ISBN: 978-1-59005-622-6

Handmade, Accordion-bound, Wood Front and Back Covers, 8.75 x 11.25 inches, 110 pages, 57 B&W and 37 Color Plates

Note to European customers: please visit our UK website: www.nazraeli.co.uk

Advance Copies Available at the SF Artbook Fair | Signing on Saturday, July 25, 2pm
PREORDERS SHIPPING OCTOBER

It Will Hold You by Alex Ramos is a hand-crafted artist’s book inspired by a lifelong fascination with railroads. The book presents three interwoven perspectives: photography, abstract textural studies, and text that delivers a meditative journey about movement, memory, and transformation.

The front side of the book features black-and-white photographs made along the rail line where Ramos grew up in Berkeley, California. Between passing trains, he walked for miles, photographing quiet scenes of the surrounding environment. The reverse side presents a conceptual interpretation of trains and the energy they carry. Through “Rail Prints,” text, vernacular photographs, and ephemera drawn from Ramos’ archive, the sequence forms a record of his personal experiences shaped by trains.

Rail Prints are created through a process in which Ramos places pre-cut sheets of paper on active tracks, well before the passage of a train, allowing them to be crushed beneath the locomotive and trailing railcars. Each print is unique, and is paired with the location, locomotive number, and approximate speed of the train that formed it. 

During his explorations, Ramos recorded railroad radio transmissions which were then transcribed and are interspersed throughout the sequence of images. Together, these elements invite reflection on the physical and emotional ties to railroads, and the stories they carry of departure, passage and movement onward.

About the book’s design: Building It Will Hold You was no simple task. Each accordion bound book is housed between unique front and back covers made from cut and distressed pieces of ¼-inch wood. In total, more than twenty steps were required to produce each copy of the edition of 800. When asked by Nazraeli how he envisioned the finished book, Ramos replied, "I want my book to resemble an object you might come across while walking along the railroad tracks. Something textural and sunbaked that carries a story with it.”

Every decision in the production process supported this vision. Sheets of wood were cut down to 1,600 pieces and then treated and hand-sanded to form the front and back covers. It was important to Ramos to source the wood from a lumber yard near the railroad tracks where his photographs were made. Layers of wood stain, sand, spray paint, markers, crayon, drilled holes, and tape were applied, with the finishing touch of an affixed print to the cover.

Alex Ramos (b. 1989) is a photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area whose work explores railroads and their influence on the American West. Rooted in an early fascination with trains—shaped by growing up near the tracks in Berkeley, California, having family who worked for the railroad, and working aboard trains himself—his projects examine landscape, movement, and the layered histories of railroads. 

Alongside his photographic practice, Ramos has worked within the photographic field for over twenty years across galleries, retail, and publishing. He has held roles ranging from gallery assistant, preparator, and framer to Gallery Director and Creative Advisor. Through this work he has remained closely connected to the photographic community in the San Francisco Bay Area, supporting exhibitions, publications, and collaborative projects. Ramos is also the founder of Ramos Projects, an independent platform through which he develops creative collaborations, workshops, and more. His photographs have been published and exhibited at The Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA), SFO Museum, and California State Railroad Museum.

It Will Hold You is limited to 800 copies

A deluxe edition featuring an original exhibition quality photograph, unique rail print, and rail section sculpture presented with a copy of the book in a custom case, is also available. The deluxe edition is limited to 25 signed and numbered copies + 5 AP’s and is available here >