I have been experimenting with different designs when making my story board. Whilst experimenting I have been manipulating: colour schemes, amount of images, image selection, image size and fonts.
Here are some of my final outcomes:
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My Final Book
My Book- ‘The Heavens’
Creating my Photo Book
My personal study is all about my Grandparents, Ruth and Rowland and their lives. I have titled my project ‘The Heavens’ as I think that the surname of ‘Heaven’ is quite intriguing. I also think that using the name that they both share as the title is the first indication that the book is about a married couple and about their love for one another.
In this project I tried to incorporate lots of different angles of their lives, I have tried to divide the book up and format it in a way that is easy to view.
I decided that I didn’t want to use a key image from my photo book as my cover, instead I used a picture of my grandparents table cloth as the cover image. I also decided to not put the title, ‘The Heaves’ on the front cover. I wanted to leave the contains of the book a bit ambiguous. These formatting styles got inspired by Sam Harris’ book, ‘The middle of Somewhere’.
Sam Harris’ cover was designed by one of his daughters. I thought it was really eye catching and gave the book a slick look.
The next pages of my book contains a bright blue page followed by the title page.
I thought that the blue was very eye catching and added colour straight into the book. I also think that having a couple of blank pages leading into the book is nicer than jumping straight into pictures.
I chose to use a couple of different picture formats throughout the book to keep it interesting.
This portrait of my Grandpa sat on his piano stool is a full bled image that is presented on the left page of the book. I think because this is a key image in this collection it is important to make it a large image. I also think that by having a plain white page on the right ride of the book, it emphasises the image. Sam Harris’ photobook contains all full bled images, as it suited his style of book, a family journal.
Another image layout I used is smaller images that are padded giving it a white boarder all the way round the image.
I mainly used this format when using archival images, as I didn’t want the images to be large and pixilated. In this example above I used my Grandparents favourite family photograph from when they were a young couple with their three boys. I then presented on the right side of the page an archival image of their three sons.
I tried to create a sequence by following these archival images with a picture of my younger cousins.
I chose to use this picture of my cousins as the next photo in the sequence as they are around a similar age that my uncles were in the previous image. I think you can see the resemblence between my uncles and my cousins; the ginger hair, pale skin, cheeky smiles.
I had extracted my favourite quotes from my interviews with grandparents and wanted to insert them into my book. I divided these quotes into 5 categories; Faith, Family, Jersey, Wales and Music. I presented them like this in my book.
I didn’t want to accompany the words with any images as I wanted the views full attention on the quote. I got inspiration from Martin Usborne’s ‘Ive lived in East London for 86 1/2 years’. His project was on Joseph Meek.
The final formatting design I used was using archival images. At the begging of my book I used two separate images of my grandparents as children. I positioned them on joining pages with the same amount of padding. I also used two similar archival image but they were taken around the time they got married. I put these images on the final pages of the book.
Over view of my project
I am really happy with the way my project turned out. I think my images represent my grandparents lives well. I have really enjoyed working with the theme of family, as I think it has allowed me to really get stuck into the project, by working with a subject that I am familiar and comfortable with.
Personal Study Essay
How do Larry Sultan and Sam Harris’ photographs of their family represent the concept of Love?
Larry Sultan and Sam Harris are two photographers who work with the theme of family. Larry Sultan’s ‘Pictures from Home’ captures his mother and father in their home of California over a decade. The work captures their love for one another as well as their lifestyle. This photographer has been a main inspiration to my work, as I also photographed my grandparents in their home and tried to incorporate all of the important things in their lives into the project. Sam Harris’ ‘The Middle of Somewhere’ is an on going family journal, showing the family’s travels through Australia and his two daughters growing up. This photographers main inspiration to me was his design of photo book and the styles of images that he took. Although these two photographers present very different types of work, both are very relatable. Throughout this essay I am going to explore how Harris and Sultan’s photographs represent the concept of love. I will then be showing the way I have tried to include my Grandparents Love for each other and their surrounding into my project.
Photographing family members has always been a typical subject for a photographer to photograph. ‘From the beginning, amateur and professionals practised lighting techniques and rehearsed stances using members of the family.’ ( Hattersley-Smith.K 2006:457) Although the style of photography has developed over the years and has been explored, the theme of taking images of your family has remained the same. I think this is because when the photographer feels comfortable with their subject they feel more comfortable spending time perfecting the image.
Larry Sultan uses his hometown of California’s San Fernando Valley as his main source of inspiration for a number of his projects. One of my favourite collections of his called ‘Pictures From Home” was a 10 year long project where he photographed his mother and father in their suburban life. Sultan was able to photograph both portrait and landscape photographs which captured his parents retired lifestyle and their loving relationship. Sultan has selected a range of photographs containing intimate portraits, still life images from around their home and action shots of them doing their everyday activities; such as hoovering the lounge, watching the TV and reading the news paper. Overall the project portrays a happy retired couple that are living comfortably in their home. Because the majority of the photographs contain both his mother and his father, I get the impression that they do almost everything together. I really enjoyed looking through this collection of photographs because I thought he captured not only the strong love between his mother and father, but also their strong individual characters.These photographs are accompanied by quotes from his parents, which I think really makes the collection come to life.
One of my favourite photographs from this collection is the portrait of both his mother and father seen below. It looks like it has been taken in a dark room with only a leak of light illuminating the main view point of the image, his parents faces. The lighting of this photograph has been adjusted to draw the viewers eye into the centre of the image, making the background and the edges significantly darker than the centre. The photograph has a tinge of yellow/orange which takes away the harsh contrasting colours making it more gentle to match the theme of the image. The father is the main focus of this portrait because you can see the whole of his face, and which also contains intricate details for the viewer to engage with; such as the position and the shape of his hand, which is clasped over his mouth and the watch that is attached to his arm. Because the father is the dominant focus of the image, the views eye is firstly drawn to him. The horizontal lines on his shirt act as leading lines taking the viewers eyes over to his wife, who is hugging his shoulder. The reason I like this photograph is because it is the first image in the collection we see the couple being physically intimate. The other photographs present the activities the couple get up to during their day, where as this photograph presents the love they have for one another.
His father is wearing a pair of glasses, which he is not wearing in any other photograph. His mother has her two arms around him with her head is resting on his shoulder. The photo shows the couple relaxing and I think it was taken during the evening due to the dim lighting.
I think the collection ‘Pictures from home” reflects heavily what type of family the Sultans are. The photographs can be seen as a record of how the parents like to keep themselves busy since their retirement with activities such as, gardening, reading, swimming etc. The photos suggest that they seem to spend much of their time together and do not have much contact with friends or family. However it appears that they have a close relationship and feel comfortable being affectionate with each other whilst their son is taking photographs of them.
Sultan says ‘What drives me to continue this work is difficult to name. It has more to do with love than with sociology’ (- Larry Sultan -Roswell Angier, (2011), americansuburb.com)This says to me that, he really enjoys using his parents as his stimulus to work around as he has kept it as an open project which he kept working on for a decade. By working with his family it has enabled him to create a project which contains intimate details, such as the quotes, which adds to the character of the book.
The second photographer, Sam Harris, who also uses family as his inspiration created a family journal called ‘The Middle Of Somewhere’ which he kept of his children, Yali and Uma growing up in their remote home in the South West corner of Western Australia.
Harris’ photography career began in London when he was designing record covers. However when he found the world of documentary he started to create family journals. His first journal called ‘Postcards from Home’ was published in 2011 and tells the story of his family migrating from London to Australia. His latest book ‘The Middle of Somewhere’ is a follow on from his previous book and was published in 2015.
Harris explains in his ‘Video at home with Sam’ that ‘its the subject matter thats important and your connection to the subject matter is what’s really important. My subject matter is my family, particularly my daughters’. (- Sam Harris, http://samharrisphoto.com/633647/the-middle-of-somewhere/)
I think this quote supports Harris’s work because he is constantly taking pictures of his children whilst they are living their everyday lives. These images have a spontaneous feel to them which foreshadows the innocence and playfulness of his children,and which makes the journal easy and enjoyable to look through.
The composition of the journal was careful not to overexpose his children, and Harris ‘developed a way of leaving them a little ambiguous in pictures’ (The Telegraph, London 2015) such as their covering their faces when playing outside as a way of portraying what was going on in their everyday life, but at the same time providing a degree of anonymity. The book contains a wide variety of picture types; still life, landscape, portraits and action shots, but Harris also included every day things such as post-it notes stuck onto images with shopping lists on etc, which normalise his work and at the sometime keep the focus on everyday family life .
My favourite image in the collection which I think reflects the theme of ‘family’ the most is this image of one of his children crying to her mother. It is an action shot which is easily understood and relatable to most people.
The portrait has been cropped so the main focus is the girls face, which shows that she is in pain and distressed, as she has injured her mouth. The image contains lot of textures, the girls curly/wind swept hair which has blown over the majority of her face and the red stripes on the mothers t-shirt, which contrast with her wooly cardigan. These textures make the image quite dense and also very eye catching and interesting to look at.
There is a lot of other detail in this photo which provokes an emotional response in me when I look at it. The tears rolling down her cheek, the blood around her tooth, her wet eyelashes that are stuck together from her tears etc; are all details help to tell the story of little girl who has hurt herself, probably during an accident when playing as we can also see that the photo was taken outside. I think this image relates to the feeling of shock, followed by pain and the need for reassurance and comfort from a parent which is portrayed by this photo and which made me think similar events that happened to me during my own childhood.
Thinking about the theme of family was really enjoyable for me. I decided to use my grandparents as my stimulus as they were moving house at the time. I photographed them moving into their new home and tried to capture them decorating the place to make it their own. I liked working with family members as I was able to gain a deeper source of information and context by including some family archive photographs.
I decided to develop my project further by photographing my grandparents everyday lives and the things that are most important to them;faith, family, Jersey, Wales and music. I wanted to photograph them at family events, such as Christmas day, and also just a Sunday afternoon at home.
I collected a variety of material but taking inspiration from Martin Usborne’s ‘I’ve lived in East London for 86 1/2 years’ I decided that I also wanted to include my grandparents words in my book. So I conducted an interview with them on these 5 topics, and chose my favourite quotes to put into my book. I think by having words as well as photographs it gives the project more depth and it helps the reader to develop an understanding of my grandparents personalities.
One of my favourite portraits from my collections is from my first shoot. It is of my Grandma in the back garden bringing the washing in.
In this photograph, my Grandma is at my house taking our washing in. This supports her quote of ‘We always try and go the extra mile for family’.
It is a very simple photograph, just folding her washing off the line yet it creates an image which is interesting to look at. There are lots of details from around the garden which are attractive to the eye for example the row of flower pots along the side of the garden and the socks individually pegged on the washing line. The image contains lots of rich colours such as the reoccurring green and the dominant colour of beige on the wall.
Another thing that I like about this photograph is the way it is divided by natural leading lines, the top of the brick wall, leading your eyes from one side of the photograph to the other side. There is also the leading line from the grass. These lines transport your eyes around the photograph.
Another photograph from my collection that I particularly like is this photograph that was taken on Christmas day. It is of my parents reading a bed time story to my younger cousins. Christmas is a very family orientated day which is filled with family traditions, this is why I think this photo fits nicely into my photo book. This photograph contains comedic features such as the Santa’s hat, and the bear slippers.
In conclusion I believe that both Sultan and Harris’ photographs of their families represent their concept of love. The way the photographers have taken their photo’s show that they know their subjects very well and the subjects look like they are comfortable with having their photographs taken by a person that they know and trust. I think that the main drive for a photographer is their love for the subject and this inspires them to want to spend lots of time and attention on their projects and in this case they are creating a memento of their family life which also will have a shared meaning with the subjects as they are family members.
I think both of these photographs show their love for their families through both the sensitivity and humour obvious in the some of the moments captured in the pictures. The images also represent the interests and similarities that can be found by the viewers with their own lives, creating a sense of shared meaning and understanding of what is going on. I have found that these works have had a powerful effect on me, which has inspired me to create something similar that I can share with my family.
1- Germann. M, Gorner. M, Zander. T (Eds) (2010), Katherine Avenue Larry Sultan Gottingen: Steidl introduction to quot’quote’ (Germann 2010:14)
2- Burbridge.B, Celia.D (Eds) (2013) Photoworks, Family politics. Brighton: Grande Parade introduction to quote ‘quote’ (Williams.V 2013:85)
3- Hattersley-Smith.K, Spenser.J (Eds) (2006), Photography: A Cultural History 2nd edition, Mary Warner Marien. London: Great Russell Street http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/10/roswell-angier-roswell-angier-on-larry-sultan-pictures-from-home-2006.html
4- http://larrysultan.com
5- http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/10/roswell-angier-roswell-angier-on-larry-sultan-pictures-from-home- (Roswell Angier, (2011), americansuburb.com
6-http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/sam-harris-the-middle-of-somewhere-and-photographs-of-a-new-life/news-story/df8ba352e7e9a3a20549f9e25eab6842 (The Telegraph, London 2015)
Grandparents Quotes
I have re-listened through my interviews with my grandparents and have extracted my favourite quotes from each topic heading. I plan to put these quotes into my photo book.
Faith
Faith is a huge part of my life because my life is build around what I believe and I believe in God and i Believe that gods son died for me with unconditional Love.
Our christian faith has taught us to look beyond our self and look to see how we can help our family first and other people second.
Family
I think family is extremely important to me. I try and do for my family, by going the extra mile. Sometimes when I am asked to help out, it can be extremely inconvenient but I always try to go that extra mile… or two.
Wales
Living in Wales as a child, I was always surrounded by lots of aunts and uncles, so we were never short of baby sitters. Our town was a very close loving community in which we lived, and I sometimes think today that this is one of the things that we lack. We don’t have the time to look outside our door and see the needs of how we can help other people.
Jersey
Ruth and I were engaged when I got appointed a role at St Marks primary school. We got married the following March 1964. We came to live in a flat in Jersey and despite changing flats and houses a few times we never anchored to move back to the mainland. All our children are Jersey born, which has an advantage and have all come back to live on the island. So who knows, perhaps the Heaven household will be in Jersey for a while yet.
Music
We have always been surrounded in music, I began piano lessons at the age of 7 and started to play the organ for our Sunday serves at the age of 15. Eventually when I moved to Jersey somebody asked me not to play the piano for them, but would I sing, and there began my “singing career”.
I enjoy listening to music, whereas my husband likes to perform. I think this is one of the good things about our marriage that we are both interested in music, in different ways and that a huge thing in our life. There is nothing more wonderful for me than to be in the kitchen working and your Grandpa to be playing the piano in the lounge.
Marriage
I often think we were very young when we got married and if it was a daughter of mine I would say no don’t get married that young. But we were fortunate that we have stuck together for 51..52 years, so we have had a wonderful married life and we are really very fortunate.
Married; March 1964
Personal Study Book Design
One of the main books I have used as inspiration for my book design is Martin Usborne’s book ‘I’ve Lived In East London For 86 1/2 Years’. This photo book is about an old man who is living in East London and Martin Usborne, the photographer is photographing him in his everyday life.
I really like how each photo is presented alongside a couple of sentences which are Joseph’s words. These words show Joseph’s view on a topic. I think it makes the book have more character as you are able to read his thoughts and different views on modern life.
In my photo book, which has a similar concept to Martin Usborne’s book I will be taking extracts of my grandparents words. I will be taking these extracts from the interviews that I conducted with them a couple of months ago. The main headings/ topic heading will be; Music, Family, Jersey, Wales and Faith.
For the cover of my photo book, I am going to cover it with a patterned material, rather than a photograph. An example of this is Julian Germain’s photo book ‘For Every Minuet You Are Angry You Loose Sixty Seconds Of Happiness’. This cover is very colorful and eye catching. The type of pattern gives an essence of what the theme of the book is going to be.
This photo book has presented its pictures with white boarders around the pictures rather than full bled. I do like the white space around the photographs as I think it gives the book a clean cut look. Germain has also included random plain white pages, which breaks the book up nicely.
In this book, Germain presents some archive photos:
Although it is effective I not like the style he has presented these photographs. I don’t like how he has scanned the whole photo album, however I do like the positioning of the archive photo’s in the book. Germain has positioned them all together, in the middle of the book. I am still yet to decide how I would like to preset my archive photographs in my book. Either have them all together in a cluster, in the middle of the book. Or have them spread evenly throughout the book.
I am choosing to title my photo book ‘The Heavens’ because I think it has a strong sound to it, and makes the book clear what is going to be about.
- Square shaped book
- white board around the photos
- material front cover
- extracted quotes alongside photos
- random white blank pages
- archive photographs in the middle of the book
- title ‘The Heavens’
Christmas shoot
These are some photo’s I took at my grandparents home shortly after Christmas. In this shoot, I decided to focus on capturing images around my grandparents house. 
Essay Plan
The theme for my essay is going to be the concept of Love. I have chosen this theme because my grandparents have been married for 51 years and are so perfect for each other. I split the the theme of love into 5 sections which I think are most appropriate and most important in my Grandparents lives. Over the past three months I have been collecting photographs, archive material and film where I have been capturing their lives from five different perspectives; music, Jersey, Wales, Faith and Family. I have really enjoyed using my family as my personal project as I am able to as I have been able to use your
Possible questions;
how do Larry Sultan’s and Sam Harris’ photographs of their family represent/ interpret the concept of love.
.Essay question: hypothesis
Opening Quote- need to find.
intro; 250- 500 words.
PG1- Larry Sulton
PG2-Sam Harris
PG3- your work and responses
Conclusion
Bibliography (List all of your sources)
Larry Sultan Research
Larry Sultan grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley, which became a source of inspiration for a number of his projects. His work blends documentary and staged photography to create images of the psychological as well as physical landscape of suburban family life. Whilst looking through Sultans website I noticed that he wrote a couple of paragraphs about each of his exhibitions. I really like his style of writing because I think it is very poetic and creative. Below I have included some of my favorite quotes of his and my favorite photos from of each of his shoots. Some of Sultan’s exhibitions consist of;
- Pictures From Home (1992)This project was ongoing for over a decade. Sultan photographed his own parents in their hometown, California and them in their day to day lives.
“The house is quiet. They have gone to bed, leaving me alone, and the electric timer has just switched off the living-room lights. It feels like the house has finally turned on its side to fall asleep. Years ago I would have gone through my mother’s purse for one of her cigarettes and smoked in the dark. It was a magical time that the house was mine.”
- The Valley (2004) examined the adult film industry and the area’s middle-class tract homes that serve as pornographic film sets.
“While the film crew and talent are hard at work in the living room, I wander through the house peering into the lives of the people who live there. I feel like a forensic photographer searching out evidence.”
- Hometown (2009) In this project Sultan is photographing men who work in labour, and is photographing them in some of the suburban landscapes.
“I’m not sure if there is a specific term for these places. They are deeply reminiscent of the terrain I sought out as a child: the empty fields behind malls and scruffy borderlands of the LA river that ran behind my house in the San Fernando Valley. These places represented a small and vanishing patch of paradise that existed just outside of the boundaries of property and ownership; a free zone that eased my (adolescent) uncertainty and provided a safe place away from the judgments of others.”
- Katherine Avenue, (2010) the exhibition and book, explored Sultan’s three main series, Pictures From Home, The Valley, and Homeland along side each other to further examine how Sultan’s images negotiate between reality and fantasy, domesticity and desire, as the mundane qualities of the domestic surroundings become loaded cultural symbols.
I really like Sultan’s work. I like way he captures his images in a more abstract way. Researching his work has given me an inspiration with my own work, and I think I will include Larry Sultan as a piece of research in my essay.