The Photobook Workshop: Edit, Design and Bind

Led by photographer and educator Jordan Putt, this hands-on workshop guides photographers through the complete process of creating a photobook from editing a large archive of images, to sequencing, designing, printing, and hand-binding the final book.

Participants will work with an existing project of 50–100 images. Through lectures, collaborative editing, sequencing exercises, demonstrations, and bookmaking sessions, each participant will leave the workshop with a fully assembled, hand-bound photobook prototype.

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

• Edit a large set of images into a focused selection.

• Understand key photobook traditions and ways images build meaning in sequence.

• Learn practical sequencing and pacing techniques.

• Build a photobook layout using Adobe InDesign.

• Prepare files for printing and troubleshoot prints.

• Bind a book using a simple, elegant hand-binding technique.

• Leave with a completed hand-bound photobook prototype.

Materials needed:

• 50–100 small printed photographs (smaller than 8 x 10 inches) from a single ongoing or completed project. These can be printed on a laser printer or inkjet printer).

  • Students can use ACP Printers to make these prints on the first day of the class.

• Laptop with InDesign installed or ACP computer access.

• USB drive or hard drive with all images.

• Double-sided matte or specified paper for printing pages. 

  • We will go over these options during the first few weeks of class so you can choose the correct paper to purchase for your book.

• Cardstock or hardcover supplies for the book cover.

ACP will provide printing access and book-binding supplies.

The Photobook Workshop will meet for 7 weeks on Thursdays, from 6 - 9 PM, beginning January 22nd. 

Jordan Putt is a photographer whose work responds to issues of place, identity, and community. He earned a BA in Psychology from Northern Arizona University in 2014, and an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2020. His work has been exhibited in the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson; Filter Space, Chicago;  House of Lucie, Los Angeles; and Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago;  among others. He was a 2022 recipient of the Research and Development Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and a 2023 finalist for the Lucie Photo Book Prize. Previously Jordan has held positions at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Sir Elton John Photography Collection. Jordan is currently based in Atlanta, GA, where he is a Visiting Lecturer of  Photography at Georgia State University.