*This title is on pre-sale. Pre-orders ship Spring 2024.

Hardcover, 136 pages
7.5 in. x 9.5 in. | 19.05 cm. x 24.23 cm.

Orian Williams’ initial encounters with photography occurred during his mother’s marriage to his stepfather, Ken Martin. Although their union lasted only six years, Ken’s influence and the enigmatic space in the house known as the darkroom had a profound impact on Williams. Most often, the weekend was reserved for visits to their lake house and there, in the early morning drives from Houston to the tranquil Texas countryside, accompanied by Ken, his camera, and often Williams as the subject, the B-Sides photographer discovered a new visual perspective. 

Once back home, the darkroom became a sanctuary for resurrecting and breathing life into the fruits of their photographic expedition. The scents, sounds, and profound concentration in the darkroom all contributed to the gradual emergence of a photograph, along with the alchemical interplay between chemicals, paper, and a dim red light. Everything materialized in that sacred room, and it fascinated Williams. It also awakened Ken, who was an oil man, to his seldom-explored creative side. Simultaneously, his mother had embraced the mission of documenting his life at every juncture, further crystallizing the idea of conveying memory and emotion through image.

As a teenager, Williams worked at Hastings Records in Houston, a conventional mall store with little other than Billboards’ top 100 records and CDs to offer. It was there that he was exposed to the various facets of music—posters, magazines, concerts, and the musicians themselves. The visual details sparked a curiosity in the future film producer about who was behind the images and the music videos. Every now and then, copies of NME or Sounds Magazine would grace the store’s shelves. Although rare and somewhat costly, he managed to amass a collection in whose pages he discovered Anton Corbijn, the visionary responsible for a great deal of the magazine covers he admired. Soon he came to realize that Corbijn was also the creative force behind the music videos he held in high esteem.

Anton’s image of Joy Division, in which the band, with the exception of Ian Curtis, faces away from camera, consistently played upon Williams’ mind. It haunted him. He wondered what they were thinking. Why was Ian turned toward the camera? Was it planned? What camera did Anton use? It was impossible at the time for Williams to understand just how much the photograph would impact him later in life.

Within his circle of friends, Williams regularly found himself wielding a camera. Even before photos were allowed at concerts, he ingeniously devised methods to sneak a camera in—nothing extravagant, simple point-and-shoot cameras were all he needed. His primary objective was to capture the ambiance and to craft an enduring memory—the quality of the image being of secondary importance. It was more of a visual analogue to the alternative of a concert ticket stub. With the advent of the iPhone, cameras became ubiquitous and Williams himself captured numerous photos this way, but always with the idea of encapsulating the essence of the moment. This penchant for capturing the interplay of light and shadow has transcended all aspects of his life. 

Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s cinematic masterpiece, served as another wellspring of inspiration, solidifying his trajectory toward filmmaking. The film’s narrative, characterized by its dark, realistic style, and timeless, noir-infused futuristic aesthetic, resonated deeply with Williams.

All these facets of his life eventually coalesced into a decision to seek out Anton Corbijn and propose that he direct a film, specifically one that Williams was developing about Joy Division. After years of thoughtful deliberation, Corbijn said yes, directing Williams' masterful Control. A defining moment for the producer, the film became the amalgamation of all his passions. As fate would have it, Williams is now in possession of one of the 10 photographs taken by Anton of Joy Division at that London tube station where Ian Curtis, alone among his bandmates, looks back. Fortuitously, the photograph was captured on Williams’ birthday, November 11^th.

At 21 years old, Williams inherited Ken’s photography equipment—it still has that familiar scent and feeling. All the images featured in the pages of B-Sides possess that same feeling, along with a narrative, leading up to and capturing the emotional aftermath that accompanies a spontaneous moment, and they are driven by the singular thought to live forever in that moment. 

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Orian Williams is a visionary film producer with a track record for bringing exceptional stories to life. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, and raised in Houston, Texas, Orian’s passion for filmmaking was ignited at Baylor University and honed with a move to Los Angeles in 1990.

Throughout his career, Orian has produced several critically acclaimed films that have garnered both national and international recognition. He burst onto the scene with the Academy Award-nominated film, Shadow of the Vampire, which he produced with Nicolas Cage. His next venture was the BAFTA and Cannes winning film, Control, directed by Anton Corbijn, which delved into the life and legacy of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic frontman of Joy Division.

Other noteworthy films produced by Orian include the documentary One Fast Move or I’m Gone and Kerouac’s Big Sur, which he transformed into a feature film of the same name, premiering at Sundance in 2013. Orian’s upcoming projects include a biographical film about Jeff Buckley, starring Reeve Carney, and marking Orian’s directorial debut. In collaboration with Danny Boyle, he produced Creation Stories, a film about Alan McGee, the Scottish manager who discovered Oasis, among several other bands. Other projects include the filmYellow Rose, released in 2019, an upcoming Billy Idol documentary with Live Nation, a Mogwai documentary in the works, and many other films related to music, with another set in Big Sur about Henry Miller. Orian also executive produced the upcoming Roving Woman with Wim Wenders.

Most recently, Orian produced Sam & Kate, written and directed by Darren Le Gallo, starring Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek, alongside actress Amy Adams. Moreover, his ongoing passion for storytelling has led to the creation of documentaries about Billy Idol and Syd Barrett, founder and frontman of Pink Floyd. Orian has earned several accolades throughout his career, including being named by Variety Magazine as one of the Top 10 Producers of 2007.