∴Serial Music Update #4∴

Over the course of 2024 I’m putting together 12 photo booklets featuring pairs of images made here in Korea. I’ll release one a month from the start of 2025. This project is called Serial Music.

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I’ve been slowly chipping away at this project over the last few months, but some of my self-imposed targets and deadlines have stumbled over sudden changes in my work schedule, flip-flopping over the direction I should take everything, and a shot to the knee skateboarding that’s left me stumbling too.

If you ain’t crashin’ you ain’t thrashin’. I sat out the end of the session but got this photo of my friend Jackie, who’s visiting from Thailand.

At some point in these newsletters I said my goal was to make as many as 500 pairs of photos. I now realize that was hubris. All in all I’m expecting 240ish pairs to make it into the final project (12 booklets || 20 pairs/booklet || 40 pgs/booklet). I’ve been making pairs in my free time, usually on Sunday nights, and I’m currently sitting on 378.

I’ve decided to taper off on the pairing for two reasons:

Reason 1 - My initial zeal for 500 pairs was maybe less hubris than insecurity. I figured if I had that many pairs the chances are I’d have enough good ones to make the project a success, at least photographically. But going through what I’ve put together so far, I’m satisfied I have enough images that work in pairs the way I want them to. So making less than I’d initially planned, I’m happy to say, is a show of faith in the work done so far.

Pair #366

Reason 2 - I’m finding my newer images harder to pair. When I started this project, it was based around the pictures I made while searching for a new way to photograph. I was looking for a subject and a style that felt like my own. Throughout the last 3 or so years I feel like I’ve made some moves in that direction, and simply put, the photos I make now don’t feel like they fit Serial Music. A friend once asked how I know when a project is done, I think that’s as good a reason as any.

2024

This brings me to the change in direction I mentioned. Our little studio just got a little smaller: we bought a second printer. I picked up my original printer hoping to make relatively cheap prints that could be gathered in a kind of unbound book. I made a tactical error and got a printer that was actually too high quality to do that in an affordable way.

So now we have a smaller printer of more appropriate quality (and price) for bulk printing, and the change in direction is this: I’m thinking of printing this whole project myself too.

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‘Am I a psychopath?’

Magic 8 Ball surfaces a non-committal answer.

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We’ll see.

Our new little dude printing A3 contact sheets.

Actually, this is a good point to talk to you directly.

Please Help (!)

I’ve been buying reams of paper trying to find something that’ll look and feel like the inside of a photo book might, but won’t force me to set a guffaw of a price for the booklets.

I’ve also been doing calibration tests so I can try squeak a bit more quality out of the prints.

I’ve tried double-sided matte and satin papers, as well as some uncoated “calligraphy“ paper, the latter being the cheapest and oddly the one I’m liking the most despite the dip in quality. It just feels great to the touch.

This probably means nothing to almost all of you but now that I’m a paper nerd I can’t help myself. Top one is the “calligraphy” paper - warm, flat, desaturated, imprecise but charming. Bottom is the satin - way better reproduction but awful to touch. It doesn’t make the cut.

Satin on the left, “calligraphy” on the right. If I can find something with just a little better colour reproduction and image detail than the one on the right I’ll be satisfied.

So, imagine my eyes big and hope-rimmed as I say:

If you have paper suggestions, please send them my way. Please.

I fall asleep easily. I’ve had nights, though, where sinking bedward an ethereal whisper of Serial Music has shot me awake like a crack in the dark. I think that’s stress or my wife messing with me. Either way I want to finish this project and finish it well, so any suggestions would mean the world.

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For now I’ve been making contact sheets on A3 sheets of the “calligraphy”. I need to figure out which pairs will make it into which booklets, which pairs will get the cut entirely, and then I’ll get started on sequencing. Here you’re looking at 17 contact sheets with 20 pairs on each:

I’ll almost certainly put together a few more pairs over the next month or two just to round things off to 400 (I’m one of those people for whom the volume must be _2,_4,_5,_6,_8 or_0) then I’ll print the last few contact sheets.

So that’s where the project stands. I’m making headway!

Photographs - 95%

Contact Sheets - 85%

Decision About Which Paper To Use - 4%

Paper-Related Stress - 104%

The Story I At One Point Said I’d Write For This Project - Let’s not talk about that%

I hope for those of you that are following along I’m showing well enough that doing a project like this largely boils down to problem solving and ignoring doubt. I also hope I’m showing how fun it is. This stuff makes me feel good, and if you’re thinking of trying out your own thing, it’ll probably make you feel good too.

Cheers,

Chris