The importance of creating a library of your travels
British freelance photographer and designer Lucy-Jane filled us in on why she believes creating travel photo books are so important and why she loves using MILK Books to create them.
My name is Lucy-Jane, and for me the world is something I want to have, hold, travel, explore, find, and experience. I have always loved picking up my camera and pointing it at the landscape in front of me. Throughout my childhood, to uni project inspiration, and now my Sunday coffee shop readings, I have always wanted a travel book by my side.
Travel books are inspiration for those who long to travel, photographers and artists alike, for those already on the road or the believers who want to learn about the world. I found that by the age of 17 I took these books on as my own and travelled the same tales that others had written about.
Now at 22, I am making my own stories and adventures. In the last few years I have been creating and making these books to sit upon my bookshelf, as a constant reminder of all those distant travels. Whether it was walking through the Inari gates of Japan, scaling Mt Bromo in Indonesia, battling against the bitter cold snowstorms in Iceland, or the fast-paced color of New York. Adventures are one thing which you can truly experience to which your books are a constant memory of this. They are bound for years and years to come which I hope to share with my friends and family as I grow with them.
Friends often ask about a location and I can just hand them a book, sit down with a cup of coffee, and flick through the pages of landscapes explaining where each place is, delving in deeper about the memories I have from the location.
My first book was bound, something I kept as a hardback with hand-stitched pages. It was about my journey and growth with my father along one river called ‘Boots, Tracks and Biscuits’. With digital print growing so fast and strong I started to produce my own magazines, something more quick and easy to produce like a photo book. MILK Books introduced me to a new way of developing the photo book.
In an exquisite range of beautifully crafted materials, large choice of paper stocks and a great way for designers like me to design my own layouts, I found it simple and effective to create my own photo book. When my first photo book arrived it has a life of its own, the colors were vibrant sitting on the pages as if they owned them. They sat full bleed, with margins, off center and had room for a story to sit beside them. With the digital age I fear that young people will forget the importance and nostalgia which comes with holding a book.
My aim is to keep books and memories in physical form living pushing the boundaries of design and innovation to make them exciting for the bookshelf.
You can find more about Lucy-Jane and her work at
