Behind the scene making "Dark Pinup" w/ @wcpublishing!

Hey, Steemit! How are you? Me? I’m good. Thanks. For the last three days I’ve been living at a quaint AirBnB keeping @wcpublishing company during their visit to the Twin Cities. The three of us dedicated this entire weekend to making the first book collecting my photography work, “Dark Pinup”, a reality.

@wcpublishing has already published several books in the pinup genre including “Stocking Seams and Lipstick Queens”, their upcoming December release of “Dollface Vintage”, and two art books by Shannon Brooke […once of my all time favorite photographers] “GIRLS” and “VROOM!”. 

I swung by the “VROOM!” release party in Vegas this April, and as I picked up my copy, Bob approached me. He introduced himself and his wife Kelly, and simply asked “Would you like to talk more about doing a book with us?”. I took his card and we set up a meeting at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis.

The last six months has been correspondence, traveling and shooting new images for the book. It was finally time to break ground on the pages. I love branding and big collaborative projects. We began dumping over 1,000 photos in to DropBox, categorizing them by subject and theme. The first few hours became that beautiful, fluid creativity that you know will lead to something exceptional, while still not fully seeing what that will be.

Bob and Kelly, as a team, obviously have an established process. Working with other collaborators, especially artists, can be a challenge […as someone who regularly works with other artists]. I can honestly say, the three of us found a synergy early because we’re all relentless editors. No one’s feelings were considered when axing photos that didn’t work with the book […many of those hard cuts were made by me, and many of them I do have a personal attachment with]. Edits make good books. 

During the first day of layout, we decided on chapters [more or less], including dark photos, light photos, fantasy, black and white and erotica. As we chopped photos, both black and white and fantasy as individual sections were cut out, leaving us with the other three chapters which will be named “Shadows”, “Illuminations” and “Proclivities”.

Our work days were fueled by the best lunch spots in the Twin Cities. Gorkha Palace […a @lovejoy favorite], and Kyoto Sushi. Bob’s Pandora station filled the apartment with Bad Religion, Sublime, Misfits, Dead Kennedy’s, Streetlight Manifesto and lots and lots of Tim Armstrong. Slightly more Rancid than I’m used to, but I can’t tell you the value in being musically compatible with your project collaborators.

By the end of the second day, we’d completed “Shadows”, and when we wrapped this evening, we’d closed out “Illuminations”. “Proclivities” needs a few more pages, which gives us an opportunity to shoot some sexy new content over the next 6 weeks for the final chapter. I’m endlessly grateful that @wcpublishing has given me the opportunity to make this book, their hospitality while we worked, and the freedom to give “Dark Pinup” an unmistakable “Kommienezuspadt” feel.

Thanks for reading. When the book is finished, we’ll definitely have copies available here on Steemit, be it through @steemshop, or SBD’s directly. Take a moment to follow @wcpublishing for even more progress on Dark Pinup. You can follow me here @kommienezuspadt. I post daily.