SoFoBoMo '09

Portland: A Love Letter by Amy Sakurai, from SoFoBoMo '08

Edited from the press release:

SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month—a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish in 31 days, at more or less the same time. It's modeled loosely on NaNoWriMo, where participating writers all write novels in a month, and NaSoAlMo, where musicians write and record solo albums in a month.

So far 137 people have signed up for SoFoBoMo '09. View a list of all SoFoBoMo '09 participants.

For SoFoBoMo, the goal is to make the photos, write any needed text, lay out the book, and produce a .PDF of the book, all in 31 days. Rather than confining it to a single calendar month, we use a 'fuzzy month,' where you can pick any contiguous 31 day period inside a two month window—this makes it a bit more flexible and encourages broader participation.

Why should you participate in SoFoBoMo? There are a lot of reasons.

A lot of photographers have considered doing a book, but various concerns have stopped them. Heck, the same concerns stopped us. We worried that our photos weren't good enough. We worried that we didn't have enough photos. We worried that we couldn't write decent text, or couldn't do a decent job of layout, or that we didn't have the time to do a good job.

SoFoBoMo gives us (and you) an end run around those fears. There's no requirement that the photos be good. (But we suspect you'll be surprised by how good yours are if you participate.) There's no requirement to have any text at all. And there is no requirement on quality of layout. There are just three constraints: all the work must be done in one 31-day stretch that falls completely inside the two month window; the book must contain at least 35 photos; and you have to generate a .PDF of the book. That's it.

SoFoBoMo was started by Paul Butzi, but it exists because of the efforts of all the participants. There are no fees, so we don't collect money. Bottom line: SoFoBoMo is a bunch of photographers all around the world who want experience turning their photos into books, and all do it at the same time to help one another be successful. No one is excluded. Everyone is free to participate. The more, the merrier!

If you're uncertain, take a look at Gordon McGregor's essay on why you should participate. And then go and sign up.

Mike
(Thanks to Paul)

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Comments

[yz]

Thanks for reminding!
Last year I missed to participate but I've just signed now
This will be a great challenge, I think it is a great opportunity to learn to focus and concentrate on a special subject.

[Gary Lennon]

I participated in this challenge last year, and enjoyed it very much.

For me, design restriction is an important part of the way that I work - since digital provides so many choices, it helps to whittle things down. A leap of intuition came to me a long time ago, from an unlikely source - I was sitting in a substance abuse recovery group, and a lesbian woman next to me said: "Being gay is all about freedom. I take the insults people hurl at me, dust them off, and wear them as jewelry."

So - in that vein - for my 'pro' debut I composed a book of tourist snaps (all taken through the window of a moving vehicle) entitled 'Road Trip.' I used lens flare and motion blur in the images to convey that feeling of the West by interstate familiar to anyone who went to Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon as a kid.

I challenge any of you to a) participate in SoFoBoMo and b) employ some sort of arbitrary design restriction in the process. Turn a bad work habit into something remarkable by jettisoning prejudice - you're bound to learn something new.

[misha]

Thanks for the info. I just signed up.

[matt]

Thanks for posting this! I just signed up. now I just have to figure out what I want to shoot..........

[Alistair Williamson]

I love this!

I'm just in the target group and have been thinking of a book for a few months. This will make it happen, and having to take new photos for it. Even better. After all the part of design I like most is constraint.

Alistair

P.S. We helped organize a 48 film fest project earlier this year (write, shoot, edit a 3 minutes film in 48 hours) all for the joy of it.

[Mike]

I signed up this year. LAst year I started a project without signing up and work consipred against me. This year I've yet to decide what to do really, but I'm thinking about it already.

Mike

[Harm]

Thanks for posting this.
I just signed up. Am not sure about the subject yet.