(February 26, 2005) — A Rochester company has joined forces with a digital photographers' group and an on-demand publisher to produce a book of photos whose proceeds will go to aid victims of December's tsunami.
The book, Images to Brighten Our World, debuted Feb. 4. It is a collection of 133 photographs taken by members of Digital Photography Internationale Partners, an online photographers guild. Lulu.com, a North Carolina company that uses its Web site to help authors publish books, contracted with the guild to produce the book.
ColorCentric Corp., at 10 Carlson Road, prints the book on Xerox Corp. equipment. Lulu uses ColorCentric for its printing.
The book arose from conversations between Lulu and James Geddes, a Seattle-based photographer who founded the guild and had used Lulu to produce a calendar of his work. Geddes was looking for an appropriate response to the tragedy. He wanted to do "something more than just putting links to agencies on my Web site."
"I felt I wasn't doing enough to help" after the tsunami, Geddes said. He lined up photographers from four countries to contribute their work. He co-edited the book with Trine Sirnes of Norway.
"I felt like coming up with a collaboration was better than just having my photos in a coffee table book," he said.
Photo selection, layout and design were completed in about 10 days, Geddes said.
"If they had to go the normal route, it would have taken six months," said John Lacagnina, president and chief executive of ColorCentric.
The partners are donating $25 of the $34.95 cost of each book directly to Save the Children, the Humane Society and Sarvodaya, a Sri Lankan charity. So far, Geddes said, the book has raised almost $4,000.
Lulu was excited that its site helped generate the book, said spokesman Stephen Fraser.
"It's an example of an Internet community using us to build a product that's helping people," he said.
The photographers have been impressed with the quality of the book. "I was envisioning something with some sort of spiral binding, and they came back with this hardbound book," Geddes said.
