After experimenting with different front covers including a plain white cover, I chose this photograph because I think it is one of my strongest photos and it’s also a key image in the story telling process. I also experimented with different back covers, I was originally going to have a blurry photograph of my mum cleaning, however after arranging the order of the photographs within my book I found that the photograph of my mum with the flowers didn’t fit in with the sequence although it is one of my favorite photographs. I then tried it as the back cover and found that it worked  much better with the front cover due to the colours and was a much stronger image. I chose to put the title Domestic on my mums back because I think it works well  as symbolism of a ‘label’.

My inspiration for the inside of the book was ‘Mimosa Bloom’ by Rita Puig I. choose this book as an inspiration for my photo book design because we are both female photographers with a similar background photographing our mothers although the context is different. I also like the way that she has laid out the book, with portraits and and object opposite. In my book I have used a mixture of this layout with portraits of my mum cleaning and an object within that location or a photograph of the location itself. I also put key images over a double page spread to emphasize this.  I also made some strong photographs in full bleed which I think makes the viewer feel like they are in the room. The final thing I did with the photographs is I sized them at 20pt I did this mostly with objects to show that they are not as important as the portraits however they are essential to tell the story properly. Throughout the whole sequence I tried to keep a consistency in photograph size and I was continuous about matching colours.

For the final part of my book I ended it with photographs of my mum at home which i photographed before and after she came back from work. I used this as the last ‘stage’ of the book with the other ‘stages’ being photographs of her at different work locations. I did this because I think it was a nice way to conclude the book. I began the photographs of my mum at home with a photograph of my cat, because I thought this was a good way to break up the photographs and give the viewers a sense of something more personal.  I have also added quotes onto some pages which are facts about the Portuguese working culture. I think this helps to narrate the story and gives the viewer some more insight into my mums culture. I now need to add my final essay into the back of my book along with some illustrations.