In the 17th and 18th century, printed books dropped in price and the chapbook rose in popularity. Today there is a similar rise with the affordability of great, inexpensive color photobook printing. The Blue Library celebrates the current renaissance of cheaply printed, high quality photobooks. The exhibition will run from December 1, 2014 to January 3, 2015 at Press Street’s Antenna Gallery Reading Room 220 in New Orleans, LA. The exhibition takes place during PhotoNola and Prospect.3 will be in full swing.

To be considered for the exhibition, photographers are invited to design a chapbook using Blurb/MagCloud. The book must be designed with a MagCloud template ready-to-print. The book must be less than 40 pages and be the 5.25″x8.25″ or 8.25″x5.25″ format. The subject matter is open- traditionally chapbooks cover all subject matter from religious to romance to debauchery.

Tammy Mercure and a team will select at least 30 chapbooks to print and display. The chosen books will be exhibited and then put in the collection at Room 220. In addition, a set will sent to the Indie Photobook Library. There will also be an opportunity to sell copies of your book if you desire.

Submission Deadline: October 31, 2014.

Submissions are open to all photographers and photo-based artists. You must own copyright to the photographs included or in the case of found photographs follow the generally accepted idea of fair use for art. We’d love exclusive chapbooks, but you may re-work one of your books in this format if you wish.

Submissions must ready to print using Magcloud Digest 5.25? x8.25? or Digest 8.25?x 5.25?. Magcloud makes easy to use templates for InDesign, Quark XPress, Microsoft Word, Pages, Photoshop, and Aperture.

Submissions must be 40 pages or less.

There is no fee to enter.

Please see submission guidelines for more information.

Questions? info@thebluelibrary.com