Saint Lucy Books

Last fall the founder of Saint Lucy Books was invited to MICA to talk about his recently published book. In the spring when I was trying to find an appropriate internship site, I was urged to reach out to the founder about possibly assisting him with some work. I was incredibly excited about the idea of working with a small Baltimore-based publishing company, especially as Saint Lucy’s focus is on female artists and the collaboration of text and images.

The founder Saint Lucy was my supervisor and I joined him in May to help with current and future titles and the brand identity of Saint Lucy. We attended ICP’s photobook fest where we were one of over 50 independent photobook publishers. Once back from NYC, my supervisor and I started working with a past faculty member at MICA on her upcoming book. During this, I helped with image selection, essay editing, and even some of the early ideas pertaining to the physicality of the book.

In early June I began working heavily with my supervisor on transforming the Saint Lucy website and brand identity. I completely overhauled the design of the website which hadn't been changed since 2016. I also designed digital and print PR materials for a recent book as well as set up templates for my supervisor to use in the future. During all of this, my supervisor and I would meet regularly to discuss future books and artist collaboration. These conversations and stints of research were by far the most exciting thing for me personally as I felt I was on the ground floor of the type of thing that I hope to do in the future.

The best thing that I got from this experience was a real assertion of my own knowledge and value in these spaces. My supervisor and the artists and people we met (both during meetings with artists and at ICP) seemed to not only respect my presence but my ideas and writing as well. Through this experience, I feel as though I have really improved in my professional skills and communication methods, as well as more technical things like using online business platforms and bookkeeping. My time at Saint Lucy stretched how I see research and writing as not only something I want to continue for my future professional career but my art practice as well.