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January 03, 2008
State of the Union
Well it's a new year and I thought I'd give you guys on update on my plans: First, as I've vaguely alluded to I should have a book out in early spring (probably April). It's a roughly chronological look at life in the United States from the late 19th century through the early 70s. About half the photos in the book are mine and of those only about half have been posted here or on Square America so most of it will be new to everybody. I'll be posting a lot more information about the book as we get closer to publication.
As for the redesign of Square America: While I'm still committed to making some changes I'm not sure what the time frame will be. Eventually the site will more or less split in two. One section will be more or less the site as it exists now- a series of thematic shows- though the design may be a bit different and I think the overall tone will get a bit more serious (or at least a bit less kitschy). The second section will hopefully be a fully searchible archive of everything in my collection. You'll be able to search by keyword, date, or location. This is a huge project as it will involve not only scanning about 10,000 new photos but also going back and tagging all of the 4500 photos that are currently on the site. I'm not putting any time tables on the redesign but hope to have it done sometime this year. As I've mentioned I'll also be adding video though I'm not exactly sure how I'll integrate it into the site. I also plan to go back and clean up a lot of the older shows, probably deleting a few photos but adding a lot more and most importantly moving photos around so each show is viewable on a single page.
As for this site- I'm still not sure exactly what to do with it. My New Years Resolution was to post here every day that I wasn't travelling- that lasted until 12:01am Jan. 2nd. Still, I will try to post here more regularly. I will change things up a bit: I'm going to try to write at least two essays a month- some being very close readings of specific photos, others will be more general. Nothing in the world causes me as much anxiety as writing so two a month might be stretching it but hopefully I'll get it done. I also may make the site a bit bloggier- I won't be telling you what I had for lunch but I may expand the range of topics beyond snapshots. I'll certainly be posting lots of video clips from my home movie collection as soon as I get access to transfer equipment. This site only gets a tenth of the traffic Square America does so I've considered just letting it go and concentrating all my energy there but I think (for now anyway) I'll keep it and try to make a bit more of a stand-alone site rather than just a place to announce what I'm doing over on the big site. Of course I would be remiss if I didn't announce that I should have a new show (or two) up at Square America sometime next week- I'll probably post a preview over the weekend.
Let me finish by thanking everyone who's visited both sites over the last year- my traffic more than tripled and all of that is due to viewers linking to the site. I think this year the site will be even better- adding video alone will be a huge plus. Among the shows you can look forward to I'm particularly excited about doing a show of my 3D slides (as animated gifs that give a more or less 3D effect) and a Sex show that will definitely be NSFW. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Posted by nick at January 3, 2008 01:39 PM
Comments
When I found out about this site, I was impressed and bookmarked it, returning almost daily. I maintain a couple of sites (high school reunion, other personal sites for photos, etc.) and can appreciate the amount of work required for something of this scale. Thanks for your great work!
Re: "This site only gets a tenth of the traffic Square America does so I've considered just letting it go and concentrating all my energy there" -- I think that part of the problem, if that's the right word, is that there isn't a clear link to the "tbl.squareamerica.com" page. A user has to click on a photo, not a link that's clearly marked. Perhaps you can make something more prominent on the home page?
It's just a suggestion...
Again - thanks!
Mike
Posted by: Michael Herlihy at January 3, 2008 06:31 PM
Nick your site is truly the best online gallery, we all appreciate the immense effort you put to it.
Thanks (and happy new year)
Posted by: Rick Jagger at January 3, 2008 07:07 PM
This site makes me weep , squirm and rejoice. I'll find you no matter what rejigging you do. Thank you
Posted by: Kate at January 3, 2008 11:43 PM
Thanks for the kind words everyone! Michael: thanks for the suggestion- one of the things I'll be doing in the redesign is making navigating the site much easier and making the links more obvious will certainly be a part of that.
Posted by: nick at January 4, 2008 01:56 PM
I'm so thankful that you do all you do to bring us the pleasure of seeing your fabulous finds. Thank you.
Posted by: Carol at January 5, 2008 03:10 AM
I appreciate the work that you put into your hobby. Thanks for sharing.
Mike
Posted by: Mike at January 14, 2008 01:29 PM
The Meat Beetles love your site, and we thank you for all the work you do to make these wonderful images available.
Posted by: A Meat Beetle at January 17, 2008 10:59 PM