Online talk with Lewis Chaplin

A couple of weeks ago, Lewis Chaplin from Loose Joints
publishing was invited to do a talk over Microsoft Teams at the university to
discuss photobooks and the publishing process as well as his background in
publishing. I have looked at various photobooks published by Loose Joints that
have informed my practice such as Fin Serck-Hanssen’s Hedda and Tealia Ellis
Ritter’s The Model Family which was recently published.

During his talk, Lewis presented a large number of
photobooks that both him and Sarah from Loose Joints collaborated with
photographers to create and publish. Lewis’ talk was engaging as he didn’t
present information through a presentation, he positioned his camera at a bird’s
eye view angle and physically took us through the photobooks as if we were looking
at them in person. This was similar to the walkthroughs of the photobooks that
Loose Joints present on their Instagram page and gave me a lot of insight into
the book without having to buy it. This is something that I would like to
attempt myself when my photobook is complete so that my book is more accessible
to people online and raises more awareness which is the main intention of the
photobook.

Lewis also discussed the process behind collaborating with a
Photographer and how they start the process after I asked if there was a
criteria that they look at when choosing to collaborate. I wanted to ask Lewis
this question as I was interested to know how Publishers choose to collaborate
if I choose to approach Publishers such as Loose Joints in the future. Lewis
confirmed that Loose Joints don’t follow a criteria when approached by a
photographer and concentrate more on the photographs, if they’re engaging and
if there is a narrative behind the work. Lewis also stated that him and Sarah
work closely with the photographer when creating the photobook so that all
practitioners are happy with the outcome.

Overall, I found Lewis’ presentation technique very engaging
and I learned a lot about Lewis’ experience as a publisher, I was able to view
lots of different photobooks without having to purchase them and Lewis spoke
openly about how Loose Joints decide who to collaborate with when publishing a
book. 

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