Actually, it is only a side note, but to read it so clearly hurt more than expected. Some Unsplash veterans may still remember that the Unsplash Book was a collection of selected works in a beautifully bound print product.
On the official website book.unsplash.com, even more painfully, it still says “Available now” even though I pointed it out to the team some time ago. A link leads to Amazon, where you can still get hold of a copy – but for about 45000 dollars, which is only “slightly” above the 60 dollar MSRP.
While, of course, on the one hand it’s outrageous that someone would want to shamelessly exploit the high demand and low supply, which is completely against Unsplash’s principles, it also raises the question of a reissue. I forwarded this to Annie Spratt of the Unsplash team, but her response was disillusioning: “There’s no plans for a new edition sadly – sorry :(”
Too bad! As someone who has mostly joyfully used the site for three years, I would have been insanely happy to have a special piece like the Unsplash Book on the shelf. Maybe someday someone will want to tackle a project like this on their own using crowdfunding. Will you be doing that?
(Header image: Vladimir Kudinov on Unsplash)
