Here I sit, reveling in my own sense of self-satisfaction. 7 years ago I ran an experimental course at OSU. Working with curators in our natural history collections, my class (along with a writing course) complied image and text about the collections. My class continued and went on to design and produce multiple dummies for the curators to choose from. The goal was always to have the book published, but they could never find the money to do that.
Now, in a “new” book press space which I pushed for (4 years), designed, and literally built, I am running a new set of courses that design and produce photobooks for artists. Since there is a delay between our design and production phases, there was an open production spot.
We were finally about to bring that original project, “Terra Matter” to completion. My students produced 100 copies of the book, every single step was handled by the students (on machinery I supplied to the university), from the cutting of the paper to the shrink wrapping of finished books. The students learned every step.
They absolutely blew me away with their diligence and professionalism. For many of them, this was their very first experience with any kind of book making, and our result are books that look like they came from any bindery. We lost some books along the way (about 10%) but that’s just something to get used to in this kind of making.
I usually keep my little successes to myself, but I’m particularly taken with all I have accomplished in setting up this structure, space, and experience for the students.
I’ll be speaking @spenational in Reno about the press and our process, so come and listen.
More to come…
Big news…Today I begin my 10th year at Oregon State, and this year will be something special. For the last 6 years I’ve been talking and proposing a book press here at Oregon State. Now, that’s a reality.
I will be taking what I’ve learned @pushpulleditions and applying that same business model (as well as much of my equipment) within the curricular structure of the University.
Composit Press will be a student staffed book press under my supervision. We will select two photographers every year, design, produce, and sell those photobooks for the benefit of the artist and our program. All proceeds will feed back into the press and be used to improve the student experience.
We will also be taking on commissions, with students working under my guidance to design and produce projects.
I am hoping to begin an AIR as well (once a year) to have a photographer come, work with students, and produce their own small run of books on our equipment (still trying to find funding for this).
More news will come as things progress and come follow us @composit.press
#oregonstate #compositpress #bookpress #smallbusiness #bookarts #photography #studentexperience #photobook
I’ve been talking about starting a book press with a number of people over a long period of time, now it’s here. @pushpulleditions will focus on small-run photobooks that focus on documentary projects. All the design, printing, and binding will be done in my studio with all the weird equipment I’ve collected along the way.
My first two releases are Wendel A. White’s (@wendel.white ) “Schools for the Colored” and Ana Pearse’s (@anapearseart )“#ustoo”. Shipping starts in August.
#photobook #independentpress #handmadebook #wendelwhite #bookdesign #pushpulleditions #photography #architecturallandscape
#africanamericanschools
#segregatedschools
#segregatedschoolsnewjersey
#segregatedschoolsohio
#segregatedschoolsindiana
#segregatedschoolspennsylvania
#segregagtedschoolsillinois
#africanamericanarchitecture
#venaculararchitecture
#schoolbuildings
#ustoo
“Expositions are the timekeepers of progress” — Collector’s Edition by Colleen Mullins comes with a copy of the book sitting in the bottom of a box wrapped in grey cloth. On top of the book sits a tray wrapped in burgundy velvet. The tray contains 7 stereoscope image cards of Mullins’ work as well as a viewer card. The top of the box turns over and the viewer and the cards magent to the box edge creating a stereoscopic viewer. This is a limited edition of 15.
***preorder link in bio*** This will be produced in Spring of 2026 with a predicted shipping date of July 2026.
Announcing “Expositions are the timekeepers of progress” by Colleen Mullins. This book was designed by BFA Photo Major Jules McGaw and will be produced in the Spring of 2026. ***preorder link in bio***
This is not a book about monument removal.
Yes, this story centers itself on monument removal in the United States through the lens of one town, Arcata, California, and the effigy of a president, William McKinley. But it speaks to a larger issue of polemic engagement in the United States today on almost every subject, not just on the removal of monuments. History has facets. It is seen through the lens of every act and word that comes each day forward from a moment in time. The common, often convincing, misdirection caused by artificial intelligence and the politicization and current assault on historical fact itself mandates we as consumers of information dig deeper. This is a project centered on an event, the removal of a statue of William McKinley. It is one that made me dig deeper, learn more about the history of my country and most importantly have conversations with people with whom I might have never had a dialogue, because I hadn’t yet learned to listen.
Following the production parts of Jordan Putt’s “Field Book”(@jputtphoto ) which is now shipping. Everything here is in-house and performed by students.
#photobook #oregonstateuniversity #smallpress #booksewing #production #teamwork #bindery #universitypress #digitalpress
TOMORROW! Wednesday at Noon, we’d love to see you at the Mark Building for this year’s last Lunchtime Photography Talk with @allie__grant and @evanbaden . The talk is in the Trustee Room on the 4th floor of the Mark Building, just North of the new Rothko Pavillion.
As always, this talk is free and open to the public, so please bring your closest twelve friends and neighbors.
Photographer Allison Grant will discuss Within the Bittersweet, her long-form photographic project that explores the emotional weight of raising her daughters in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, against the backdrop of climate crisis and local industrial pollution. Drawing on a long tradition of socially conscious photographers who make political work laden with the personal, her images negotiate pressing new concerns as our planet undergoes rapid and irreversible change.
Grant will be joined by Oregon State University professor and publisher Evan Baden, who oversees Composit Press. Composit is a student-run press that recently published a monograph of Grant’s project. Baden will share insights into the publication process and evolving landscape of photo book publishing.
#AllisonGrant #artistwritercurator #professorofphotography #universityofAlabama #EvanBaden #WithinTheBittersweet #raisingdaughters #TuscaloosaAlabama #climatecrisis #industrialpollution #compositpress #studentrunpress #OregonStateUniversity #lunchtimephotographytalk #PAMphotocouncil #PortlandArtMuseum
#bainbridgeislandmuseumofart #highmuseumofart #depaulartmuseum
#columbiacollegechicago
This Wednesday at Noon, see you at the Mark Building for this year’s last Lunchtime Photography Talk with @allie__grant and @evanbaden . The talk is in the Trustee Room on the 4th floor of the Mark Building, just North of the new Rothko Pavillion.
As always, this talk is free and open to the public, so please bring your closest twelve friends and neighbors.
Photographer Allison Grant will discuss Within the Bittersweet, her long-form photographic project that explores the emotional weight of raising her daughters in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, against the backdrop of climate crisis and local industrial pollution. Drawing on a long tradition of socially conscious photographers who make political work laden with the personal, her images negotiate pressing new concerns as our planet undergoes rapid and irreversible change.
Grant will be joined by Oregon State University professor and publisher Evan Baden, who oversees Composit Press. Composit is a student-run press that recently published a monograph of Grant’s project. Baden will share insights into the publication process and evolving landscape of photo book publishing.
#AllisonGrant #artistwritercurator #professorofphotography #universityofAlabama #EvanBaden #WithinTheBittersweet #raisingdaughters #TuscaloosaAlabama #climatecrisis #industrialpollution #compositpress #studentrunpress #OregonStateUniversity #lunchtimephotographytalk #PAMphotocouncil #PortlandArtMuseum
#bainbridgeislandmuseumofart #highmuseumofart #depaulartmuseum
#columbiacollegechicago
Photographer Allison Grant will discuss Within the Bittersweet, her long-form photographic project that explores the emotional weight of raising her daughters in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, against the backdrop of climate crisis and local industrial pollution. Drawing on a long tradition of socially conscious photographers who make political work laden with the personal, her images negotiate pressing new concerns as our planet undergoes rapid and irreversible change.
Grant will be joined by Oregon State University professor and publisher Evan Baden, who oversees Composit Press. Composit is a student-run press that recently published a monograph of Grant’s project. Baden will share insights into the publication process and evolving landscape of photo book publishing.
#AllisonGrant #artistwritercurator #professorofphotography #universityofAlabama #EvanBaden #WithinTheBittersweet #raisingdaughters #TuscaloosaAlabama #climatecrisis #industrialpollution #compositpress #studentrunpress #OregonStateUniversity #lunchtimephotographytalk #PAMphotocouncil #PortlandArtMuseum
#bainbridgeislandmuseumofart #highmuseumofart #depaulartmuseum
#columbiacollegechicago
The Collector’s Edition of “Field Book” by Jordan Putt comes in a hard cover folio. Inside the book floats (attached by magnets) on the right panel, while the left panel flips up to reveal one of 15 unique prints (9 x 12”) sent at random, held in by corners.
$250
Folio 10 x 13”
Pigment Inkjet Print 9 x 12”
Book 7 x 9”
124 pages
Hard cover with blue cloth. Foil stamped.
Printed on Neenah Classic Crest Natural White 80# Text
Edition of 15, first edition, first printing.
ISBN 979-8-9987660-4-6
Essay by Kelli Connell
Announcing “Field Book” by Jordan Putt, published by Composit Press. Link to pre-order in bio.
Photographed across six years in Pima County, Arizona, Field Book traces the shifting social landscape of the Sonoran Desert and the lives shaped by an environment of extremes. This work is situated in a region an hour north of the contested United States-Mexico border, revealing a more entangled relationship with the southwestern landscape. Field Book foregoes the familiar political rhetoric of fear or photographic tropes of weathered miners to reveal a subtler frontier: one where quiet intimacies and ordinary struggles reflect back on our own lives.
As a teenager, Jordan Putt learned land surveying from his father, spending summer days weaving between prickly pear cacti with a GPS on a six-foot rod slung over his shoulder. What began as a tool for measuring topography became a way of understanding the social contours of the desert. In this work, the surveyor’s field book is reimagined as a photographic ledger, recording the physical geography and those bound by the enduring thread of the Sonoran Desert.
7 x 9”
124 pages
Hard cover with blue cloth. Foil stamped.
Printed on Neenah Classic Crest Natural White 80# Text
Edition of 250, first edition, first printing.
ISBN 979-8-9987660-3-9
Essay by Kelli Connell
#photobook #artphoto #bookpress #studentdesign #independantpress #fieldbook #jordanputt
