Norfolk Island Book

This is a coffee table book of imagery and text of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific. Insprint has operated on Norfolk Island from 2008 to 2017 and the photography was taken though Landscape Photography work, work for the publications we have created since 2008 and also through some Tourism promotion work and personal imagery. It is a collection of all of that work, but not presented as a personal photographic journey as that is not the desired narrative of the piece. It is a book for anyone, that encompasses the destination through striking imagery of the island but also of its people, heritage areas and buildings, museums and parts of its contemporary culture and events. The section flows through the island’s history and culture, to its buildings and various areas with information about each. The design of the book started in 2018 and I then revisited the island on 2 occasions after setting out the overall design structure of this book in 2018 and 2019 for work. During which time I scheduled shoots to make sure I had the imagery that it needed to complete the book. I wrote over 10,000 words which are threaded through the publication. Other than the introduction they are all written tin the 3rd person as more of a factual piece than a personal journey. I worked with a historian and copy editor for checking the writing and the book printer for checking the overall specifics and file. I prepressed the imagery set up the entire document for print.

DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES

Anyone can turn up somewhere and swing a camera about, but to be able to do that over a sustained period respectfully and in every season and light, is a tricky challenge, but it also a wonderful privilege. The imagery used as a basis for this publication was taken over a significant period and the greatest challenge was patience. I have wanted to publish this imagery-led book for a long time, but it hadn’t felt quite right. Others have tried, and it always seemed to me that their publications lacked something, and I became determined not to make this book a flip book of pretty pictures. The other challenge I faced was creating a publication from the ground up that had a ‘business model’ attached to it that illustrated it was going to be profitable. To do that I had to entertain several sales and production scenarios. I considered the consumer which would be largely made up of the Norfolk Island visitor demographic, and I aligned that with the physical form of the finished publication. I worked out the correct physical presence of the publication to match a perceived Retail price point and locked in a specification that matched with a sales model and production cost to evaluate the viability of the publication and feasible return. I had to consider the logistical challenges of moving 2-3 pallets of printed material from Mainland Australia to Norfolk Island, the storage implications over the initial print run’s lifespan and the cost of shipping, storage and distribution