New Phase
I’m excited. I’m also slightly terrified. The very first post on this website dates back to February 20th 2009, and I was surprised to find out what its subject was, given where we are today. I’ll let you follow that trail if you feel like it.
Dog years…the banner linked to my website: this was pre-iTunes.
The truth is, that post was part of the relaunch of the blog after moving to Squarespace. Publishing on the web, however, in one form or another, has been part of my life since around 2001. That’s a long time in dog years. It was mostly about music back then but still...the course had been set.
A lot has changed since those days, with social media overtaking the role blogging sites once held while injecting corporatism, invasion of privacy and toxic discourse into the mix. Audiences became followers, a term that almost fully eliminates the idea of conversation. Following is a passive act, after all.
I’m awfully proud of all of you, reading these words right now. I’m proud of the richness of exchanges I’ve had with so many of you through comments or email. The in-person encounters during travels that have always been so nice and rewarding. I’m proud of the civility you’ve always shown, since the very beginning, despite my desire to go off the rails sometimes and chase away my demons. I’ve never held back and you’ve never punished me for it. I’ve never had to deal with hecklers either. I consider all of this an enormous gift. This blog is where I spill blood—and it’s not going anywhere. But today I’m launching a new phase of publishing.
1EYE SOCIETY is a membership area solely dedicated to deconstructing photography and storytelling. It’s an ongoing course, a little like a living book, that will touch on all aspects of the craft, similar to the type of educational content I’ve published here (and through magazines) over the years, but without anything else thrown in. A project with a singular focus, if you will.
Structure
The content is divided into two main sections that reflect the material they contain:
Part of the member Dashboard.
COMPENDIUM: the central repository for educational material and long form articles.
DISSECTIONS: a weekly image analysis.
You may recognize the Dissections moniker: this is a term I used in a couple of blog posts over the past year (here and here). The idea was to “dissect” how an image was created, from capture to processing. I’m moving this to the new website as a regular feature, but the concept remains unchanged. As a source, I’ll either be picking material from my archive or from recent essays I’ve published.
COMPENDIUM content will be more extensive and I’ve laid out quite a long list of topics I want to cover over time.
But I don’t want any of this to be linear: I want participation to colour 1EYE SOCIETY as a whole. There’s an form on the DASHBOARD page where members can send topic requests, potentially shaping how and when material will appear. I’m also opening up the DISSECTIONS concept with EXTERNAL ANALYSIS: once a month I’d like to either analyze a single image or review a short essay submitted by a 1EYE SOCIETY member (1).
The perks of membership
1EYE SOCIETY isn’t just about access to evolving content. Here’s what’s included with the membership:
STYLE PACKS
This is a first for me: I’ll be releasing Capture One Style Packs, twice a year, exclusively for 1EYE SOCIETY members. There are two packs currently available: COLOUR TRIAD 01 and MONO TRIAD 01. These are my own personal styles that I use as starting points every day.
All packs come with a short PDF Read Me file but more comprehensive guides will also appear in the COMPENDIUM section—a way to also explore the nitty gritty of image processing. An article entitled Visual Dive: RUBICON is already part of the initial launch content.
BOOKS ETC
1EYE SOCIETY provides access to everything I’ve previously published and everything I WILL publish during an active membership. And all downloads are yours to keep, forever—even if you no longer subscribe.
Members also get a two-week exclusivity window to every upcoming release. There are two titles in the works at the moment: Ordained and 1Eye, Roaming IV | Britannia.
But I’m also happy to announce 1Eye, Roaming | 2nd Edition - Expanded. Preempting the tenth anniversary in 2021 (2), this re-edition features a new introduction, 27 additional images, an essay and Q&A on the state of street photography and a foreword by my good friend, Canadian photographer Ian McDonald.
This edition will be replacing the original book when it’s officially released on October 15. It’s available for pre-download today as part of the membership.
Plus: this is a stamped and signed exclusive version that will only be available through The Society (I know it’s a PDF but…this makes it a special PDF?).
PRIVATE SLACK COMMUNITY
I’ve missed having a forum on this website for years (Squarespace decided to get rid of them after V5—does anyone remember #Togs?). So call me old-fashioned but I’m looking forward to direct conversations.
REBATES
This part is pending because I still need to finalize a few details. Namely, online workshops…for which there will be discount codes. I’ll have more about this very soon (3).
The Details
The project might seem like a reaction to the pandemic: it is and it isn’t. It’s an idea I’d had for a long time and in fact, I started preliminary work on this in 2019. But when we were hit by the virus, I immediately recoiled from the concept: offering a subscription just felt wrong all of a sudden. I even went the other way by releasing all my books for free, knowing full well that, in the process, I was devaluing the very content I’d been building on.
Part of me still feels uneasy about a paywall. I’m a card-carrying member of the free Internet generation after all, the wild wild west of the electronic frontier. But I can’t sit here and pretend life hasn't changed, because it has— and I want to build a house on a sustainable, solid foundation. I also want to build a house that doesn’t belong to the Facebooks and Googles of the world, and doesn’t plunder the lives of everyone who visits, without their knowledge. And I want to build a house with a roof, where I can write even if it rains.
So, here’s the deal: the 1EYE SOCIETY membership is $99 USD/year, charged yearly. There are technical reasons behind this but mainly, having regular members around for a year is what makes this entire endeavour worthwhile. It’s a chance to build a community and to get meaningful input—ultimately to focus on creating valuable content.
The website is fully accessible: anyone can browse every page and preview any article. I’ve also created some free content and compiled this on a single post, as a sampler, so you may get a sense of the overall direction.
If you have any feedback or questions feel free to get in touch—I could’ve tweaked the concept forever but I figured the best way to grow was to open the gates.
So there you have it: 1EYE SOCIETY—Chapter One. It’s not perfect and it’s likely to evolve over time but it’s up, ready to go, and I believe there’s some pretty cool content already.
Hope to see you there :)
…
This could be done anonymously of course.
That would be the original images (2011), not the book which came later.
There are also print projects on the table and I’m hoping to offer discounts for these as well—or exclusives maybe? I’m open to suggestions.
