Spotlight: Photographers on the World Stage

Tristan Hewat founded Shoot The Frame in 2012, giving photographers everywhere a chance to present their work on an international stage. He recently launched a new project, where he gathers the photos of the winners and finalists and showcases the collection in a beautiful book. His plan is to pull together the best photography from the last five years, putting the viewpoints of some of the world’s most outstanding photographers on display.

We caught up with Tristan, who talked with us a little bit about how it’s going.

Tell us about the book.

Shoot The Frame is a suite of monthly photography awards. Every month, photographers from around the globe enter portrait, landscape and wildlife contests endeavoring to expose their work and win a swag of prizes. Shoot The Frame has been around since 2012, so we are going back to creating a book for each year, filled with the finalists and winning images from the contests. The imagery is stunning. The photographers are incredibly talented and varied in style. The imagery will take you from the streets of India to the skies of Scandinavia and everywhere in between.

You’re planning to sell your books through the Blurb Bookstore – do you have a specific audience in mind?

This book is for anyone who wants a peek into every corner of the globe, through the eyes of outstanding photographers. It is for the Shoot The Frame photographers, themselves,  who want a beautifully published copy of their work. It is for the parents of the young photographers who are published in the book, so they can brag about how amazing their children are over dinner with friends. It is for a cafe owner, or a hairdresser, who is sick of having crappy magazines or newspapers in their shop, selling the same junk every day. It is for anyone who wants to be inspired to walk out the door with a camera and shoot the world around them. It is for all of us who endeavor to tell a better story within a single frame.

Books should be enjoyed, and shared, and eventually worn out with love. I don’t like the idea of creating a book that people don’t want to take off the bookshelf because it will get damaged.

How did you decide on the best trim size and paper type for your book?

We are really excited about the trade books. There is something about them that just feels right. They are nice to hold, and touch, and to throw on a coffee table. You don’t feel like you need to be too precious with them, which I really like. Books should be enjoyed, and shared, and eventually worn out with love. I don’t like the idea of creating a book that people don’t want to take off the bookshelf because it will get damaged. I like the idea of creating books which are enjoyed by as many people as possible, for as long as possible.

We are going for the chunkier 105 GMS and the best printing available in the trade books to get deep contrast on the images. They just feel good.

What have you learned in the book creation process?

Initially, we were going to use Adobe InDesign, but after exploring BookWright, we fell for the simplicity of the templates and process. Also, the stunning imagery helps. It’s pretty hard to make these images look bad. Seriously. They are stunning.

Initially, we were going to use Adobe InDesign, but after exploring BookWright, we fell for the simplicity of the templates and process.

What was the inspiration behind Shoot The Frame?

The mission of Shoot The Frame is pretty simple: Celebrate stunning photography and expose talented photographers from around the globe. It’s been our mission since Day One and is still fuelling our fire today. I guess the inspiration was really more of a gap than anything. There are tons of expensive photography awards with huge prizes, which are great, but most of them are annual. I wanted to create a monthly deadline for photographers to work toward, which could give them a chance to expose their work and their names. That was the catalyst for the launch in 2012.

We’re so excited about these gorgeous Shoot The Frame books with all this fantastic photography. It really takes us back to our roots, where we, too, wanted to make it easier for photographers to get their work out in the world. We can’t wait to see what else Shoot The Frame has in store!