Matthew Birchall | Photograph Converted into Morse Code

Matthew Birchall
Photograph Converted into Morse Code
Southport, UK: Café Royal Books, 2013
98 pp., 14 x 20 cm., perfect bound
Edition of 150 numbered copies

In 2012, Café Royal Books produced Birchall's Photograph Converted into Base64 Code in an edition of 100 copies, as part of their publishing award. A photograph of a sculpture, made as part of an installation, converted into Base64 code, a binary-to-text encoding scheme that represents binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation.

For this follow-up title, Birchall worked with Morse Code society members, to translate the digital code of a photographic image file into Morse Code. Developed in 1836 by Samuel Morse, Morse Code served as an alphabet for the electrical telegraph system, which had to transmit language using only pulses and the silence between them.

It subsequently became used with both light and sound and mine rescues have even employed pulling on a rope  to communicate - a short pull for a dot and a long pull for a dash.When written, the alphabet is represented with dots, dashes and spaces, as per the below chart.

Birchall and the society members translated the photographic file into 98 pages of Morse code. Alongside the printed book, on a micro SD card, is a 44 hour audio version, which as he says “if you used as your ringtone, you’d be the coolest person in town”.

Available from the publisher, here, for £10.00.

Craig Atkinson | Problem / Solution

Craig Atkinson
Problem / Solution
Southport, UK: Café Royal Books, 2012
6 x 9 cm.
Edition of 100 numbered copies

"10 items are roughly the same in each edition. A map, a lottery ticket, a picture of the Queen...Each a possible solution to a potential problem. Opening the book is a destructive act, it being stapled shut at the top."

- Café Royal Books

For more information, visit the publisher, here.

Café Royal Books | Archive One

Café Royal Books
Archive One
Southport, UK: Café Royal Books, 2015
42.3 x 21.4 x 21 cm.
Edition of 10

Café Royal Books is a small independent publisher of zines, primarily photo-based, that is ran out of Southport, England. The operation began in 2005, and at peak times has released a new publication every week. These 28-page booklets are typically produced in small runs, with most being published in an edition of 150 copies. They are sold online and through bookshops in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, Japan, Canada and Switzerland.

Martin Parr has described the project as "a great archive of much forgotten documentary photography". The books predominantly document "social, historical and architectural change, using both new work and photographs from archives." Emphasis is given to work that "encourages new ways of thinking about existing material or language which demonstrates the importance of using, documenting, collecting and observing a particular process or thing."

Archive One was published in December of last year, on the tenth anniversary of imprint. The elegantly designed box includes the first 100 books of the current series, featuring works by Homer Sykes, David Levenson, John Claridge, Joni Sternbach, David Carol, Matthew Birchall, Geoff Howard, Patrick Ward, Marc Valée, Brian David Stevens and Craig Atkinson, who founded Café Royal.

It's available from the publisher, here, for £750.