Photo Book | My Thoughts

I decided this week that I was going to make a photo book for my project as I have made some staged images and think that this will work really well with the short film that I created of my mum. I want it to look as professional as possible and for my work to stand out. I do not want to add the essay to the end of my photo book as for me it takes away from the images. I don’t want to have other photographers work in my own photo book as I want to exhibit my own work and to show my stylistic approach rather than evaluating someone else’s. I do have my essay on the blog and think that looks good enough. Editing together the photo book is going well and I am also adding in some quotes from my essay to bring more context to the photo book. I think that this is the best way to include my essay and is more original and interesting for my spectator rather than having to go through a huge chunk of text. I like to make my own quotes that hold impact and think that these look a lot better than an essay would and really embody the whole message that I want to get across in my images. I have really enjoyed making a photo book and think that it looks really great and professional as it all comes together.

Layout Idea | 1

This first idea consists of black and white staged images as well as images in colour that are of objects. I wanted to have some double page spreads as I really like the way it looks as well as a mix of colour and black and white. I like this idea but I am unsure whether or not it takes a bit away from the black and white images as they are supposed to be my main focal point. I have just been experimenting around with different layouts and am trying to find what looks best for my work. I don’t think that I will be using this for my final book as it isn’t strong enough and doesn’t look as professional as I would like it to look. This mainly just helped me get into Lightroom and how to move photos around and how to use the editing software to create the book. I feel that this design/layout is a bit all over the place with the colour and black and white images. I do think that it would look a lot better if I just stuck to having all of my images black and white and kept to a better sequence than this one. I still really like the double page spread and might use this in the future for other projects but it just doesn’t work as well for this particular project for me.

Layout Idea | 2

This layout is the one that I want to use as my final book. I think that it does look professional and is interesting for the spectator to look at. I really like that I have started with a quote of my own and ended the book with a quote of my own. I think this book is more effective as everything is in black and white so all of the images compliment one another. I tried to order my photos in such a way that represents how my mum cleans the house and in the same order that she actually cleans it. Starting from the kitchen and then ending in her bedroom this is the way my mum cleans the house. I decided to use few images as I only wanted to include my very best and my favourites. I think that this has worked out well and I have plenty of images to make an effective book. When creating this photo book I didn’t really have any photographers photo book in mind. I created something that made sense to me and that looked good for my project, I wouldn’t have been able to mimic someone else’s work or take inspiration from them as I know myself what I wanted to produce. I feel that doing this gave me more freedom to experiment and create whatever I wanted to without feeling that I need to create my book in a similar style to that of someone else’s.

 

Quotes for book [my own]: 

Opening quote –  ‘I refuse to be a shrinking violet. I will not allow old tradition to consume my freedom and make me succumb to the societal norms that are expected of me

End of book quote – ‘Gender defines everyone and, at times, can be limiting. It makes us feel that we need to belong and conform to the expectations placed on us at birth solely on whether we were born male or female.’