Dear friends,
Last summer I spent two weeks in Ukraine with my partner’s extended family. I sat at kitchen tables, helped out in the yard, and walked dusty roads in tiny villages and busy streets in Kyiv and other cities.
I brought my camera, with no plans to take pictures of the war. War photography is extremely important and I have deep respect for the brave people who do it, but that wasn’t why I was in Ukraine. I was there to support and meet family. Taking photos just happens to be my way of processing what I experience. There was a lot to process, so I shot forty rolls of film.
There are no photos of war or destruction in this book, but it was always in the background of every conversation and every moment. What I chose to photograph was the strength and heart I saw. A family choosing to cook and garden and laugh. People holding onto the shape of a normal life in a time that is anything but normal.
NOTICE Journal Volume Two
Preorders are open today. You can grab your copy HERE. Anyone who orders before August 31st will also receive a 32-page bonus zine, more on that below.
Every image was shot on a 1964 Olympus Pen-F, which is a half-frame camera that puts two exposures inside one 35mm frame, side by side. It creates a diptych out of two moments that happened right after each other, in-camera rather than on the screen afterwards.
Who made it with me
I am so proud of this list of very special humans.
Julia Kochetova wrote an essay for the book. I cried the first time I read it, not out of sadness, but because it was so beautiful. Julia is a Ukrainian photographer, a World Press Photo winner, and had a solo show War Is Personal at Foam this year.
There are also two recipes, because food is one way that this family holds a normal life together. One is by my friend Alison Roman, a cook and writer of several best-selling cookbooks. The other is by Anastasiia Klymenko, who is a chef and my partner. This is her family.
I wrote the foreword. Maxwell George designed the book. Jessica Hische made the wordmark. Jeffrey Phillips drew the map. All film was developed and scanned by the good folks at Carmencita Film Lab. It’s printed by robstolk in Amsterdam, the same fine art printer as Volume One.
The book itself
The book contains 71 diptychs, made up of 142 images. A mix of color and black and white. 64 pages, 21 by 26 cm. Cahier-stitched with red thread. Uncoated paper.
Every copy is signed and numbered by hand, by me. This is the same size and materials as Volume One, this is a series after all, so they look beautiful together.
Three editions
Standard Edition — €40 during preorder, €48 after 20 October. 500 copies.
Special Edition — €175. Only 12 copies exist, each with a 20x30cm archival pigment print of Field on handmade Japanese paper, signed and numbered. This photograph isn't in the book and won't be published anywhere else. It looks so good printed in a larger size, so much detail.
Artist Edition Box Set — €999. Only 3 copies, each unique. Includes:
A Special Edition of the book
An archival pigment print Field at 40x60cm, which is twice the size of the Special Edition print.
A vintage leatherette box holding ten small prints on handmade Japanese paper. Every box has a different set of ten, chosen by me. None of those ten photographs are in the book.
The Artist Edition box. Each holds a different set of ten prints, chosen by me.
The bonus zine, first two weeks only
Everyone who orders between August 16 and 31 receives a special gift: a limited edition Ukraine Travel Diary zine.
It’s a 32-page zine with full-bleed photographs, notes from my travel diary, and an additional recipe of one of my favorite meals I ate while there. It won’t be sold separately, it won’t be reprinted, and it won’t appear anywhere else later.
Why preorder?
The book will be printed on Monday, 31 August. Preorder money helps me pay for that print run. That’s how this works in the end. A book like this exists because a few hundred people like yourself decide it should exist. And I’m grateful to every one of you who helps make it happen.
Process Photo Club yearly and founding members get €15 off any edition. You can find your discount code is in the Process Perks area right now.
Thank you for reading along while I make this book in public. More behind-the-scenes issues are coming on printing, budgeting, cover design, and more. And if you're ordering the book: it ships the week of 20 October, and I can't wait to see it in your hands.
See you next Sunday.
Warmly,
Wesley
If you’d like to help some more, the most useful thing right now is sending this issue to one person who’d want the book. Restack it, post it, forward it, whatever you’d normally do.
Thank you!
Browse the Process Archive for more articles.
So sick - nice work amigo
It’s going to be beautiful - can’t wait!