Bruce has amassed quite a collection of train photos and I suggested that we collaborate on a one-off handbound book on this subject.
I prepared a Photoshop layout in which to "drop in" photos, so that we could print two folios at a time on a single sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 paper (front and back). Bruce supplied me with 72 of his gorgeous black and white train photos on disk. I winnowed these down to 69, composited the photos and title page onto the layout, and Bruce printed the composites on his Epson printer on Aurora Fine Art Natural, a heavyweight matte paper from Red River Paper. The result was six signatures of 3 folios each, or 72 pages.
For the cover, I wanted something elegant and understated, so as not to detract from the photos, and selected black Tyvek. I machine stitched undulating lines on the cover material in shades of white and gray thread, to suggest train tracks. I then glued the Tyvek to boards, and for the endpapers I selected aubergine drawing paper to pick up the aubergine cast of the toning Bruce uses on his prints.
Here's a spine picture, showing the coptic stitching:
…and of course there's a little jacquard slipcase to protect the book in Bruce's briefcase during journeys to and from Photoshop classes.
Finished size of book: 4-1/2 x 5-3/4".
