In 1999, Chuck Close began taking photographs using the daguerreotype process, working with Jerry Spagnoli in his New York studio.  Over the next two years, he photographed Cindy Sherman, James Turrell, Gregory Crewdson, Elizabeth Murray, Kiki Smith, Ellen Gallagher, James Siena, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Cecily Brown, Lyle Ashton-Harris, Bob Holman, Carroll Dunham, Lisa Yuskavage, Andres Serrano, Elizabeth Peyton, Terry Winters, Lorna Simpson, Robert Wilson and himself for this book.
 
Lyrical and concrete praise poems by Bob Holman, a celebrated New York School poet, were written to accompany these photographs and were completed in 2001-2003.  Bob Holman recorded a spoken word version of each poem at Village Digital in New York City for the compact disc that is enclosed in each book.
 
The daguerreotypes were scanned and printed digitally by David Adamson in Washington, DC. Then each print was coated with a screened varnish containing UV inhibitors to protect the print from light and to reduce scuffing. Typography and letterpress printing was done by Booklyn artist Ruth Lingen in New York City with assistance from Booklyn artist (and director of Booklyn publications) Mark Wagner. Each edition was bound by Mark Tomlinson (in Easthampton, MA) in four elegant accordion-fold books held in a box with a colophon folder that contains a Chuck Close self-portrait. Thus, while the book is readable, it is also readily displayable for gallery exhibition. The paper is Somerset. The typefaces are foundry Bulmer and Bodoni, set by hand.