Click the "Back This Project" button to the right to donate to this project and receive your reward! Thank you for your support!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/surrealscapes

Twitter: www.twitter.com/surrealscapes

Hey out there, Kickstarter!

I'm looking to put together a collection of the past 3 years of my body art and creative photography work, where I have focused on created photographs using image projection techniques. I want to make this art accessible to as wide an audience as possible, and I believe a book is the best way to make that happen.

My Body Art and Creative Photography

I've been doing photography since 1995, body art and bodypainting since 2003, but in 2007, I started to focus exclusively on creating art using image projection techniques onto live models, to make what I call lightpaintings.

Throughout my time with photography, I was never satisfied with just photographing what was already there. I wanted to make something that didn't exist and then photograph that. The concept of image projections isn't new and in fact photographers have been using projecting images onto people for decades. But for me, a lightpainting is more than just projecting random images onto beautiful models. I create the images to be projected myself, and then I do all the photography myself. So this lightpainting process is a multi-layered endeavor that spans different artistic outlets, and at the end of it, I have images that couldn't have been created by any single method alone.

I create the projection images in several different ways: from scratch using various computer graphics programs, hand-drawn or hand-painted, or photographed from real-world objects and textures.

Why Kickstarter

This campaign is more than just about getting funds to get the book printed: it's about me participating in what has rapidly become a new way to collaborate. The term often used to describe what Kickstarter makes possible is "crowdfunding" or "crowdsourcing" but those sound so cold and don't give this process the credit it deserves. I prefer the term "community creation" because that indeed is what it is: people coming together, from all over the place, in support of a single goal, the end result of which is the creation of something that everyone involved can appreciate and enjoy. 

I think this is very important and I believe this is the way the world is going, and I'm excited to have the opportunity to be a part of it.

What the Funding is For

The funding is for an offset printing run of the book. Printers that do offset printing have minium order quanitities in the hundreds and dollar amounts in the thousands because they produce books en masse, as opposed to on-demand printers that can do very low or even single quantities of books. At first I thought I could do the book via on-demand printing, but after I did some test runs it turned out that the quality of the both the images in the book and the book construction itself just wasn't there, so offset printing is the way to go.

Extra funds above the funding goal will be used to print more books and deliver more rewards!

Book Details

The book will be a premium quality, offset-printed 9" x 12" hardcover, with flat back and dust jacket, printed on 100# paper and smythe sewn. I intend this book to be of the highest quality possible and produced in a way that will last a very long time. The book will be printed and bound in the United States. Right now the book stands at 123 pages with 112 full-color images. The page count will grow by a few once the names of the backers are added. The final page count will depend on how many backers there are at which reward levels.

I've already designed and laid out the book interior, the casewrap, and the dust jacket (yes, I did it all myself), and all I have to do before the book is ready for print is add the backers' names. So it will be a very short time after the campaign ends when I'm ready to send the book to press.

Below are some sample images from the book, shown as a 2-page spread. The final model photograph is on the right-hand page, and the projection image used to create it is on the left-hand page.

The Rewards!

To show my appreciation to you for backing this project, I want to offer not only copies of the book, but brilliant quality prints of my art as well.

At the lowest pledge level, you'll receive a set of 3 SurrealScapes refridgerator magnets. These are 2.5" x 3.5" metal-wrapped magnets, each with a different image, as shown in the picture below. The images on the magnets are "Spineless," "Eternity," and "Rubylith".

At the higher pledge levels, you'll receive either unframed paper prints or what are called MetalPrints. Paper prints are available in 8" x 12" and 12" x 18" sizes, and MetalPrints are available in 16" x 24" size.

The paper prints are printed on Kodak ENDURA paper, which is a top-shelf paper that has a glossy finish and a pearlescent appearance that makes my images look almost like holograms. The bright colors and textures in the image against the black background seem to pop right off the paper.

MetalPrints are an exciting way to showcase art. A MetalPrint is made by infusing dyes directly onto specially-coated aluminum sheets. This literally is printing on metal. The metal is then coated with a high-gloss protective finish, and a durable float mount is added with a center mounting hole, making the whole thing ready to hang and display without any frames, glass, or hanging wire. When mounted, the MetalPrint floats about 3/4" off the wall. As with the Kodak ENDURA paper prints, this MetalPrint process works brilliantly with my images, giving them a richness and depth that cannot be achieved any other way.

When you make a pledge at a level that includes paper prints or MetalPrints, you can specify whatever image or images you like from the Lumens collection on the SurrealScapes website:

images.surrealscapes.net/Artwork/Lumens

If your pledge level includes multiple prints, you can have each print be a different image.

Every pledge level that includes a book also includes the opportunity to have a name or names of your choosing in the book. You can choose any name you want, whether it's yours, someone else's, or even something you made up (if you make up a name, please keep it tasteful. I reserve the right to ask you to change it if you come up with something vulgar or crass). Every book that gets shipped to backers will be signed and dated by me.

All the rewards include the cost of shipping. For international backers, any taxes, duties, or fees are your responsibility.

Other Fun Stuff

When it comes to things creative, I want to do it all by myself. So I shot and edited the video for this campaign entirely on my own. This meant learning a whole new skill set pertaining to videography: camera work, lighting for video, voiceover performance, and editing. I thought that my background in photography would help, but alas, it was of no use. I figured out very quickly that I know how to tell a story with a single still image but I am completely clueless when it comes to moving pictures. This was my first time on video like this, and I now have a newfound respect for news anchors, sports commentators, and actors who can speak on camera! Take a look at the blooper reel below. It's amazing I got any useable footage after all that!

Let's Connect!

I invite you to connect with me!

on Facebook at www.facebook.com/surrealscapes

on Twitter at www.twitter.com/surrealscapes

on Tumblr at surrealscapes.tumblr.com

on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/zaidsalman

It would GREATLY benefit this project and I would be ETERNALLY grateful if you were to pass this project on to your friends and connections via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, G+ or any other social network that suits you.

This truly is Created By Community. Thank you very much for helping make this happen!

Video Credits:

Lighting & Camera by Zaid Salman; Editing & Post-production by Zaid Salman; Music Composed by A-P-M Productions, used under license via StockMusicSite.com.