I like to imagine my pictures in places where normally there are ads like in the subway or on a billboard or in the movie theatre before the movie. I once made 1,000 pictures for the interior advertising space of 25 Boston city buses. In New York, there were 5,000 photographs from 252 photographers on 400 New York City buses. After articles in the New York Times and the Massachusetts Review, the “Bus Show” idea spread to other American and Canadian cities. I hope this Portfolio Insert Project will inspire the creative use of inserts in newspapers around the country. On September 27th of this year, I inserted 10,000 portfolios of pictures from that area into the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Most of the pictures in this portfolio were made here in New York. This group was chosen by going through 20 years of my black and white horizontal negatives that had the same aspect ratio (1.3 :: 1) as this portfolio paper, which is 11” x 8 1⁄2”. The paper is 80 lb. dull cover, which feels and looks like photographic paper. The images are surrounded with a white border to simulate a matted print. You could, if you wished, slip one of these pictures into a standard frame and put it up. You’ve already paid for the picture by subscribing to the Times, in which, today, there are 20,000 portfolios. The purpose of this project is to present interesting photographs where none are expected, a surprise with your morning paper.

Bill Arnold
billarnoldphotographs.com
Original prints available upon request