Over the past few months I’ve been turning two years of Arsenal photographs into physical prints. Seeing hundreds of images spread across the table is exciting, but also slightly terrifying. Somewhere in this pile is a zine. I hope. In total, I’ve printed out 276 6x4 prints with the FreePrints. I’ve used them for some time now and can recommend them on quality and speed. It’s all managed with an app.

*A pile of 6×4s, with a [small] banana for scale*

Editing through all of these is daunting. My plan is to split them into two piles, one for “Yes/Maybes” and one for “No”. I’ll run it past some other photographers and then start to sequence it down. The goal is a zine, so somewhere around 30-40 images should be good.

Like all procrastinators, when presented with such a daunting task, I immediately did something else. I focused on the final 12 days of the premier league season, pretty much everything I’ve been posting about recently, and printed a book. Only two copies, one for myself and one for my brother. Why make a book, I hear you ask? Well, I wanted something physical sooner. On a personal note, it was an important moment in the life of my brother’s and myself. Having a memento of those 12 days will bring back plenty of the Guinness-erased memories for us. After all, aren’t memories all we really are?

I sequenced the book chronologically, splitting it into 4 sections (each separated with one empty page); the spontaneous city night [9 photos], the final prem match [17 photos], the CL final [13 photos] and the parade [22 photos]. The editing feels daunting, but sequencing and pairing the photographs is one of my favourite parts of the process. I planned all of this out using the Freeform app, which I covered in a previous post.

So the final step was to find a place to publish. I want to download and learn how to use Affinity Publisher (which is free, rather than paying for an InDesign subscription) but I’ll save that for a later time. With that in mind, I used the PhotoBooks app, from the same company as FreePrints I mentioned above.

As the sequencing was done, putting the book together was surprisingly straightforward. All that remained was importing the photos into the app and checking the sequence.

The cover was another question. I had the idea of using the only photo of players and parade bus which featured the word “champions” and found it fit quite well across the cover. I splashed out for gold lettering too, which again is keeping more in line with the content.
The final step now was payment. With PhotoBooks you can get one free 7×5 or 6×6 book per month, with up to 20 pages. This book had an extra 44 pages, plus the gold lettering and I also ‘upgraded’ to a larger 8×8 hardback. The cost of one copy, which is partially free, was £18.44 but the second was at full cost, £37.79. So £65.59 for both, plus £5.99 P&P came to £71.58 overall. Definitely a bit spenny.

*A spread for the book from the spontaenous Tuesday night. Not sure how to take photos of glossy pages*

When it arrived, I spent longer flicking through it than I’d like to admit. Seeing photographs I’d only ever viewed on a screen suddenly printed on paper made them feel different somehow. More permanent. More finished. More like a body of work than a collection of individual images. I’ve already got another book coming for Luna. Is it bad that my first book was Arsenal before Luna?

*A couple of portraits from the book. Not a genre I usually shoot but working on it a little*

While the wider project is about football supporters in general, a zine based solely on Champions would be unapologetically Arsenal. It would probably appeal to fewer people, especially rival fans, but if I made one, would you be interested?

Printing a book and a question to you

Two WCs