ONLINE COURSE 2025
Welcome to our Online Course offers:
THE PHOTO BOOK
- Design Your Own Photo Book
with Elizabeth Avedon​
​
There is a rich history of self-published authors including Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King and Mark Twain. Now that artists are able to produce their own hardcover and softcover books online at a relatively low cost, self-publishing has become a popular alternative for photographers.
Our online book-design class spans over 9 months and is divided into 3 separate levels. This will allow students to develop a well crafted book by the end of the course.
​
Our goal is for you to leave this class with a photo book pdf ready to self-publish or present to a publisher.
Your instructor is the highly regarded photo-book and exhibition designer, independent curator, and photo consultant Elizabeth Avedon.
Elizabeth will give you assignments between sessions to help you elevate your book, and get ready for the next Level. We strongly encourage students to use the time in between the different levels to work on the skills learned thus far, and keep developing your book.
Designing a great photo-book takes time, and this class is structured to give you enough time to develop your taste, skill-set, and design choices, so the end result is a thoroughly crafted book that highlights your work in the best way possible.
We will be using BLURB for this class, and each student needs to download and become familiar with Blurb.com's 'free' BookWright software before classes begin. You may also use INDesign, Quark, or Photoshop if you are more familiar with these softwares. The class will not cover technical or design software issues.
​
LEVEL 1:
* Day: Wednesday
* 4 sessions: Starts Feb. 26TH, ends March 26TH
* Time: 19:00 - 21:30 CET/ 1PM-3:30PM EST.
* Dates: Feb. 26, March 5, 12 and 26TH.
​
This class will cover the basic principles of designing your own photography book.
Drawing on over thirty years of experience, Elizabeth Avedon will demonstrate the bones of creating a successful photography book including editing, sequencing, typography and interior and cover design. We will explore what comprises good design from bad, developing a framework for the participant to build upon with their own book project.
​
Students will be asked to upload a selection of 30-40 images from their book project, alongside a short description of your book idea, to a dropbox folder (link will be sent you) 2 weeks before the class begins, so our instructor Elizabeth can familiarize herself with your work and your ideas around the book. These images will be used for our class when it comes to image selection, sequencing and discussion of design considerations (you can add more images during the class). You should also include a selection of images that could work as the cover in this upload.
You will leave Level 1 with guidelines from your instructor of what you need to bring into and work on in your book-projects before our Level 2.
​
TESTIMONIALS:
"I came to this workshop with the intention of making a practice book of my work. I could not imagine that I would leave with a book, let alone one I love. I did not think that was possible. Each level brought more clarity and Ahah! moments for design decisions and edits. It was only with the help of Elizabeth’s instruction, feedback and encouragement, while in a supportive group environment, that guided me to a place where I felt seen and heard in something I made. My on-going memoir. With deep sincerity, thank you.” – Sam Geballe
ONLINE COURSE TUITION:
NOK 25.000,- / includes all 3 levels
​
Deposit: NOK 12.500,-
Due before course start: NOK 12.500,-
​
The amount is listed in Norwegian Kroner (NOK)
​
International students: You can pay us via PayPal or transfer your payment directly to our account. Please let us know when registration for a workshop your preferred method of payment. For PayPal payments there is a handling fee of 6 % of the amount paid that will be added to the invoice. For bank transfer there is a transaction fee. Check with your bank for the amount, and make sure the transaction fee is not deducted from the payment for the class.​
​
We need a min of 7 participants to run the course. There will be max 10 participants in this class.
​
REGISTRATION ON OUR COURSES ARE BINDING!
IMPORTANT: For this class we need to see examples of your work, and a description of the project you wish to work on, before we can confirm your seat. You will receive an e-mail from NORDphotography with further inquiries AFTER you have registered for the class. When you have received our confirmation on your seat, your registration is binding.
LEVEL 2:
* Days: Wednesday, Saturday
* 3 sessions. Starts Jun. 4TH, ends Jun. 11TH
* June 4: 19:00 - 22:00 CET / 1PM-4PM EST
* June 8: 19:00 - 21:30 CET / 1PM-3:30PM EST
* June 11: 19:00 - 21:30 CET / 1PM-3:30PM EST
Our goal for Level 2 is for you to leave with the frame-work needed to create a well sequenced, visually compelling book dummy in a format that displays your work to it's best advantage.
During our 3 day review each book project will be given their own focus, in a one-on-one style sessions with our instructor Elizabeth Avedon. All students should join each session, but the dialog will be between the presenting student, and the instructor. We will however make time for Q&A in the end of each session.
Elizabeth will outline improvements to your book including; setting up an overall structure for the framework; editing, layout considerations, interior formatting and sequencing, and typography, cover design and other design elements to be considered. We'll discuss any text and writing that may accompany your work.
You should come to this session with a rough draft of your book saved as a PDF in your chosen design program. This should include all images you have selected for the book, plus possible new ones, for sequencing and discussion of design considerations; and any text and writing that may accompany your work. You will be asked to upload your rough draft two weeks before our class.
You will leave this session with guidelines from your instructor of what you need to bring into and work on in your book-projects before our Level 3.
​
LEVEL 3:
* Day: Wednesday
* 4 sessions: Starts Sep. 3RD, ends Oct 1ST.
* Time: 19:00 - 21:30 CET/ 1PM-3:30PM EST.
* Dates: Sept. 3, 10, 17 and Oct. 1.
​​
Through personal critique and group reviews, we will improve and refine your final book
dummy to create a professional level photography book. We will work towards perfecting your front and back cover, title and text pages, and strong sequencing of your images.
We will briefly discuss the self-publishing companies available. We will also explore how you can use your self-published book as a valuable tool to submit as your illustrated book proposal to a photo- publisher, or as a leave-behind promo piece.
The goal for our Level 3 course is to create a photo book pdf in the end that is ready to self-publish or present to a publisher.
​
Read more about Elizabeth Avedon on our faculty page.
See more of Elizabeth Avedon's work on her website.
​
​
​
​
​
​
TESTIMONIALS:
''For anyone who has felt daunted by the myriad of necessary decisions in order to publish a book of photography, this class will help you immensely, and will set you well on your way to emerging with a professional piece that could be on par by any fine art book.'' - Michael Schenker
​
Withdrawal and refund policy:
Enrollment is limited in our classes, so once you have registered for a class – we are counting on you to attend. The registration is binding. We do however understand that sometimes plans fall trough and offer the following cancellation policies:
Withdraw more than 30 days before the start of class and we will refund all money paid, minus an administration fee of NOK 1500,-.
Withdraw 30 days or less before the start of class and we will charge you with the full workshop tuition.
​
NORDphotography is not responsible for cancellations due to medical emergencies.
Cancelation Rules:
For online course to run we need a minimum of five participants, unless otherwise noted in the class description. If we for some reason are not able to reach our minimum number, the class will be postponed or canceled and you will receive a full refund.
There will be a maximum of 10 students in each class, unless otherwise noted in the workshop description.