The Mighty Ants Network represents an alternative form of uniting a larger photo community of students, friends, and photography enthusiasts who wish to support the BPP mission of bringing to life the vision of talented image-makers.
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See Member Benefits
How does the Mighty Ants Network Work?
The Mighty Ants are ambassadors of BazanPhotos Publishing who believe in supporting the creation of soulful books by me and by emerging and talented photographers.
Each Mighty Ant is committing to take an active role in the conception of this sympathetic micro network of distribution to support the financing of each book, allowing BazanPhotos Publishing to concentrate all of its energies in the making of high quality books. Each member will have the unique opportunity to participate in the creative process of the making of each book.
For all of those who haven’t studied with me and who are about to publish a stimulating personal book independently, the further advantage of becoming a Mighty Ant is that you will able to rely on our supportive network.
I will personally buy 6 copies of your book. If I deem the book to be extraordinary, I will extend the invitation to buy your book to the entire Mighty Ants network providing a ‘contagious’ domino effect, which will greatly increase the number of sales of your publication.
Our motto is: “Help us and we will help you self-publish your high-quality photographic books.”
In return BPP will extend the following rewards and benefits to each member.
Benefits for all members:
- Become part of the extraordinary choral editing process
- Preview book dummies
- Your name forever immortalized in the acknowledgments of the printed book that you have helped support
- Invitations to upcoming BPP events including book signings, photo fairs, lectures, and exhibitions.
Three membership levels are available:
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Once you become a Mighty Ant we will inform you when new books are in the early stages of production. You will have the privileged access to preview a book dummy and then can pledge support for each book, and participate in our choral editing process.
Support The Misson of BazanPhotos Publishing
Our mission is to self-publish long-term photographic projects both mine and of visionary photographers with true talent who have studied under my guidance.
Books whose aesthetic content show a level of artistic maturity and of poetry that deserve to be brought to light and shared with the international photo community. Thanks to this communal effort we are going to create, little by little, a patrimony of high quality publications with photographs that show unique, personal and intimate perspectives and that will convey the quintessential experience of the human existence.
History & Vision of BPP
I created BazanPhotos Publishing in 2008 with the precious help of many friends, students and supporters and successfully self-published my Cuban trilogy: Bazan Cuba, 2008; Al Campo, 2011; Isla, 2014. In the last few years the positive energy of community support and the sense of a larger family circle created in my workshops has extend the reach of BPP publishing to the work of my most-talented students.
My students have been extremely generous with me. I feel that I need to give something back. Being their teacher, adviser and friend is no longer enough. Considering the excellent level of their photography, I want to save them some of the pains and tribulations I had to go through to publish my first books. They simply deserved it!
In 2015, we published With Animals by Willard Pate and in 2016 Hometown by Barbara Peacock. I described the first as, “meditations on the life of the animals, on our life as humans, and the life we share together with animals.” About the photographs from Hometown, I wrote in the introduction to the book, “They are delicate, and they show, with a certain nostalgia, an era gone by, a way of life of a small community with all its rituals and celebrations.”
To meet the challenge of self-publishing, in the years to come, the memorable work of unknown but very talented photographers, I realized that it would be important to create a sympathetic micro network of distribution of sensitive and generous people who are willing to help us market, fundraise, and distribute books, that will do their very best to find a home for each copy of a book even before each book will come to light. This is no longer just a dream with myriad Mighty Ants scattered across the world working on this common goal. We want you too to become part of this global network!
Choral Editing
My students have always played an important part of the bookmaking process of all my books, particularly in the editing, sequencing, laying out and fundraising of each.
As an integral part of my photographic workshops, I introduce the students to the process of editing a body of work and provide opportunities for students to participate in a “choral editing” process that is at the basis of my philosophy in the creation of a tightly edited photo book. As I like to say: “Each one of you has a profound sensibility and different taste. I want to hear each opinion. You often say extraordinary things that have greatly helped me in the creation of my books. Together we have self-published my Cuban trilogy. The creation of “choral editing” has been one of the most beautiful things that I’ve done in my life!”
From this initial vision the Mighty Ants Network was born.
How does the Mighty Ant Network work?
What will I be asked to do?
As a Mighty Ant you will be asked to be a supporter. We ask that you provide financial support by pledging to buy at least six books at a discounted price from a 10% minimum up to 20% depending on how much you want to commit. We also ask that you help spread the word about new titles while we are in the fundraising and pre-production stage. By becoming a Mighty Ant you need to create your own micro distribution network with all your family and friends who share the love and passion for photo books.
If I become a Mighty Ant for one book project does it mean that I need to support each individual book published by BPP?
Although our hope is to get each Mighty Ant involved in the entire production of all the books to come, you have a choice to choose which projects you want to help support. If you are already a Mighty Ant you will receive notifications announcing new titles that we will be working on. You can look at a preview of the images being used for a specific project and if you feel inspired then decide to join us in the full production of the book. Otherwise you can simply decline your participation.
What will I do with the books?
First, we hope you will sustain a book because you believe like us in supporting talented photographers yet unknown to a wider audience. Most current Mighty Ants are giving the additional copies they pre-acquire as great gifts to other friends and family who share the same love for good photographic books.
The second option you have is to create your own micro distribution network with other photography lovers and sell the additional copies to each of them. By doing so, your individual investment for each one of you will be very low.
The regular retail price of a book will be about $70 dollars*.
(*This price is only used as an example of the average cost of future book. For the exact price of upcoming books please refer to the book section of this web page)
As a Cool Might Ant, you can pre-order 6 copies of the book with a 10% discount at $63 per copy, for a total of $378.
The book discount will increase to 15% if you become a Hip Mighty Ant and create a micro network of 11 people or more. Each copy of the book would cost you $59.50 per copy.
The book discount will increase to 20% if you become a Groovy Mighty Ant and create a micro network of 16 people or more. Each copy of the book would cost you $56 per copy.
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