The Self-Editing Adventure with Cécile (lafilledeer)

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Most of us have already thought of self-editing. Who has never dreamt of having a book containing shots? Cecile, one of the French most active community members took the plunge and shared her tips in this interview.

Hello Cécile! What's up?

Hello Lomography! I'm fine and you?

All good! So today let's talk about a nice project: the launch of your new self-edited book Review Argentique (the Analogue Review). What were your first impressions when you saw the first copy?

Very strong feelings. It's amazing to see the end of a project I've been working on during a long time. It reminded me of the moment I launched my blog, several years ago. At that time, I never thought of getting so much feedback online, or pushing this project even further to a paper guide.

Tell us more about this project.

The very first concept of my blog was simple: do a review of all the cameras/films I'd test with their features, my impressions and my shots. Last year I realized I had a lot of content and all this content deserved a paper version, well-organized, that could be used as a guide, with some tutorials dedicated to experimental photography. Every week, I receive messages from readers who ask what camera/film they should use to start analogue photography. So I realized this kind of tool would probably help people.

And then, here we are: a book of almost 300 pages with more than 400 shots, reviews of cameras/films/accessories and explanations about some experiments such as cross-processing, EBS technique etc.

How many cameras/films/accessories did you test? How did you compose the book and choose the cameras to be featured in the guide?

In fact, I tested a bit more but I'm only showing 45 cameras, 75 films plus several accessories in this book. Most of the featured gear has been tested several times and I excluded some equipment that I didn't know enough about or with which I didn't get a satisfying result.

Can we find some Lomography gear? Which ones? We hope so!

Yes of course, you can find the Lomography products I tested like the Diana F+, Fisheye One, Konstruktor, La Sardina, Lomo LC-A+, Lomokino, Sprocket Rocket, SuperSampler cameras. For the films, you can find the Color Negative 100, 400 and 800, Lady Grey 400, some Lomochrome Purple and Turquoise, Redscale XR, X-Pro 200 and the X-Pro Sunset Strip 100. In terms of accessories, I'm mentioning the LC-A+ Splitzer, the LC-A+ Krab and the DigitaLIZA.

WAW awesome! Could you tell us more about the genesis of your book. How did you create it? Which medium did you use?

I chose Blurb.com, a company that allows you to self-edit your books. I used a creating software and did the mock-up by myself because I could be totally free for the page layout that way.

Do you have any advice to share with the community members who want to publish their own book?

I think you should ask yourself the good questions. It's important to know what direction(s) you want for your book: why? For whom? To show what? And be patient because these projects take time.

So now, where can we find your book?

To purchase it, you can directly go on Blurb.com.

How about a volume 2?

Yes, I'm already working on it :) I'm keeping on testing new things and gear and I hope to launch a volume 2 with cameras, films and experiments. I must learn how to process the films to give some advices about this technique. XOXO Lomo!


You can find out more about Cécile on the Magazine, her Lomohome and her website.

If you have any questions, share them with us on the comments section below! Has anyone here already self-edited a book? Please tell us your own story!

written by mpflawer on 2017-02-20

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