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An incomplete list of what was great about Candela's Indie PhotoBook Showcase

1. Quirk Hotel decided I was the 1,000,000 member of their loyalty club, and left me a cake, a bottle of champagne, flowers, and...a copy of Gordon's book!!!  Welcome to Richmond, Virginia.

2. I ate fried chicken for every meal except for the one where I ate fried pork.

3. Candela Gallery is an amazing space run by some pretty awesome people.  Gordon Stettinius is not just a gallery owner, and book publisher, but he's also one of us - a photographer.  He has a million great ideas, and is a really funny guy.

4. LISA ELMALEH & MEG GRIFFITHS

5. Eliott Dudik and Jared Ragland working really, really hard while we sat around.

6. Eliott Dudik's John Snow hair.

7. The real grownup at Candela is Ashby Nickerson.  She is half my age, but for the moment has twice the white hair.  By choice.

8. Seeing people light up from looking at Charth Vader prints warmed my cold and icy heart.  Until now, I haven't shown him much, and I forgot how good it feels to watch people enjoy your work.  Not sure I've shown anything that prompted such good feelings in people.  It made me happy.

9. The Charth Vader book was acquired by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where it will be added to their Special Collections.  Thank you, Lee Viverette!!

Peanut Press x Candela's Indie PhotoBook Showcase

Peanut Press is taking it's show on the road!

Our friend and colleague, Gordon Stettinius is hosting the Indie PhotoBook Showcase at his Candela Gallery in Richmond, Virginia.  Six Charth Vader prints will be featured in the gallery, and we will be selling limited editions, and the last few trade editions of the (sold out!)  Charth Vader book!!!  

from Candela:

Candela Books + Gallery will feature a compelling selection of work from eleven well-crafted, self-published and small press photography books.
The purpose of the exhibition is to highlight the range of ways independently published photography books are being produced today. As a publisher, Candela is committed to the quality and design of the printed medium. We believe the photographic books on view have an intimate relationship with each photographer's work and make a remarkable contribution to their legacy.

Read more about the event here.

Events:

PhotoBook Fair: Saturday, May 7th, 1-5pm
Happy Hour & Panel Discussion: Saturday, May 7th, 5-7pm

Come on over and say hi!

New title for 2017!

We are beyond thrilled to announce that we will be publishing Victoria Will's first book. She is talented, brilliant, and the nicest person we have ever met with a Princeton education.  The book will feature her fascinating and compelling tintypes of celebrities from the 2014 and 2015 Sundance Film Festival.   To learn more about Victoria, visit her website.

 

A new title for 2016!!!

Peanut Press is pleased to announce an addition to our 2016 lineup!!  We will be publishing a book featuring the street photography of Richard Bram.  Spanning in time from 2008, when he first moved to New York, to 2016, to the present day, this book looks back on his love for the energy and people of the city.

Richard is a member of iN-PUBLiC, a street photography collective, and has led workshops around the world.  His work is featured in collections such as the Museum of the City of New York, the Museum of London, and Bibliotheque national de France, Paris. 

Learn more about Richard at richardbramphoto.com

Happy New Year!

In 2015, I released my first book, and started an imprint with my friend (and now editor-in-chief) David Carol.
I had no idea what was in store.

I knew I would feel proud and accomplished, and I hoped I would be happy with the book.

I had a pretty good idea that I would be supported by friends and family - the same people who support me no matter what I do.

I had no idea what it would feel like to receive such support from my photo community.

Peanut Press loves a list, so here is a list of some of the unexpected things that happened 2015:

1. Charth Vader (the book) sold out in 2 weeks. That was crazy. Did that really happen? (Limited editions still available here!)

2. People shared my work! As photographers, there’s a protocol we follow for work we like - if your receive something in the mail - a book, or a print, photograph it and share it on fb. If you read an interesting interview about a photographer whose work you love, we share it. It helps our friends find a wider audience. I share work all the time, but I didn’t realize that people would do it for me, or how touched I would be each and every time.

3. Driving Charlie to school in the morning, and getting a call asking if I would be interviewed for the news. Fortunately I wasn’t wearing pajamas. Unfortunately, I wasn’t exactly put together, either. Time to up my game in carpool fashion.

4. Shipping is a lot of work. Be careful what you wish for.

5. Elizabeth Avedon’s Top 10 list!

6. People passed my work on to people who write articles!

7. People wrote articles about the book!

8.  The nice messages and email I received about my work.  I will never again hesitate to tell another photographer how much I like their work.

9. The number of poop jokes you can sneak into the branding of a company.

10.  How grateful I would feel about all of it.

It was a big year, and there’s more in store for 2016. We want to make more books - the kind of books that we like to see, with work that we feel strongly is worthy of attention. We can’t wait to tell you what we have planned. Stay tuned!

To my friends, family, and fellow photographers, I want to thank you for all the unexpected surprises in 2015. It means more to me than you know.

Wishing you unexpected surprises in 2016.

-Ashly Stohl
founder, Peanut Press Books

Charth Vader Goes Viral

We are so happy to see the excitement about Peanut's first book, and everyone's favorite galactic warlord, Charth Vader.  First the galaxy, now he is dominating the internet...

Printing a Peanut Publication

Why did we print Charth Vader at Meridian Printing in Rhode Island?  They have printed some amazing books for our favorite photographers.  If it's good enough for Lee Friedlander, Richard Avedon, Robert Adams and Irving Penn, it's good enough for us.

We arrived in the morning and the first sheet was already printed.

Thanks to Joe Chanin's many rounds of proofs, and the skill of the guys running the press, it looked amazing.  But there was still work to be done.  Registration needs to be checked, and ink levels changed to adjust the tones of the image.  How do you do that?

First you get a group of people to stand around and look at the sheet.

Then you wave your hands over it.

Throw it in the trash.

And ask the giant press for a new one.

While the press is working on your new sheets, there is time to kill. You can immerse yourself in Meridian's a library of amazing photo books,

and get some important work done.

Then we recheck the press proofs

and the whole process starts again.  It's exhausting.

But by the end of the day, we had something that we all could agree looked amazing.

Ashly gave the final ok

and the pages were printed...

Joe was blown away by the quailty of the printing at Meridian.

Now the sheets will be cut and bound, and turned into a book.  Pre-order yours today!

 http://peanutpressbooks.com/collections/charth-vader