Tag Archives: photography books

Beth Gwinn: Dream Project

Laurie says:

My friend Beth Gwinn has spent her professional life taking superb photographs of writers and performers. Now she has a portrait book project, and she’s doing a kickstarter.

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Science Fiction and Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman
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I’m Beth Gwinn and I have been a professional photographer since 1980.  My life has been a unique photographic journey, passion directing where my lens pointed. Photography, music, and Science Fiction/Fantasy have been my principal Interests.  In 2000 I published a book called “DARK DREAMERS” about influential people in the Horror genre, which consisted of exclusive large-format photos taken by yours truly and original interviews by Stanley Wiater.  Now my dream is to produce a similar book, about significant people in the area of the Fantastic- authors, artists, producers, directors and others.

Publishing has changed quite a bit since 2000.  That is why I am launching a kickstarter.  I have spoken to three publishers about this project, but publishers today, although interested, none is able to afford the funding needed to get it off the ground. That is why I am launching a kickstarter.
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Science fiction writer Fred Pohl
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……This is a dream project for me.  Literally years in the making.  Ever since I first read comics and Fantasy stories I have had a deep love for the richness of the field’s visions, for its imaginative depth.  I see Science Fiction as Dreaming of the Future; we dream,we move into the future, and dream again.  My goal is to raise $35,000 to fund the travel needed to take new photographs, and to assemble and edit any originals from my files, and pay the writer who will conduct the interviews with today’s visionaries of the fantastic.  Contributions of all sizes will make a difference.  Please help me to dream this dream

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MacArthur award winning science fiction writer Octavia Butler
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Science fiction writer Pat Cadigan

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Beth will make a stunning book.

Nudes for the Holidays

Laurie and Debbie say:

We had a such wonderful response to last year’s holiday sale of Laurie’s books of photography (with Debbie’s text), that we thought we’d offer the same price again this year. It means a lot to us that Nudes for the Holidays pleased so many people.

Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes

WEL cover

and Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes

FM_cover

Signed copies (which Laurie can personalize for you as gifts) of each are on sale for $15 including U.S. shipping: a great bargain given that each book is usually available for $25 plus shipping! (International shipping is $10 per book.)

There are two great things about doing art that is also social change work: the art and the social change. Laurie never dreamed when we started this project that her photographs would be internationally exhibited and become part of permanent museum collections.

April on the chaise

The social change aspects make the best stories. We’ve heard about women who’ve thrown away their entire wardrobe and bought a new one after looking at the pictures, or bought a bathing suit for the first time in years.

We watched a man who had been a porn model burst into tears at a slide show, just at the concept that there could be nudes of men who didn’t have to look perfect.

Philip with his bicycle

It’s no exaggeration: these photographs, and these books, change lives. Buying them for yourselves is terrific; giving them to the right someone else can start a cascade of exactly the kind of changes we all want to see.

In the early days of Women En Large, the pictures, plus a long talk with Laurie which would never have happened without the pictures, helped a woman recover from active, life-limiting anorexia. When the Familiar Men pictures were shown in at the National Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan, one of the workmen on staff at the museum wrote the senior curator to say how much the pictures changed how he felt about himself, and how important that was to him.

Richard LaBonte

And just last week Laurie got an email from a man who is dealing with surgical disfigurement, who said that Familiar Men had completely changed the way he feels about his body.

These books are the tangible markers of our work together. Our goals are to make the invisible visible, to widen the range of what is beautiful and what is powerful, and to help change the way people see. Buying the books gets the images out into the world where they can do good, and also supports our work; in particular, giving it to someone you think is beautiful but they don’t think so is a perfect way to show them what you see in them. At the same time, book sales help us maintain the blog, seed new projects for Laurie, and pay the bills.

Isn’t there someone you know who needs a copy? Or several someones?

Debbie and Tracy

Tell your friends.