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I thought that I had ordered Sent a Letter by Dayanita Singh. I was expecting it 21 December when Amazon said it would arrive. It is a seven volume set of photographs that she made when travelling about India and made with specific people in mind.

In my usual detailed oriented state, I went to Addall and after minutes of frustration trying to find a hit for any of the words associated with the book. What arrived was Go Away Closer - a nice title in my penchant for Robert Frank titling.

The size of the envelop when it arrived had me heading back to the internet to see if I had got it right - one volume, thin, about 7x6 inches. It seems that Sent a Letter is yet to be published.

Couldn’t be more pleased with the book, as it gives some sort of validation for my working method. The book is one short of my prime numbered books - 33 - each image significant but in the way that it states something and is quite significant but is strengthened by their arrangement. Some work as diptych-like others lead work as links. They hover between the private and public.

Personally feel better for at the WGAS among exulted tenured, making photographs is rare, making enough photographs to sequence them into a book is unheard of - except for some misplaced E.U. member.

This book is accessible in it manner of production - well not the professionalism in the printing, Steidl is to Lulu is what real artists are to the world of the WGAS - but it wasn’t the mammoth size of Misrach’s The Beach where he seemed to attempted to make the snaps the same mural sized prints that were on the wall.

I did receive the Go Away Closer a bit late as this semester there was a surge of on demand book-making that took place in two classes that also seeped somewhat into the student population in general. It could have been useful in the Field Trip Class that favoured the i-books and mine where to my chagrin I thought Lulu wold be better.

This would was perfect in the idea of an essay which is similar to a writing essay, a complete - but not a closed - thought. The strategy for class - at least my class - for using a print on demand book was that one would have to have a series of photographs, a thought, and a idea of a body. It would mean that work could not so open-ended. The print on demand instead of a crafted “artist” book so that those who cannot work with glue and knives wouldn’t feel left out and the caché of a book that imitates those one spills their double lattès on at Boredoms.

Envy comes as once again it is all down to funds. Steidl make sure that the book is pristine so that one doesn’t trip over the printing on the way to the snaps. I take the blame for thinking and hoping that Lulu could be close when in fact while it is no worse than i-Books it is bad in a completely different way - problems with evenly printed solid colours. Was embarrassed after touting Lulu due tests done before school ended for the summer, hearing how much it sucked. My second attempt proved them right.

Now though there is a whole subset of people researching quality of specific print on demand publishers at the WGAS and I have placed my order for Sent a Letter.