Jan 14
Book release
Last spring I was asked if I could take some pictures for a local book project. I was a bit hesitant because the motif wasn’t my normal stuff and experience has taught me that I don’t do well “on commission” – I’m only at ease when my inspiration to photograph comes from inside me. 
But, I’m also not very good at saying no so there I was at the Fågelsjö Gammelgård, shooting interiors and trying not to break any of the fragile old handicraft pieces from the 19th century while setting them up for close-ups.
The book is based on the diary entries of a local farmer. He lived on the estate that is now the Fågelsjö Gammelgård old farm museum, so his life is preserved not only in the words he wrote but also in the buildings, interior decorations and assorted household items. He was a skilful craftsman and it’s fascinating to see all the things he had manufactured himself, it seems like he was even a bit of an inventor because some of the artefacts were very creative.
The book was supposed to come out already last summer, I was asked well ahead in time but then the time ran out and suddenly they were in a hurry and I had to jump in with a short notice. And then as it happens so often, life intervened and the project got delayed anyway, but now the book is finally out and it looks great! Much better than I expected, and I mean the book as a whole. But the strange thing is… all of my pictures in the book look better than I expected as well. I’ve often heard photographers say that pictures look better in print than on screen, and I think that this book proves it. For all the hesitation at first, I’m really happy I did the job because now I have my work published in a book I can be proud of!
The book is called Min hand är icke begåfvad att föra en skikliger penna – Fågelsjöbonden Jonas Olssons dagbok 1851-1892 and it’s edited by Eva Heggestad (ISBN 978-91-633-6003-9, published by Fågelsjö Hembygdsförening). It will be available in the Ljusdal bookstore and I’m sure that it will be prominently displayed at the Fågelsjö Gammelgård museum in the summer.
7 comments
Wow! You’ve been published! Nice HDR-work with the interior there! Looks very natural.
I also have some experience of good pictures looking even better when i printed them on my Epson R1800. Book-printing can be more difficult though, since picture files must be converted from RGB to CMYK. Did you get any info on how to deliver your pictures (colour profile etc)?
I didn’t get any instructions on the picture format, so I delivered in 300 dpi RGB. I don’t know what they did when they printed the book, but the colours look great.
Some pictures seemed to be a bit darker, but only slightly and nobody would notice it unless they had the original to compare with. They did a very professional job with the book, overall. 
I just heard that the official book release “party” is on Tuesday. Exciting!
Congrats Minna, awesome thing and something to be proud of! It is true, pictures look sooooo good when processed well and printed onto quality paper. Once more, congratulations
Maybe not international bestseller, but nevertheless pretty darn cool stuff! Congrats
Hello Minna,
Nice to read your blog. As editor of the book about Jonas Olsson I’m very glad that you accepted to take the photos. They are just wonderful and I’m really happy to have them in our book.
Eva Heggestad
Tack!
Och det är boksläpp i kväll, kanske ses vi på biblioteket?
Tyvärr inget boksläpp för mig ikväll. Bor i Uppsala så det blir lite för långt att resa.