Bonus Zine For International Women's Day
about 7 years ago – Wed, Mar 08, 2017 at 05:41:14 PM

Hey everyone! It's been a while since the campaign ended and I figured I owed you guys an update. It seems like I have been doing shoots for the book almost every day since then but I am just about to wrap it up. I am headed to Austin, TX for SXSW next week but when I get back we will be starting the layout. I will have a much bigger update soon (I should know more about the printer/size of the book in a few days) but for now I just wanted to announce the concept behind the Bonus Zine stretch goal.

If you recall, when the campaign hit $10,000 I promised that everyone would be able to buy a bonus zine for just $5. I didn't tell anyone what it was because I wanted to make something dedicated to all the women who work with me and I didn't know how I wanted to do it without coming off as a straight white dude yelling about feminism. To be honest I still haven't figured it out exactly but I thought International Women's Day was a perfect opportunity to announce it. 

I still don't have a title or a cover yet but I can tell you a few things:

• It is dedicated to my friends, nude models and sex workers who have posed nude for me just because they want to be a part of what I am doing.
• It will feature my favorite nude models and the most badass women I photograph.
• I will be writing something about feminism and how it applies to my work. It will also speak to fans of my photos who don't treat these women with the respect they deserve.
• It will hopefully do these things without it being awful and mansplainy. Fortunately I have several women in my life who are activists and writers who have agreed to help.
• And lastly $1 from every issue sold will be donated and organization that helps marginalized sex workers. 

I have a rough edit of the zine done and I think it's gonna be one of the better zines I have put together. It's also going to be a good reason to use some of the Instax outtakes that don't make the book. 

I will have more information about how to get your copy of the zine soon but out of respect for the A Day Without a Woman strike I am not going to be selling anything today. This update is without photos for the same reason. 

Happy International Women's Day. Go tell a woman in your life how much they matter.

We Did It!
about 7 years ago – Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 03:59:53 PM

Thank you guys so much for being a part of this book! 

Somehow we raised over $20,000 and the 395 backers put us well inside the top 50 most backed photo books in Kickstarter's history. Just in the last two days we passed four books that I am proud to have on my book shelf. This means so much. Thank you guys again and again.

What Happens Next?

If you have never backed a Kickstarter before your credit cards or however you donated will be charged today. It takes several weeks for me to get the money but I have been living off my AMEX for two years so I don't think two more weeks is going to make a difference. 

Once the book gets closer to being printed you will get an email from Backer Kit. They will ask you for your address and give you options to get the stretch goal rewards or order additional copies of the book.  It's very slightly confusing since it doesn't come from Kickstarter but it's pretty straight forward... more on that later.

From now until the 21st I am going to be shooting and scanning as many photos as possible. I have a few shoots set up and about 100 Instax to scan so there's a lot of work. My plan is to send everything to my designer (thanks Teddy!) by the 21st and have him start thinking about layouts.

On the 21st I head to LA for the LA Art Book Fair and to shoot a bunch more photos. 

The plan for the LA Art Book Fair was to try and find some distribution but given how much money we raised I want to also talk to publishers about different printing options. I want to hold some books in my hand and find out where they were made and a book fair is a great place for that. 

When I get back from LA the work begins and hopefully by mid-March we will start having a better idea of what the book is exactly going to look like. This could be a much slower process than I expected because the book is going to be a lot better than I planned when I was trying to raise $2500. But whenever the book launches you will all be invited to the party.

Other Stuff.

• I have this idea of doing an introduction to the book that features some of the old Polaroids I shot and maybe comparing them to new ones. I gotta track down people I haven't seen in years to get permission to use photos but I think it could be cool to see how the style of film, photography and some of the models have changed over the years.
• Still working on the bonus zine. Need to think about it a little bit before I announce it but you will know more soon.
• If you were one of the backers at the $300 (or $750) levels, start thinking about the print you want from me. Message me if you know already. I will send those big prints out before the books.
• Oh, and I guess the forward is going to be "written" by Richard Prince now... 

10 Days To Go!
about 7 years ago – Thu, Feb 02, 2017 at 05:55:02 PM

With 10 days to go I figured I would give you guys another update.

We passed the Feb. 1st deadline to hit $15,000 but we are less than $500 away so I figured I would extend it a couple days. Pretty confident we will hit $15k.

Keep sharing the project with your friends and if you guys have any media suggestions let me know. I haven't done a fantastic job of getting press for the project. The more money I can raise the better this book is going to be.

I updated the main description of the project to reflect the stretch goals and added rewards but aside from that not much other news...

I just have been scanning all the stuff I shot in Vegas and LA and I figured I would share a few images with you guys.

Thanks again for the support. I can't wait until this thing is over so I can make the damn book!

$10k & $15 Stretch Goals, New Rewards & More
over 7 years ago – Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 07:17:05 AM

Sorry for the lack of updates but I have been super busy and working my ass off on this book!

I am in LA right now after a week in Vegas shooting girls for the book. I am actually updating this from a friend's couch who is going to pose for the book right after I hit send on this post. So tons of stuff coming and check the secret blog for some previews.

$10,000!

So wow, we hit $10,000 in less than a week. That is incredible and I finally figured out the stretch goal while driving from LA to Vegas. I am going to be doing a second zine with the book, similar to what I did with my book Dinner With Igor and the zine Food Tattoos. I made a huge mistake with that because the additional weight of the zine drastically changed the shipping costs so the new zine is gonna cost $5 ($15 international) but everyone who isn't a backer will have to pay $10. 

The concept of the zine is going to be a secret until after the campaign is over but it will be in the 40 page range and feature mostly photos of nude women, so basically if you like Instaxxx you will probably dig this zine too.

$15,000?

We are close to $12,000 with a few weeks to go still so if we hit $15,000 by February 1st. I am going to come back to LA in late Feb for the LA Art Book Fair. I will be able to shoot even more people out here ( this trip was only four days) and I will be able to hopefully find some people to work with in distributing Instaxxx. Even though it's not your typical stretch goal reward, it will certainly make the book better in one way or another.

More Rewards

While I was in Vegas I shot signed Instax of Abigail Mac & Jillian Janson and put them up as new rewards so if you missed out on Stoya, April O'Neil or Heather Vahn signed Instax it's not too late. There are also two Gabi Paltrova Instax left too.

 More Press

We got a pretty good write up in Flesh Bot (very NSFW): Shake It Like A Polaroid Nude Pic

And another one on The Photoblographer: Instaxxx: A Novelty Nude Instant Photography Book On Kickstarter

I also talked about the project in an interview I did for Showtime as part of their AVN Awards coverage. It should air way after the book comes out and they probably won't use the part about the book, but they did talk to me about it.

Stretch Goals, Secret Blog & More!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Jan 16, 2017 at 08:51:41 AM

The support for this project has been overwhelming and I thank all of you guys. We have now close to tripled the original goal and we are getting close to the territory where I might actually have to think about hard covers and/or bigger pages and things like that. Despite what my friend Mike keeps suggesting, I am not gonna run off to Mexico with all your money, I am gonna put (most of) it back into the project.

$5k Goal!

I promised a stretch goal at $5000 and I have some good news and bad news. When I started thinking about this project I wanted the $500 stretch goal to be an enamel pin and I was making Driven By Boredom enamel pins so I figured I would make one for this project at the same time... Good news is that I did and they are pretty awesome. They are designed by Teddy Blanks of CHIPS who is also designing the book. 

The bad news is that I found out that they cost about $3 to ship in the US and are like $15 everywhere else. Apparently you just can't put them in an envelope which I found out after empty envelopes that once contained enamel DBB pins started showing up at people's homes. 

So basically your stretch reward is going to be an add on option instead of a free reward. After the campaign ends anyone who wants one in the US will be able to get one for $5 or $15 international. Sorry it's not quite as awesome as I wanted it to be but hopefully the book will make up for it.

Also if we hit $10k I will come up with another stretch goal that logistically makes sense... 

The Secret Blog!

The secret blog is ready to go and will be coming to you soon in a totally separate update since it's only for backers. I realize makes that exciting heading above seem really anti-climatic... but here's a band new Instax that I just scanned to make up for it.

More!

• All the signed porn star Instax sold out already! I found some Gabi Paltrova signed Instax so I added them as a new reward. Gonna try and get some from a couple more girls when I am in Vegas next week. Clearly they were popular. 
• Two more days in NYC before headed to the west coast to hopefully shoot a ton for this book. I shipped 100 shots of Instax wide to Vegas so it would be waiting for me when I get there.
• Oh and thanks to InsideHook for the write up!