1-4-08
Originally uploaded by chrismaverick.
so, if you’ve been following 365mav, then you probably already know that I collected the first year of self-portraits together in a nice little coffee table book, which everybody should totally buy because, like I want to be famous and stuff.
Anyway, playing with blurb and self-publishing, I found that I really liked it and I really liked the coffee table book format and I started trying to think what else I could do with it. Eventually, I came up with this idea of having a coffee table book of maybe 20 glamorized fairy tales. Spoofs on Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and hat not. Not really pornographic per se, But adult oriented and sensualized in the same way that most of my photography is. I’ve talked to a couple models about it and people seem excited by it.
Anyway, I had lunch with max1975 today and he thought it was a cool idea and expressed interest in helping me write it. Honestly it had never occurred to me before to even ask anyone else to write it with me. I kind of thought of it as “my thing.” I’m REALLY sure that I don’t want to share the photography, but I’m torn on the writing.
So here are my questions for people:
- Do you even think its a cool idea? Would you buy something like this? How much would you pay for it?
- What fairy tales should I be sure to include?
- Do you think I should write it myself or share the writing with other people?
- If you’re a writer, would you be interested in writing a story for it?
- If you’re a model, would you be interested in modeling for it? (Unlike the Tarot thing, I don’t think I need a gazillion different people, and in fact, I think it might even be funny if like Prince Charming was the same guy in every fairytale.
- Should I just have like one picture for each story or a couple and try to illustrate different scenes?
- How long should it be? I was thinking maybe 20 short stories, like a page or two each. Would it be better if the stories were more… story length? Should there be more or less than 20?
And any other input people think is important I’d love to hear too. I’m pretty excited about this one. Geeze, I have way too much going on.
Oh yeah, quick plug, come to my show tomorrow night. You know you want to.
well you already know i’m a camera whore so I’m in if you want.
And i never thought about writing at all… but it might be cool to rewrite the tales in a way to make them fit your photos. then you could set the book up like a collection of Grimm’s fairy tales (or in this case, Mav’s fairytales)
You?!? A camera whore? Noooo! 😛
And yes, of course you’re in, but you knew that cuz we talked about it like a week ago. 🙂 Anyway, yeah, I guess I had never mentioned that i was planning on having the stories in there as well. I dunno. That’s just always the way I saw it. I don’t like books of just pictures. In my heart I’m as much of a writing slut as I am a photography slut, I guess.
So, there’s a pretty rich assortment of “modern fairy tales” out there, so if you do it, it has to really stand out. The photography could help. But it will be an ambitious project.
Realistically, I probably couldn’t commit enough time to do a good job helping with the writing, though it sounds fun.
yeah, I think it will be really interesting if I can pull it off. It just is seeming more and more ambitious each time I think about it.
Every time I think about writing again, I think about how much time it takes to do it well, and I get depressed about the whole ordeal.
Fucking professors were right about needing to set aside a little time to write, every day, or else you fall off the wagon.
yeah, that’s one thing that’s been nice about 365. Even if I don’t do fiction every day, at least I’m writing something…
I think it’s a cool idea. I think the benefit of two page stories is that you can tell a story without having to turn the page. That way, no matter where the book is open to on the table, it’ll draw people in.
I think one benefit of having other help with the writing is that it means more people will be personally invested in seeing it sell well. That means a better distribution of your photography.
As far as one picture per story or many, I think that would depend on a number of things. Obviously, the story would dictate the style. As far as the tales themselves, I could see something like Red Riding Hood lending itself more easily to a single photo (e.g., the scene with the wolf in grandma’s clothing, woodsman busting in, ax in hand) than something like Snow White.
Prince Charming should definitinely be the same one throughout the story. Have you read any of the Fables comic? They do this idea rather well.
Man, the more I think about, the more I want one! I don’t know that I can offer any artistic input, but I’d at the very least support you by buying one.
yeah, I know about Fables. I’m gonna try not to steal the idea too much though. Still, i think the whole thing could be really interesting, but its going to take me quite a while. I hope you’re still interested whenever I get it done.
I think it’s a fab idea… but I’m a bit into adult fairy tale retellings… I own and adore all the books in the “snow white. blood red” series of exactly that (darker sexier more adult retellings of fairy tales). And you know how I feel already about buying your books. 🙂
I think you should include the “classics” like snow white, cinderella, sleeping beauty… they all have much darker origins than the disney-fied versions we all learned as kids and lend themselves to this kind of project. And I absolutely think the same model should be prince charming no matter what the story. I love the way that works in things like Into the Woods (well, there’s the two Charming brothers in that, but they each end up in more than one tale).
I’m not a writer and I’m not in Pittsburgh so being a model isn’t so much an option…
As far as format, I think it will depend on how the stories are written and how you personally want to set up the book. More photos is always cooler to me personally. And while one per story is certainly do-able, more could certainly be cool too. I doubt you want to get into storybook format like an illustrated story would be, but having a few per story could work. Tho’ if you get each story to fit on one page it would make sense to simply have a story on one side and just one photo on the facing page…
20 stories or so sounds pretty reasonable to me… I guess it depends on the stories. 🙂
I think I just like the coffee table book concept a lot. Not that I don’t like straight prose, but I like the way it combines my two great artistic loves.
I think this is definitely something I want to do.
I will definitely be at your show.
The book seems like a great idea. I think you’d do great with it.
thank you, and thanks for coming to the show.
I think this would be more interesting to purchase (and also more of an artistic challenge for you) if you found some way of making the art for the stores interesting and current withOUT sexualizing it but still keeping with the adult oriented theme.
eh, its not even about the challenge. it’s about me. I know what I’m good at and I know what sales. I certainly won’t be going the graphic porn route, but my style is my style and I’m not going to artificially change it.
Are you familiar with http://www.lulu.com ? If so, what made you choose Blurb? Blurb’s prices seem high. Is the quality higher?
I am. I’ve actually made a calendar with them. However, I like the book quality of the blurb books better. They “feel” a lot more professional. Frankly, they’re a real book in a way that the lulu ones aren’t.
I think I would buy it – if it weren’t -too- sexually explicit. I would pay between 20 to 30 dollars – Looks like Lulu would have a good price – have you thought about cafepress? They do books, haven’t looked much onto it though.
If you want me to buy it you will have to include Sleeping Beauty – and maybe not the modern version of it – it’s always been my fav (both versions)
I think one picture per story would be sufficient, short stories – no more than 2 pages for each one – for an easy, fun read.
and 20 wouldn’t be too much. Sounds good
Well, it won’t be overly sexually explicit, because I don’t like overly sexually explicit. I have a definite line I walk with these things, as you can probably see in my flickr stream.
Sleeping Beauty is definitely an obvious choice to use. I’m quite sure I’ll have that one in there.
A lurking friend of your friends.
I hear good things (and I enjoy your work!)
Here are my thoughts:
1. Very cool idea
2. First I’d buy a coffee table, then I’d buy it.
3. $40?
4. Sharing the writing could be really interesting… you might be suprised how others choose to tell familiar tales.
5. I’d write for you, except of course you don’t know me- I’m afraid I can’t model, though. And yes, Prince Charming is a manwhore.
6. The same number for each story- maybe three? Fairytales are structured that way, it seems- idyllic setup, big event, comeupance.
7. 20 sounds like a nice round number. Please remember the too often overlooked tale Snow White and Rose Red.
wonderful. It would be a big undertaking and will probably take a couple years for me to complete, but I’m glad to know there’d be an audience outside of people I know.
I could be persuaded to write, but it would have to happen during a slow deadline period and when I have some of this so called “free time” that I hear tell of.
Modeling is interesting, but there is that pesky geography issue.
cool. I’m still not sure which way I want to go with it.
It is definitely a cool idea. I’d buy it if you did it, I’m not so sure about an author/artist that I don’t know in person. I have no clue on price, as I haven’t priced coffee-table books of late. I think multiple photos per story would be good, 20 sounds like a good number, but I think it should be limited more by how many stories you can make work in the theme than an arbitrary number.