that she didn't think he would be able to do such a
> >project today.  And the book itself was not a serious source of income
> >for him.
> 
> In what way would the book market be changing? I seem to recall reading
> somewhere that the last few years have been bumper years for the photo book
> industry with numbers of books published being high. (Certainly the numbers
> on the shelves of the stores would seem to bear this out)
>         I also would have thought that Lantig's sort of stuff would be in
> VERY high demand as the average book store shelf is drowning in animal/eco
> coffee table volumes.
> "J"

I'm sorry.  That wasn't very clear.  The point was that to do a book 
like Okavango requires an enormous amount of money--and that kind of 
money seems to be drying up.  Without the NGS funding the trip and the 
book being comprised of essentially free pictures, it would not have 
been a viable venture.

A few months ago I saw a book called Eternal Mexico shot by Robert 
Frerck (sp?).  A simply beautiful book that followed his equally nice 
Eternal Spain.  I looked him up in ASMP directory and called him to 
complement him on the book.  We ended up talking for about 45 minutes.  
His travel and photo production expenses for the book (excluding both 
his time and printing) was $45,000.  He managed to sign on a number of 
sponsors who received copies of the book for public relations use, and 
that covered the expenses.  He didn't expect the book to make him any 
real money, but figured the stock sales of the images and the marketing 
value of the book would lead to more assignments.

I recommend the book.  Shot with new model Fuji 617 mostly, and a few 
Canon 35mm.  Superb reproduction.  A heartfelt book of landscapes and 
ancient ruins.

BTW, I understand that Joel Maeyerwitz book Cape Cod Light, shot in 
8x10, led to him picking up a cigarette account shooting people in 35mm.  
Go figure.

- --Donal Philby
  San Diego