In the new book that she co-authored with designer Vanessa Holden, photographer Susie Cushner shares an album that she made to commemorate a journey to Morocco with her daughter, Jenna. The photos were laid out digitally, and a home ink-jet printer produced the pages, which were bound into a professional-scale art book (a Kolo Newport 11x14 photo album). Here are just a couple of peeks at her Morocco album, and a brief excerpt from her book Photo Album; The Essential Guide to Sorting, Sharing + Keeping Photos:

For Susie and Jenna, the journey to Morocco represented a symbolic separation between two eras of their lives. It was almost like stepping out of time. Yet their rapport with (their guide) Mohammud, who loved listening to American pop music on Jenna’s headphones, was a reminder that people are very much alike everywhere you go. Similarly, the photos are exotic yet familiar, with smiling or curious faces among the landscape and architecture shots...

This album simply begged for a patterned cloth cover. Its whole aesthetic message is “Sometimes more is more.” Just as the journey unfolded for Susie and Jenna with new sensory experiences continually amplifying the previous day’s, the book engages the viewer with layers of stimuli. Lavender stripes in the book cloth borrow from the purple hues in the windowed photo. Placing a title in the cover picture is easy using a desktop design program. In this case, the font hints at Arabic script.

The lilac tone that seems to recur so often in Morocco drenches the mountain in the opening landscape, which serves as a visual introduction to the country. When you lay out album pages digitally and print them at home, you can manipulate their margins. Here, the picture appears to stretch beyond the paper. The solitary figure in the foreground arouses curiosity: What sort of people inhabit this beautiful place?...

...An individual portrait contrasts with a crowd shot. (This layout) shows how to include text on transparencies: either photocopied directly onto a print or inserted into the book.

For previous posts about the book Photo Album on Koloist, go here.

Photo Album; The Essential Guide to Sorting, Sharing + Keeping Photos is now available at www.kolo.com as well as Aaron Brothers Art & Framing, Archiver's, Blick Art Materials, Paper Source, and thousands of independent stationery, art, department and bookstores that sell Kolo throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. To see Kolo’s store locator, go here.