RUSS MARSHALL PHOTOGRAPHS: September 2021

Printing Pages For New Book

Have started printing the pages for a new book entitled Detroit Buildings∙Structures∙Scapes.

Been thinking about doing a new book for a while now. I have the time since my involvement and the 7 month run of my DIA exhibit is over. Even though I have several or a few books in mind that I'd like to do, I've chosen this one. Mainly because of the discovery of the pages already formatted and titled in a photo folder that I had forgotten I had. There are about 40+ of these pages.

The main task has been changing the titles font. I had done a preliminary design of the cover with the title in BankGothic MD ST Medium. But at the time I did the titles, which was after I did the cover prelim, BankGothic MD ST Medium was not to be had in my recent version of Photoshop. It was dropped for some reason. But now I have it back after a free download in Photoshop and Word. So I'm changing the font in the 40+ pages.

In the past I've used Blurb for my self-published books. Usually in editions of more than 10+ copies. Expensive but convenient. I've printed a few books on my desktop and stapled and glued them together but those were very small runs of 6 copies each.

For this book I'm printing again on my desktop and making only, for now, 2 sets of prints. My original idea was to staple all the pages of one set together - about 40+ on 8.5x11 inch inkjet photo paper. The 2nd set I planned to store loose in a box. Not necessarily looking for sales. Just a way to get these photographs all together.

Now, that has all changed since I saw another photographer's blog about putting together themed sets of photographs in a portfolio presentation binder. So it's not really a book anymore but a collection of prints in a ringed binder which will hold 40+ pages of archival plastic pages to take 80 photographs using both sides of the pages. A portfolio I guess.

The binder pages are 8.5x11 inches with (supposedly) the clearest plastic known to mankind. The hard covers are a little larger. So I ordered this binder and extra pages online and deliverable on Monday, 2 days from today. Will cost me $30 to find out if I want to go this route. I may still reprint all of the pages on double sided paper sometime in the future for a stapled and glued book(s). Again, a limited print run.

10/06/2021 - Received the binder and extra pages. The plastic sleeves are indeed the clearest I have seen. I think it will work out for my purposes. The end game? A local museum or collection entity. The Reuther, the Burton, the DIA, the Bentley?

LONDON and Europe Doc

A documentary look at London and European cities in late 1980s. An 138pg book of 79 b&w photographs on the streets of London, Paris, Budapest, Berlin by documentary photographer Russ Marshall. This is a soft cover, 11x8.5 perfect bound magazine format book and comes encased in an archival clear polypropylene book cover for protection from finger prints and scratches. The photographs were taken on trips to England and Europe in the years of 1987, 89 and 90. I was on assignment on a couple of the trips for an American based international labor and political publication. Many were subsequently used in other publications. Some were sold through galleries and a fine art photography representative I was signed on with at the time. Thirteen - fifteen prints will be part of a larger exhibition in November 2020 - June 2021 at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. For those interested -- the photographs were all shot on Tri-X film in Nikons. CLICK on cover image to take you to ETSY to order.

FACTORY

FACTORY is an 8.5x11 magazine format publication. Soft cover and perfect bound with 100 pages of 69 black and white photographs of industrial laborers in automobile factories, foundries and mills. Most were shot in and around Detroit and Michigan from 1960-2000. Others in Ohio and Pennsylvania. This is a follow-up companion publication to "THIS WORKING LIFE: Photographs of Labor and Industry, Works by Labor Writers and Poets". (2011) Both publications give voice to the mass of anonymous laborers and acknowledge that their efforts, their skills and their lives mattered and that they did exist at that time and in that place. Russ Marshall's 30 year freelance career took him from the peopled streets of Detroit's inner city to the board rooms of commerce and industry. From the jazz clubs and strip joints to the foundries and assembly lines of the Big 3. His photographs are held by universities and museums and exhibited from Maine to Mexico. CLICK on cover image to go to ETSY to order.

Detroit Doc

A book of B&W photographs of Detroit (mostly people) from 1960s - 2000s. Russ' 30 year freelance career took him from the peopled streets of Detroit's inner city to the auto factories' assembly lines and foundries, jazz clubs and strip joints, Tommy Hearns' Kronk gym to Detroit Eastern Market's pork brains, fish tails and hog farmers. Working girls plying their trade on Cass Ave. and at the now closed Fisher Body Plant on Fort Street. A few pages of narrative description. 6x9/ 182 pages/ 119 B&W photographs - many are double page spreads. Soft cover perfect bound. CLICK on cover image to go to ETSY to order.

My Navy Life 1960-1964

This is a 51 year look back at Russ Marshall's 4 years service in the U.S. Navy. From boot camp to duty stations in Florida, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Puerto Rico where he served as a Navy photographer. He was there during the Cuban Missile Crisis There are a lot of photos in this 212 pg book -- more than 200 mostly taken by Russ . Many are work related and many others show the lighter side of a bunch of 2o year old photographer sailors partying in the lab, on the beach, at USO events and on liberty trips to Jamaica, Haiti and San Juan. CLICK on the photo to go to book order site at Amazon.