I am very proud to announce the artists that will be contributing to The Quiet Front Book 1; there are of course many more artists that I would love to work with in the future but I feel like I have a wonderful spread of artists from all over the world. I feel honoured that they are involved; here they are in no particular order:

I still have a lot of work to do behind the scenes because the idea of the books is that each artist is paid for their contribution; I want this site to become a catalyst for artists to do the work they feel strongly about with no regard for commercial concerns. The brief to each artist will be very simple: Do the work you love.

We are going to run a funding campaign and we would love your support; stay tuned.

If you would like to keep on the inside track as regards to this book and all future books then you can subscribe to the newsletter (no spam, I promise).

The Quiet Front started out as a collection of the photography that I find most compelling - it’s the type of work that is at odds with convention; it’s provocative; it’s beautiful; I was and still am completely obsessed with it.

The site has grown over the last two years; it has benefited from a few good links but mostly from the steady accumulation of people who find it and stick around. There are a lot of people who share this obsession and this site is now a lot bigger than just me.

I now want to push this into being more than just a reflection of the work that is already out there, I also want it to be a catalyst for artists and photographers to do the work they love.

There are some fantastic artists committed to Book 1.

On Creative Freedom

Artists shouldn’t be told what to do; they should be able to do whatever the fuck they want without any regard for anything but their own vision.

On Contributing Artists

The contributing artists are going come from the pages of this blog; some of the photographers are well established but I’m also going to make point of choosing artists that aren’t well known - there really is no point in making these books if I’m not risking it on the young. There is nothing more exciting than seeing new artists come up. I’m also going to make a point of showing artists from all over the world.

For now the books won’t be open for submissions but that may change in the future

On Paying Artists

Each book is going to be limited to a few artists and the lion’s share of the budget is going to go directly to them; as the publication grows, so too will their budget.

On Design

There is no design; nothing is going to get in the way of the work. Don’t expect fancy title pages or credits all over the images (they’ll be tucked away at the end of each set).

On Digital vs Print

There are obvious advantages to both of these mediums; digital books mean we can dedicate a much larger portion of the budget for artists and physical books have an intrinsic beauty. We’re going to stick to digital in the beginning and at the end of each year we’ll collect the work into a high quality physical book.

On Platforms

We’re on our own; this is mostly because of the overbearing restrictions of all the major platforms. A lot of the work is going to be provocative and will be subject to either outright censorship or the passive censorship of simply making your work impossible to find. There is also the issue of DRM which is a clusterfuck all round. The books will be DRM-free and sold directly from this site using Squarespace’s built in commerce.

On Pricing

I am still weighing the cost of the books. We are not going to cater to the broadest market and advertising / sponsorships are never going to be an option. I want to try to get the right balance between offering good value to the audience and also supporting the artists and this site.

The blog will always remain free.

On How and When

I am finalising the contributors for Book 1 and putting together an Indiegogo campaign which should go up in a few weeks time. (We can't use Kickstarter because of regional restrictions - I run this site from Cape Town)

I would love feed back on this project; if you have any ideas or comments then hit me @thequietfront.

If you would like to keep posted on the release then you can subscribe here:

Update:

You can find the list of contributing artists here.