A first solo flight
Mike Sciacca
For much of Roger Camp’s career, the camera has been his
livelihood.
The 57-year-old has photographed a vast range of subjects
throughout the years, his work of the natural world ranging from
landscapes and beach scenes to fauna and flowers.
Camp, a professor of photography at Golden West College, has even
had his work published in numerous magazines, European publications
and displayed in exhibitions.
But for the first time in his career, Camp is being published on
his own.
He is the author of the new coffee table book, “Butterflies in
Flight.”
The accordion-style book contains 48 pages and those pages, or
“panels,” as he calls them, can be stretched out to about 42 feet.
Each panel, which is the equivalent to two pages, is designed to
stand on its own, as an individual piece of art. Each panel in the
book transitions into the next panel.
Those panels, of course, display Camp’s most recent subject of
devotion: butterflies.
And there are plenty of butterflies in his colorful book, with
more than 300 images of 285 species of butterflies.
“I was working on a project photographing flowers and one day the
thought of butterflies just came to me. It seemed like a natural
transition,” Camp said. “They were much like flowers, many coming
with a wide range of colors, patterns and shapes. It was a really fun
and interesting project.”
Camp, who has been on the Golden West College staff since 1977 --
the same year he moved to Huntington Beach -- said one year of the 1
1/2 years it took to complete the project, was devoted strictly to
studying butterflies.
He features just two North American butterflies in the book with
butterflies from every continent represented on the 48 pages.
A unique aspect of Camp’s book, in addition to its accordion-style
shape, is that, although it is considered a photography book, its
images were not captured with a traditional camera or on film.
Each butterfly was individually scanned using a flat-bed scanner,
which Camp said, is like using a “high-end Xerox machine.”
It took him eight months, working 10-hour days, to layout the
butterflies to the page.
The book, he said, was inspired by Japanese artist Kanzaka Sekka’s
1904 woodblock-printed book, “One Thousand Kinds of Butterflies,”
which was published in 1979 in a facsimile edition under the title,
“A Flight of Butterflies.”
“It took up all my time. Thank goodness I was on sabbatical,” he
said of the project. “I had wondered if I could combine the
traditional format with modern photographic images of real
butterflies. Today’s computer imaging has allowed me to combine such
tradition with the beauty of the butterfly to create this book.”
Camp then went to work trying to finding a way to get his work
published.
He said he originally thought about self-publishing the book but
instead, listed what he considered to be the top 25 publishing
houses, then selected five houses and sent each a letter.
He was encouraged, he said, when two publishers phoned him within
the week. He then sent out five more letters to another five houses,
and got one call back.
He ended up signing with the publishing house, Thames & Hudson
which is based in New York and London.
“It’s extremely difficult to get a photography book published.
This being my first book on my own, I was a bit nervous about finding
someone who might be interested in my work,” Camp said.
Not only did Thames & Hudson publish the book, but put out a first
printing of 55,000 copies. That number is unusual for a photography
book, Camp said, noting that a sale of 3,000 to 5,000 would be
“considered a best seller” for such a book.
“Butterflies in Flight” has an official publishing date of Oct. 25
but Barnes & Noble Booksellers has purchased 10,000 copies
nationwide, he said, and beginning today, the Huntington Beach store
will have copies of the book available.
Included with the 48-page book is a companion eight-page booklet
that identifies each of the butterflies featured in Camp’s book and
their country of origin.
“From start to finish this project has been an extraordinary ride
for me,” Camp added. “I’m thrilled with having my first solo work
published and everything else that happens from here on out, is just
gravy.”
* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at
(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.
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