Simply a book I wanted to make

I am sitting in my spare bedroom / studio, it is 8:02 in the morning and the day before I need to hand this blog post to Kat. I have been thinking about what I should write for the past two months. What would benefit both me and you? What am I thinking at the moment? What have I been doing or reading? What have I been making? What kind of work would I like to create? 

Last week I managed something that kind of just happened… Yes, I made it happen and it had almost no resistance. It came as an opportunity from someone, a few conversations with friends, and before I knew it - it materialised. I curated an exhibition at St. Margaret's house (A Place We Share) and invited ten photographers to take part in it, some were pals, and some were people I have only interacted with on a few occasions. The important thing is that something happened. 

It is very easy to be the person at a table moaning about the state of affairs in various topics, in this case the Photography scene in Edinburgh and Scotland. It is also relatively easy to have an idea of how to solve this “issue”. Unfortunately for the most part, it just stays as that… an idea in someone's head without being explored or developed. These ideas or concepts can become so big and so overwhelming that they can, and have, become burdens in my case. The idea of starting again, the idea of going out and trying to make something happen with a group of people, what if it doesn’t work, how can I face that failure… 

But then again, what if it works? Why should I bury the idea before trying it? Why should I discard it before it even materialises? I must give them a go. I just need to start chipping away at it slowly, brick by brick. The best example of this that I have, aside from the exhibition or AGITATE, is my own imprint / indie press called Orange Press. I knew I wanted to make photobooks after finishing university, I just kept collecting material and books and research to the point that it became overwhelming. It became a massive idea that was going to radicalise the whole industry. It was going to solve every problem. From the economics of publishing to supporting artists who have never had the opportunity to explore the book as a medium, it became so big that it was not for me anymore. It was not what I wanted to do, it did not make me happy. 

In 2023, after turning thirty, I came back from a holiday with a series of around 10 images of oranges in the streets of Lisbon. I wanted to do something with them and decided to make a book / zine out of them. It was simply a really fun approach to publishing: make a simple typology and print it locally, maybe add an existing cover to it and sell it relatively cheap… an orange book… 

Orange Press was born out of this clear idea. It was not complicated, it was not revolutionary, it was just simply a book that I wanted to make. From there I started talking to artists and have been for the past three years. I just want to make things happen for myself and people. I can put together a book in a month or a year, but I am always chipping away. I am often printing in our studio, just testing materials, what works, what doesn’t… I have grown very tired of the digital space. I love materiality and books are the embodiment of that. 

However, for the past year I have not published anything new, I think it is because I hit some hurdles and got too many ideas in my head. This blog is helping with that. I have kind of lost the plot here… The idea of making things happen. This is how I materialise things. I print.

I print my images, stick them on my fridge, behind my doors, in my bedroom, I hide them in places, or give them to people. But I print and for the most part I shoot on a Polaroid camera. I am not here to tell you what to do, I am just saying that printing and materialising my work is the biggest help I have, even if it stays on a wall for months or a year before I touch it again, but it is there and it exists. 

Going back to Orange Press, I like the idea that I am chipping away at it when it works and when I have the time. I like that I get to collaborate with artists on this and it becoming a space for conversation. After all, art making is a very lonely place sometimes. But what I like the most is that it gives me an opportunity to bring my work into the physical world. I do worry about it, how will it be received? Will it sell? I don’t know, but I know that I am just making things. And you should too.