How Blurb Helps Define The Way We Consume Photography

We’ve never been shy about our love for Blurb‘s beautiful photo books and publishing service. So we’re pumped to have Blurb Founder & CE...

We’ve never been shy about our love for Blurb‘s beautiful photo books and publishing service. So we’re pumped to have Blurb Founder & CEO Eileen Gittins speak at Luminance this fall – PhotoShelter’s first conference featuring over two dozen speakers from organizations that have helped define today’s photography industry.

And Blurb certainly fits the bill for an organization that has helped shaped how we present and consume photography. In 2005, Eileen Gittins set out to create a simple and smart publishing service that could make anyone an author of a sleek, professional-looking book. Today, Blurb helps everyone from photographers to travelers to bloggers to poets share their work – and even make a profit from the book sales.

As everything moves online, Blurb reminds us that the glory of a physical book – and the joy it brings us – is far from lost. “I have yet to have a conversation about Blurb where the other person does not start talking – animatedly – about ‘their’ book,” says Eileen. “It seems everyone has a book in mind.”

For photographers, Blurb books and ebooks are great option for a new revenue stream or to help market yourself. Fine art photographers are using Blurb to sells books of their best images; wedding photographers are building albums for clients; photojournalists are using it as their portfolio; and even Instagram-users are creating books filled with their favorite snapshots. The options are endless.

“I get to see a ton of great work via the books people make,” says Blurb Founder & CEO Eileen Gittins. “It’s a total trip to realize we have had some small part in helping photographers get their work out there, get known, get an audience.”

Eileen says that Blurb strives to help define the way people around the world publish their work. “Photographers in particular, are particular,” she admits. “We knew that if we could consistently reproduce photographers’ intention in beautifully designed and professionally produced books, then everyone would want their work to look as good as those well-regarded photographers.”

Eileen is one of over two dozen industry leaders who will be speaking at Luminance on September 12-13, 2012 in New York City. Personally, she’s most excited to hear Alan Taylor from The Atlantic speak.