I self-published my first book of analog photographs in early May of 2020 and distributed free copies to everyone in the small village outside of Ningbo where I took the portraits. It was quite the event in the village. Smiles, bewilderment, and a few tears. No one knew I was publishing a book. I would walk around the village taking photos and then a couple of weeks later would return with prints for everyone. They thought that was the end of the story. But my goal for this 10-month project was to assemble the photos into a book that recorded the people and the place. I did the book layout myself with the help of an editor in Minneapolis (thanks Jenny!). It turned out to be 84 pages long and I worked with a local Ningbo printer to publish it. I learned a lot during the process and will be a lot smarter for Volume 2.

All of the portraits were taken on medium format film (Portra 400) using either a Mamiya 6 or Hasselblad 500C/M.

I also shot a video during the book release which I’m editing now.

A local Ningbo photography bookshop / photo lab has invited me to give a talk about my book and sign copies they will sell for charity (my request). There aren’t many locally published analog photography books so it’s a bit of an oddity.