PRE-ORDER OCCUPANTS
Photographs and Writings by Henry Rollins
Hello, I wanted to take a moment, actually, since what I wanted to tell you about took so long to make, this might take more than a moment.
Many years ago, I started working on a collection of photographs for eventual publication. I do a lot of traveling and as much as I write when I am in these places, a photograph speaks a different language, so I started hauling camera gear around with me everywhere I went and documented moments as best as I could.
At some point, I upgraded my gear and took a lesson from a woman named Maura on basics and eventually started shooting in manual.
As I traveled and took more photographs I came to the conclusion that the book had to be more than merely a collection of images. If you are a real photographer, you could perhaps get away with that but not me. I am not a photographer, just someone with a lot of visas in his passport and a camera on his shoulder. The last thing I wanted was for someone to think I was being pretentious. I thought about what I could do to make the book be more time intensive on my part, so there would be more for the person who endeavored to get the book. I came to the conclusion that I would write something for each photo. In fact, I would write two things; an impression of the photograph and a caption that provided more of the practical information about where the image was captured, etc.
The writing was difficult and there was a lot of it to do. I committed myself to completing the project and eventually, it was finished. It ended up being one of the most time intensive projects I have ever put myself though. Not only was the writing tasking but I had to teach myself how to process photographs. The learning curve was pretty steep on that part of it but I think I did ok.
I decided to call the book Occupants. I figure that's what we are. We get some time on the planet and that's it.
We are taking pre-orders* on the book. In September, I will be flying to Dulles, renting a car and driving down to Musictoday and will sign the first 2,000 pre-ordered books for as long as it takes. Everyone that pre-orders will be automatically entered to win a voicemail greeting by me.
I have never done a book like Occupants before, we are very excited about this one.
- Henry
*NOTE: Occupants is in pre-order status and expected to ship on or around Friday, September 30, 2011. All items in your order will be held and shipped on or around the pre-order ship date. Please place separate orders if you would like to receive non-pre-order items earlier.
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