Ethan Jones and I had the remarkable pleasure of creating Pause, to Begin with our epic team.

In conjunction with the Pause, to Begin exhibition at Booksmart Studio in the spring of 2009, we produced a color, 108 page catalogue and it’s now available for purchase. All of the sewing, gluing, and binding has a one-of-a-kind touch: the human hand. It’s truly beautiful and not to be missed.

Artists: Matthew Gamber, Tealia Ellis-Ritter, John Mann, Colin Blakely, Shawn Records, Thomas Prior, Hin Chua, Sonja Thomsen, Brea Souders, Timothy Briner, Alejandro Cartagena, Erika Larsen, Matthew Eich, Shannon Johnstone, Shawn Gust.

Additional contributors: Ethan Jones, David Wright, Susan Morelock, Joyce Tenneson, John Paul Caponigro, Cig Harvey.

Hand-bound book, ISBN 0-9765368-9-7
108 pages, 9.5 x 6.375 (in), 24 x 16.25 (cm)
Edition size: 500
Type of printing: digital, color.
US$31.99 + shipping.

Purchase the book through our publisher, Booksmart Studio.

Ethan Jones and I are the founders of Pause, to Begin, a unique project born in discussions about the direction of contemporary photography today. We’re elated to announce the release of the Pause, to Begin Catalogue Edition for sale through our publisher, Booksmart Studio.  

The beautiful hardbound catalogue (color, 108 pages) accompanies the Pause, to Begin exhibition held at Booksmart Studio from January 2–30, 2009, and is limited to 500 copies. The remarkable catalogue showcases the work of the 15 selected photographers, as well as statements on photography and the creation of Pause, to Begin by Ethan Jones and myself; advisors John Paul Caponigro and Joyce Tenneson; juror Cig Harvey; and editorial director Susan Morelock.

(Sonja Thomsen’s spread)

>>>>> Check out the book and purchase it here <<<<<

“If we spill a drop of red sauce on a white shirt, we easily will notice it.  If the shirt were a busy plaid, we might not.  Most of us are so disengaged from ourselves — stressed, depressed, overworked, and so on — that we look at ourselves and see plaid shirts.  But that can change if we take note of what’s new and different about the world and ourselves.  When we notice new things, we come mindful, and mindfulness begets more mindfulness.  The more mindful we become, the more we see ourselves as white shirts and the easier it is to find the red spot and remove it.”

from Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.

Great story about the creation of Dan Winters’ “Peroidical Photographs” here.

“We did a lot of staring at the wall. Dan’s wife Kathryn would come by and bring us food and find us sitting in the exact same place she left us hours before and would ask, “are you guys actually working!?” But it was such fun, the little moves back and forth, the rearranging, the “oh, what if…” moments and the frantic searches for new pictures we had forgotten about.”

Dan Winters signing books (Image © ?)

“All of us have experiences that could change our lives if we let them: love, offered suddenly, turning from the mantelpiece, as Demlore Schwartz put it.  And that, oddly, was the way it was with me and the butterflies.  Not love, exactly, offered suddenly, but a similar quickening of the heart and desire — in this case a desire to know, if knowledge was not only information and understanding but experience.  I could feel those butterflies tugging on my imagination as if it were a loose sleeve.”

Excerpt from the book I am reading, Four Wings and a Prayer by Sue Halpern.

Image © Andrew Winning/Reuters