I have created and sold many different folios. I like the small, individual prints as they provide a more intimate and tactile relationship with the photographs.
I got the idea from Brooks Jensen, the gorgeously printed LensWork Magazine editor and an excellent photographer. I use ready-made folio covers and print the title to show in a window. Brooks has much nicer custom folio covers with embossed titles, but I am happy with what I have.
Curate
The first step is to curate the photographs that will make up a folio. I want the visitors involved in the process. Please do not hesitate to participate as there are no right or wrong answers. In the following collection, I have selected some photographs from a visit to Utah and edited them. When I did that, I converted the photographs to black and white to make the shapes, lines, forms, and texture come forward. Maintaining a harmonious, supporting appearance was also in my mind. Some of these photographs were taken later in the day and may appear darker. I chose to retain that mood. All are lightly toned in the style of platinum prints of the old times.
Sequence
I aim for the completed folio to consist of eight to twelve photographs, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper. I gave the folio a tentative title “Visions of Utah” but remain open to suggestions. Each print will have the folio title and my name as the photographer below the photographs and they will most likely be nine inches on the long edge. That will leave about one-inch margins along that dimension and a little more on the other sides. Something like the following samples:
Click on the images to see them larger, uncropped, and read their titles.


As you look through the collection, you will notice some obvious redundancies which I would like to eliminate. Your contribution will be in helping me pick eight to twelve photographs to include in the finished folio. In the gallery below, each photograph is numbered along with the same title. You can write a comment and indicate your suggested folio title along with the numbers of your selected images. Additional comments are welcome as they may help coalesce the idea more clearly and solidly in my mind. Here are a few points to keep in mind:
- There may be multiple views of a scene
- Although they may look like different crops from one image, all are unique images or separately stitched panoramas
- The photographs are not the well-known highlights of national parks
- The order of presentation of the images here has no significance, nor in numerical order by name
- The gallery display determines the size of the thumbnails, click to see them larger
- I include in the certificate of authenticity page of the folio a recommended order of viewing
- Feel free to recommend a particular order of presentation and viewing
- If you were to write a short paragraph about the folio, what ideas would you like to convey?
Print and Enclose
Please consider sharing your thoughts and ask questions if you have any. After I get some feedback and make the final selection, I will share them once more. Then the completed folio. While you are in the mood (I hope) will you consider creating a folio yourself using your photographs?
And, without further ado, here are the nominees for the Visions of Utah folio.


















Haluk Atamal
Cemal, thanks for your beautiful b/w rendering of your curation. I will keep it in my mind as a homework to be carried out some time in the future – when hopefully I will have the time to fulfill your suggestion of “While you are in the mood (I hope) will you consider creating a folio yourself using your photographs?”
Take care and best regards,
Haluk
A. Cemal Ekin
Phew! Good to hear from you, Haluk. I hope you will have plenty of time to do this kind of stuff when you retire (soon!)
Take care,
Cemal