Newswise — Bill Wolff’s latest project won’t appear on a library shelf or in the local Barnes & Noble. Those brick-and-mortar structures just won’t reach enough people. The project requires an audience as large as the Internet.
Photos for the Gulf, a new book co-edited by Wolff, will help the people of the Gulf Coast recover from the ravages the BP oil spill, which is vitally important work, the Rowan University Writing Arts professor says.
Wolff and Billie Hara, a professor of English at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, collaborated on Photos for the Gulf, a collection of 22 images and reflections that depict life on the Gulf Coast.
Composed in response to the April 2010 BP oil spill, the book is the first published by Composing with Images Press, the non-profit organization that’s an offspring of composingwithimages.com, a photo blog the professors started in 2009. Composing with Images Press takes advantage of Blurb.com’s print-on-demand publishing model to reach the most people, save costs and allow the book to get to individuals as quickly as possible.
All of the proceeds from Photos for the Gulf--$5 from each book sold--will be donated to The Gulf Relief Network to help support oil spill relief efforts. Since its publication on Oct. 20, the six-month anniversary of the spill, the book has raised $790.
The book is available for purchase online at Blurb.com’s Blurb for Good bookstore at http://j.mp/gulf-book.
The book is a collection of works from professional and amateur photographers that celebrates the beauty and character of the Gulf region. Each photo includes reflections by the photographers, who live nationwide. All Gulf States are represented.
“We didn’t think we needed pictures of oil-soaked pelicans,” says Wolff, who teaches courses on visual rhetoric, new media and the history and technologies of writing at Rowan.
Images of wildlife helped tell the story of the enormity and devastation of the oil spill, but Photos for the Gulf was designed to “get people to focus on the Gulf that they’ve known and loved,” says Wolff, who lives in Bear, Del.
“We sought images that depicted the Gulf Coast of the past and present and for photos that represented the range of activities, communities and ecosystems of the vast Gulf region.”
To that end, one of Wolff’s entries focuses on an area of City Park in New Orleans ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, “a lush space…barely clinging to life,” he writes.
“I spent quite a bit of time with (a) massive live oak and bench on the banks of Big Lake, contemplating the depths of the destruction and the strength needed to withstand it,” Wolff writes. “I still contemplate the same thing.”
Another photo and reflection focus on the landmark Café du Monde, which, Wolff says, “sums up New Orleans for me.” Wolff has been to New Orleans just once, in 2008, for a conference. But he was smitten with the café’s coffee with chicory and beignets smothered in powdered sugar--and its indomitable spirit. Wolff’s photo shows customers enjoying the café—and the entertainment of street musicians outside.
“I learned that no matter what New Orleans is hit with—whether it is water or crude oil—it will continue to be a place where creativity thrives,” Wolff writes.
Rowan Writing Arts Professor Sanford Tweedie had a photo accepted to appear in the book. He focused his entry on Loa Bar at the International House Hotel, one of his favorite spots in New Orleans. Other contributors to the book include professional photographers and writers, professors, and other enthusiasts of the Gulf Coast region.
“Several of the contributors are professors. Many are professional photographers or concerned citizens,” says Wolff.
“We asked for submissions that depicted what they felt represented the region,” he continues. “We wanted the book to have a very clean layout to represent that metaphor of cleanliness.”
Wolff became an avid photographer in 2001 after taking an introductory course at the University of Texas at Austin.
“For me, photography is very meditative. It’s a way of capturing the world,” says Wolff, who loves shooting with his Holga camera.
Wolff’s photos have appeared in juried gallery shows at The Saans Downtown Gallery in Salt Lake City, UT, and The Pierro Gallery in West Orange. He recently completed his first-ever solo show, “Decompositions and Other Reflections,” at Whereabouts Café in Newark, Del. His work also has appeared in the online magazine, Pictory.
Wolff was in Texas when Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. When the BP oil spill happened last April, he recalled the same sense of helplessness he felt after the hurricane.
“I’m very concerned about the fate of our natural surroundings. It was just maddening watching the spill continue, watching how inept the government and BP were to stop it,” says Wolff. “It was really enraging.”
Wolff acknowledges he doesn’t have the skills to put on hip boots and clean up oil. But Photos for the Gulf can assist in helping the Gulf get back on its feet yet again, he says.
“They still need money,” he says. “Though no longer covered daily by the mainstream media, the Gulf Coast and its residents are still being affected by the spill.
“Remember,” he continues, “the spill released over 200 million gallons of crude oil in the Gulf—six times the amount spilled in the Exxon Valdez. It will negatively impact the Gulf for decades.”
Photos for the Gulf is the first of what Wolff hopes will be other theme-based photo books Composing with Images Press will design for important causes.
“It’s a way for us to do good,” he says. “People do want to help.”
For information about Photos for the Gulf, visit www.composingwithimages.com.
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