Small portfolio in Moleskine notebook

I knew a photographer in NY who had a tiny little notebook made of foreskins. When he stroked it a few times it turned into a 16x20 binder.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Mark

I know this thread is two years old, but I just ran across a short video showing Mary Ellen Mark's little Moleskine book with photographs. It's not as elegant as David's Kolo book, but thought you'd all like to see it.

http://www.moleskine.it/eng/_interni/city/detour/Detour-mark.htm

Also, here's the page with videos of other artists using Moleskines...

http://www.moleskine.it/eng/_interni/city/exhibition.htm

Very nice. It looks like hers is in the Moleskine "Japanese Album" with foldout pages, which I hadn't seen before.

Here's the Moleskine I use for exposure notes--

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

It's a lot more mundane looking than M-E-M's, but I like the idea of putting contact prints in the notebook and turning it into a kind of diary and then having the contact print available to write on in the darkroom. It would only be practical I suppose for 4x5" and smaller unless I want to carry a large sketchbook with the larger cameras.

David...

I picked up a Japanese Album a few months ago for my wife who is an artist. she loves it. I ended up getting one for myself as well but haven't used it yet, in fact, I have a stack of Moleskines still sitting in their wrappers in the closet. I can't help myself, always grabbing one here and there.

I do use a 6x7-ish regular Moleskine notebook for darkroom notes, but don't put any contact prints in there, at least not yet.

I haven't used a Moleskine for field notes, but it's a great idea esp for large format work.

Back in August 7 of 2007 I wrote the following. I was looking for super thin B&W printing paper. The photo paper of today is usually .008"-.010" thick. If you use a thin .0035" paper, one does not have to remove as many pages.

My post of 08-07-07

I enjoy keeping a personal journal. I use a Moleskine 5" x 8" sketchbook. I mount a photograph of a sight, scene, person or place that I really find interesting.

The cameras that fit in my pocket are the most used, a Leica III, FED I, Ikonta B or even a half frame Olympus pen or Chaika. Either are loaded with Tri-x or XP-2. I make prints usually no larger than 2.5"x3.7" for the 35mm negs OR contact print the Ikonta 120 negs. On the odd occasion (very odd) I have used pack Polaroid, both B&W 3000 type 667 and type 669 color. On even more odd occasions I have used the EX-Z850 Casio Exilim.

After the photographs are mounted in this "notebook", I usually write my thoughts and or impressions in the remaining margins around the page. I write with either a #2 Ticonderoga, or a #705 Noblot ink pencil.

THE PROBLEM is the added thickness of the photographs make the book too thick to close properly, SO right from the start as I fill the book I have to cut out every other page, this way with the added thickness of the pictures maintains the original thickness of the book.

THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION:

IF I had thinner paper for my prints, I would not have to cut out half the pages in the notebook. The Moleskine Sketch book pages are as I understand are of "Acid free rag".

All the best,
Sam H.

David A. Goldfarb said:

Very nice. It looks like hers is in the Moleskine "Japanese Album" with foldout pages, which I hadn't seen before.

Click to expand...

I caught that, too, and also, that the last page has been cut loose from the binding. That probably was done so that the book wouldn't expand, since an appropriate number of panels can be removed at the end to compensate for the increasing thickness as materials are added. Also, once cut loose, the back sides of the panels, normally inaccessible, would be usable. Of course, to serve the end of managing the size, it might help to use the front and back of each panel before going on to the next, snipping out the necessary pages at the end each time. This could drive the reader nuts; maybe that's why she doesn't seem to have done that.

This video was very enjoyable, for me. I've kept sketchbooks over several decades now, very erratically, but frequently I've glued in whatever needed preservation for any reason, even to the point of packing a gluestick with me. M E M is a working artist, and she uses this format here not so much as a portfolio, but the way many artists do to keep notes, sketches and ideas in whatever form they might occur. It is very interesting and informative to see how she uses her book. I'm certainly going to explore the idea of using the Japanese folding book.

I went to Moleskine's site thinking that I had seen a version of their sketchbook, maybe the watercolor book, which had every page scored for potential removal. The site makes no mention of anything like that; only the extra small Volant notebook is said to have every page removable. The larger versions have only the last 16 pages scored as have the cahiers. That wouldn't work as well as being able to tear out the next page when necessary.