http://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=9572296

Overview

In this blog post I will explore the reasons why I am going to make a hand-made book. I will also begin to explore these reasons in further detail, looking at the positives as well as the negatives of doing so, in the process tackling the issues facing me so I produce work of good quality, similar to that if I made a successful online photo-book.

Despite some draw-backs which I will explore later on this blog-post, I have decided to go ahead with my idea to make an old-fashioned styled photo-album.

From the archives I looked at the work of photographer Henry Thomas who made a series of scrap-book styled albums of his daughter from the period of 1930-50. This research fueled my ambition to evoke a similar style of collecting and presenting images, moving away the general idea of most of the class, which is to make an on-line photo-book using ‘Blurb’

I have begun the process of looking into either buying and designing my own photo-book. Making my own photo-book instead of using Blurb is an idea I am determined to go forward with.

However before I do though I need to think carefully beforehand; there are certain risks involved with making a homemade book and many considerations need to be looked into beforehand. In my previous blog post I looked at the positives of making a photo-book; essentially the aspirations of how I want my own work to turn out like. But, if I am going to make a success of this idea, I will need to accept and  look into some of the drawbacks of this type of style; which I need to be aware of in order to avoid making similar mistakes. Here is a summary of the positives and negatives of making a hand-made photo-book.

Positives

• More personal – writing my own personal notes.
• Retro feel/style.
• Bit different; chance to express my work in a different direction and challenge myself more – I have already made an online photo-book.
• Allows me to add stuff other than photos; archival images, letters, documents etc.
• Alot cheaper: £20-£30 for everyhting I need oppose to £5-60
• Fun to make and not restricted to a computer.
• Resonates that of a family album.
• Links to the work I am doing at the archives.

Negatives

• Can potentially become a scrap-book; may look tacky and unprofessional.
• Photos printed off could be of bad quality.
• Missing out on the chance to produce a really good quality online photo-book
• Takes a lot of time to make – need to spend time to do it properly
• Little room for mistakes; if not carefully planned will look flawed

How I will respond to these Negative Points

1. Issue of scrap-book

Solution

• Look to make work more in the style of a photo-album
• Research contemporary professional photographers who have successfully made a hand-made book in a way which looks good

2.   Bad Quality Images

Solution

• One advantage of handmade book is their is leeway for quality; is able to look a bit rustic/vernacular
• Printing my photos off at the Société Jersiaise
  photographic archives: can chose and decide the right type of photo paper I want

3. Compensating for online style design

Solution

• Don’t ignore influences I can take from photo-books; ways of displaying a narrative
• Can compromise to some degree; will have a clearer idea once I have looked into everything more
• My attitude is that measuring success of art is subjective and there is no right or wrong; yes an on-line photo-book would look cool, but what is there to suggest that making a hand-made book wouldn’t look equally as good?

4. Taking a lot of time to make

Solution

• Plan carefully so I don’t run out of time.
• Stay on task and don’t procrastinate.
• Quality over quantity.

5. Little room for mistakes

Solution 

• Embrace the leeway which I have with my decision to evoke a semi-vernacular style.
• Take risks and be creative: this is the whole point as to why I am making a photo-book in this style.
• Do it properly; buy a proper photo-album beforehand with good quality pages – look at Martin Parr’s ‘Life a Beach’. Change, adapted front cover if needed to make it more personal
• Research a reasonable amount

Conclusion

I enjoyed making a photo-book last year for my AS photography project. Nevertheless there was certain difficulties I faced during this process and found it to some extent, quite restrictive. Also, doing the photo-story design on Photoshop was a challenge I found difficult. I recognize that online/computer design is definitely one of my weakness. As I made a photo-book last year to measured success, I believe I don’t have anything to proof in terms of making a online book and so can use this time instead to try something a bit different.

In many ways this is a huge re-think of the direction of my project. My research and concept will not change however, but just I will explore a few more ideas and style to compliment to work of Toropstov, Sancari and Germain, of which my study is more or less  influenced by.

I will begin to research other photographers who have successfully made a hand-made book, which includes British Photographer Martin Parr in his photo book ‘Life’s A Beach’, of which I will make another blog post.

I will construct a careful plan of how to go about my photo-book in a manner which allows room for change whilst at the same time is a realistic plan for the remaining time I have.

Although I know it wont be easy I am convinced if I make and construct a home-made photo-book that I will be able to produce a very successful response to this project. I will successfully find a balance between creating something which is both homemade but professional looking at the same. I don’t want to as Mr Toft has fairly pointed out, make my book look tacky and of low quality because if I do so, the good progress I have made in my project so far will essentially be lost. I will work hard and research well however to ensure that this is not the case.

I am aware that this will be challenging and a  risk. Nevertheless I want to make use of the month or so I have to complete this project in a productive way which pushes me out of my comfort zone and stretches my understanding.

I am open to a degree of compromise on this idea, which I will explore in the next few blog post this concept of photo-book design has inspired me to produce.

This is my step by step plan for making and constructing my handmade photo-book.

Before Half – Term

Develop and research ideas – DONE

Blog Post on Martin Parr – DONE

Choose and buy photo-book in town – DONE

Specification of my ideas and what I want to – DONE

Blog Post on importance of photo-book presentation

Decide photos I want to print off for photo-book

Half Term

Buy photo-corners Finish Essay + publish all stuff on blog post

Research front cover design ideas – maybe write a blog post on these findings?

Get other work done and free up time to work on photo-book for next couple of weeks

After Half-Term

Monday 22nd = Go through layout with Mr Toft Put photos in book presentation order Put photos in right resolution: 300 Resolution +Tiff Format

Print off A2 contact sheet on archive printer first week back: may have to make a couple of trips

Cut out images Put into photo-frames

Annotations and anything extra I need Print out essay in type-writer format

Objective

This week I have begun the process of writing my essay. This meant that Gareth was able to see the work I have done and make suggestions for me to improve, as well as give me ideas in which to take my project.

I began this session by talking to Gareth about where I want to take my project and what I am trying to learn. I therefore mentioned how I want it to be a personal journey in which I try to document  my Grandfather, through the photographic style of Julian Germain in ‘For , but  in style similar to that of how Yury Toropstov has gone about his work in ‘Deleted Scene’. I then showed Gareth the work I have done so far on my essay, through which he marked and gave me some feedback on. I found this feedback to be useful and it gave me some good ideas about how to write my last paragraph of the essay, which I am struggling for ideas on.

What interested Gareth in particular was the concept that I was creating a narrative based around a person who is not alive and who I therefore cannot photograph. Gareth defined this concept as an ‘interpretation’ – photographing things related to the subject but not the subject directly.

Gareth came up with an idea: we went down to the archive room where we collected a series of photo scrap-books made by  photographer George Adolphus Thomas (born 1900) – 10 in total over the course of 30 years. Many of these photographs included and were focused around Thomas’ young daughter: Pamela Georgina Thomas (born 1929). Pamela was photographed constantly and fanatically by her father, which has resulted in a extensive body of work documenting and recording her upbringing

My challenge was to look at these photographs, make a few notes, and draw a series of conclusions based on findings – as well as attempt to put these photographs in chronological order. In particular, Gareth wanted me to consider the idea that because Pamela was photographed an extensive amount; in different places, points of times and context, that a clear narrative of her can therefore be told through the images. In contrast, Gareth got be to consider the contrast this has with my own project, as I am attempting to create a story about someone who is no longer alive.

Response

The task was relativity easy to complete, I had to look in all the books and then date them in chronological order. I more or less completed this task however it was at times hard to decide which ones to put in order because of the timeline of the album sometimes overlapped. It was interesting to see to variety of images which had been taken, over such a long period of time.

Whilst I was doing this task I became more interested in the actual book, in particular the hand-made, scrapbook appearance to them. There was something that really appealed to me about this presentation, it was simple but personal. The photos were arranged in this scrap-book manner and Thomas included little personal notes, presumably for this own benefit of remembering when pictures were taken and what happened. I found doing so gave the book a very unique feel to it, it could never be re-produced as the photographer had put their own stamp on it. There was something almost satirical about some of the notes, it added comical elements to the narrative, in many ways glimpse of the photographer’s personality embedding itself into the narrative.The way Thomas had arranged the photographs was quite simple; he simply made little cut outs and placed the developed images in the individual pockets – sometimes one large photo taking up an entire page and sometimes up to 6 photos on a page. This order was random and spontaneous.

The concept of the book was very clever. Thomas had carefully arranged the photos in a roughly chronological order. The choice of images were definitely not random because the photos all displayed a certain narrative by which different images linked to the next. Thomas did not simply just photograph his daughter; he did it in a considered manner, resulting in a variety of images of her in different situations.

At the end of session I had a talk with Gareth about what I had learned. I spoke about how it inspired my personal study – mentioned in the next section – and my thoughts of the books in general. We got onto the discussion of how image presentation very much affects how the viewer interprets and meanings behind photographs. We also spoke about the contrasts between my own work and that of George Thomas. We distinguished the concept that although me and this photographer have based our work of the same  concept, to paint a visual picture of a particular subject, we are however doing so in very different manners; Thomas used the subject directly to tell a story, whereas I am painting a story of a subject who is not around to be photographed. Therefore we determined that my photo-book could be a response to Thomas’ work, however done in a different way.

“Your work could be edition four?” – Gareth Syvret

How has this session helped my Personal Study?

Doing this task gave me a an idea for my own Personal Study; to make a handmade photo-book made of a simple scrap-book I will buy. I will then create a narrative by printing the photos off of sticking them into the book.

This session has therefore in my view, been very useful because it has given a clearer idea about how to present my photo-book. It has also given me a better idea about how to go about the last paragraph, due to both to the useful essay feedback Gareth has given me as well as the extra context I have gain about the photographer, George Thomas, whom is another inspiration I can link to my own writing and to the basis of my project in general.

All of three sessions I have done so far have all been useful in different ways. This week has been the most useful in terms of providing me with creative ideas.

My Photo-book Design Idea

The main advantage of me doing this is that I will able to include this in the book other than the actual photos, such as real documents and hand-written notes.

My main intention of doing so is to make a book which is personal and uniquely my own. Through this I mean I will make a book which only can be made once and never duplicated, because the photos will be original prints and I will include authentic documents and my own hand-written notes. Unlike making an on-line book, which can be easily re-ordered and duplicated, my book will instead be a one off design; customised and personalised to my particular desire, not limited by the restrictions of a web design. I also think it will be a fun and creative task to complete and I think it is an idea which is a bit different. I like the idea of including stuff other than photos, which means I can make more of a pop-up style book, a bit more creative than simply just photos; therefore more personal and subjective.

My essay, instead of being included on the page will be printed of separately on a piece of paper and either stapled in the book or placed in an attached envelope. I think that this will be a good idea because it will mean will essay can be read in an easier manner, as the paper can be separated from the book and therefore handled easier. I will also be a fun and creative way to play on the pop-up idea, and the font can be a type-writer font, again a response to the idea that the book is a retro design.

For extra inspiration I have looked at an old book I had from about 8 years ago. It is called ‘Eygptology’ and was a book with interactive pop-up features. This book was a history book and made use of similar archival documents that I want to use in my own book, such as letters and old photographs.

I also looked at a YouTube video of a hand-made book,  made by a photographer named Greg A. Chiana, as well as a prehaps more well known handmade photo-book, made by Martin Parr entitled ‘Life’s a Beach’

“Tropical prints frame images shot in Parr’s journalistic style, creating a nostalgic aesthetic that recalls a timeworn photo album” – Bettina Korek

Martin Parr’s special edition photo-book ‘Life’s a Beach’, is a good example of a successfully produced hand-made photo-book.

Parr in this book has evoked the traditional style of a photo-album; images framed on thin cardboard paper, with the individual pages separated with a thin paper cloth. The way Parr has displayed his photos also resonates this idea of a traditional photo-album; images stuck to the page with photo-corners and formatted in a simplistic manner, slightly quirky, vernacular manner.

What makes Parr’s work in ‘Life’s a Beach’ different to a normal amateur album is the extremely considered way he has presented his work. Parr has, in a subtle manner, moved away the the old-fashioned appearance of a photo-album; instead gone for a more contemporary approach which embracing the advantages of some aspects of this retro appearance.

The paper cloth sheet which separates the images continues this pattern of evoking a traditional photo-album. I find it is effective because it provides a sense of delicately to the photo-book; a sense of ritual which reminds the viewer of the fragile and unique nature of the book.

The way Parr has chosen to present his book at first glance is very interesting. Instead of just displaying the book on its own Parr has gone for an unusual idea of presenting the book in an encased cardboard box. This gives a very unique and personalised feel to the book, reflecting the idea that it is somewhat like a packaged gift/parcel. It also adds a sense of fun to the book, because the viewer must go through the process of opening the book from a case, as if they were opening a gift or wanted packaging. Practically speaking it also helps to preserve and protect the photo-book for longer.

Parr’s front cover does not necessarily resonate that of a traditional photo-album – it has a more modern and professional feel. The material of the front and back cover is wood. This material provides the book with rustic hand-made feel,  therefore conveying a sense of ‘lightness’ and a simplicity. It is also slightly unusual to use wood as a material for a book; it makes Parr’s ”Life’s a Beach’ therefore slightly different, again an idea which appeals to me,; to make a piece of work which is a bit different.

I like Parr’s idea of including hand-written notes next to each of the photos. The only disadvantage of using handwriting in a book is that it can make the pages look more like a collection of thoughts in a scrap book then a proper photo-book. However Parr has not overdone the notes, only writing a few words about each of the images, still enabling the photographs alone to determine how the viewer interprets/reflects upon the narrative. In Parr’s case, the notes serve to guide to viewer through the images by giving the ;locations and sometimes at name and date; further personalising the nature of the document.

The use of photo corners is similar to what I want to do for my own photo-book. In ‘Life’s a Beach’ photo corners work well because they help to give the photographs a stronger and more three-dimension presence. I also like how it gives a retro style to the images, making them appear like comp temporary, vernacular snap-shot images in juxtaposition to the traditional nature of a photo-album, albeit altered and customised to give a comp-temporary feel. This subtle contrast gives an edge to the work; it look professional and at the same time, somewhat amateurish/vernacular.

A photo-album is often linked with the idea of storing and preserving memories in a personal way. What Parr has done through making this book has recorded a documentation of British seaside culture in a way which the viewer can reflection upon in a personal way, looking back on Parr’s findings in a similar way they would look fondly back at a family photo-album. My conversation with Gareth on Tuesday got me thinking about the ways in which the presentation of photographs can effect how they are viewed. Subsequently, it is clear that because of this style of presenting images – which evoke the style of holiday snapshots placed in a family album  – that Parr is evoking the concept that the images are not simply documentations; but instead a subjective narrative which tells a contextually based story which can subsequently conjure of nostalgic memories and links to the past.

Evaluation

I like the simplistic style of ‘Life’s a Beach’. It is engaging and entertaining for go through, visually different to a traditional printed photo-book. It is a very clever concept that the style of the photo-book manipulates how the viewer perceives the images, inviting them not just to view the images but reflect in a nostalgic way of the nature of the images.

This is the sort of style I will go for should I decide to make a photo-book is this hand-made manner. It is personal and vernacular, but at the same time well considered, and importantly; presented and laid out in a professional manner – as good as if it was an on line template.

As this example shows, subtlety and simplicity is key to creating a successful hand-made book. The authentic feel of snap-shot images being personally placed in a hand-crafted book must not override the fact that the paper, layout and photo-prints must be well considered and of good quality.