I decided to produce my book in a portrait layout as I felt it would be better for when landscape photographs are spread over two pages, which is a common theme throughout my book. I decided to sequence the photographs so that the viewer does not know what condition my granddad is in until later in the book, revealing the story slowly. The viewer will be able to identify juxtaposition between archival photographs and photographs of him now as well as objects, which provide evidence and give clues to the viewer of what had happened. The images within the photobook are a mixture of both black and white and colour. I have also included text within my book, which provides additional information. The layout of my book changed as I made the book, which was because I would come up with new ideas I didn’t have before or when asking for the perspective of others, they seen it differently to what I did. I found this extremely helpful to have critique as well as positive feedback, as it guided me to my final outcome. The research into photobooks and also looked on the website blurb to gain ideas and inspiration for my book. The way I came to my final outcome was trial and error, moving images around consistently until I was happy with the layout. Once I was content with my layout, I started to choose the image templates to select what the image would look like on the page. You could choose a variety of layouts from 1, 2, 3, 4 photographs to a page. We also had an option to pick multiple photographs, two page spreads and text pages. I used 1,2, multiple photographs, two page spreads and text pages. This is my final layout for my photobook.

This is the front cover I decided to choose in the end. It is one archival image in some sort of paper frame or folder. The image is of my granddad at 19 years old, his brother and his father, who has been covered in black. This is because they lost at a fairly young age, the black is to show loss but is painted as a silhouette figure to show he is still there but just not present in our world. He is still spoken about by my granddad as he looked up to his father and always says this is why he’s the man he is today. The father figure is in the middle of the two pages so he is split in half by the spine, which represents my granddad and his brother is half of him and always will be. This image might have been interpreted differently by viewers, which is what I would like to happen. Consistent questions being asked throughout the book. It took me a while to pick this front cover and I spent time adjusting the image to make sure it was exactly the way I wanted it. Getting the father figure in the middle was difficult to achieve as well as including other parts of the image I wanted, such as the frame and the sharp paper corners.

My title for my book is “The Aftermath” I feel this again leaves it open to interpretation and also keeps the reader guessing, which might intrigue them to look through my book to learn more. This is a simple title, which contrasts to the difficulty within my Granddad’s life. The aftermath represents the consequences of a unpleasant event, this was the strokes which occurred. The consequences were what resulted from this. These consequences and symptoms are presented in the book later on, to provide the viewer more information on what a stroke is and how it can effect the individual.

This is the first image within the book, this is an archival image which has been slightly manipulated. The manipulation taken place was the black line, which is located across the eyes. This leaves the viewer interested to know why this is the case, which is what I wanted. The reason why I did this is because he is now nearly completely blind due to the stroke. This indicates this, without being obvious. Again this is showing loss. He found this particularly hard as he enjoyed reading in his space time and felt like everything he loved to do, was taken away from him. He now reads the newspaper with a magnifying glass but can not read a book due to the pain he feels if he is straining his eye to much. This image represents this.

This is a double page spread, full bleed. I selected this as I wanted the viewer to feel as if they were in the room. This is the interior of my granddads house. This shows where he spends more of his time and will see his life out. I feel it represents family showing how he lives. Also, on the television located in the left half of the photograph there is a politician, which represents his personality and interests as he is extremely interested in politics and history.  I feel this gives the viewer an insight into my granddads life behind closed doors and where he lives.

My granddad often scratches his head, the same specific part. I never really knew why but I researched into this as I know many older individuals, which excessively scratch their skin.  I found that the sensation of scratching at skin can be pleasurable for some, while others describe a feeling of tension release when scratching. It can also have a calming effect as the sensation can be soothing to the nervous system. The scratching may therefore be a response to feelings of anxiety, depression, nervousness or fear. These are all common emotions in the aging adult, compounded by the deterioration of other mental faculties such as memory. I found this extremely interesting how this was a common activity for elderly individuals and felt this was important to photograph as it is something he likes to do.

The image of a magnifying glass, is something my Granddad uses when reading as he struggles to see as he currently only has one eye which he can partially see out of the other eye but not very well. He uses this to make the words bigger on page to enable him to see the words to read. Reading and learning has always been a significant element in his life, even as a young man so he does not want to give this up so therefore he uses as a way of adapting to his condition. I decided to photograph objects which were significant things in his life, this is one of them, without this he would not be able to read. This is a result of his eye being taken out which is correlating with the photograph of his glass eye. The two images go well together as they are taken in the same way but also because one is a result of the other.

Although this photograph is not of a good quality, I feel it shows how my family are extremely family orientated. This is full bleed as I wanted the viewer to feel they were sitting on the table, making them feel included. This also shows how many people actually care about my Granddad and how many people are effected by his condition.

These are my granddad’s childhood friends, most of his friends are now dead, he only has 2 of them who are still alive today. They are both in this picture. The two people, which are covered by a black overlay to make an almost silhouette effect to show the absence of these people in my granddad’s life as they have both sadly passed away. The other two men in the photograph, which are either side of my granddad in the image are still alive, they are both fairly ill themselves so have not seen my granddad in a long time. But are hopefully going to make an appearance for my granddad’s 80th birthday in December. This photograph is to again empathises the absence and presence in my Granddad’s life.

This is my granddad washing his eye, everyday he has to clean and wash his eye so he doesn’t get infections. This is a snapshot image and illustrates a part of his daily routine, which I wanted to capture in my photo book as this is the main theme of my book- how his life has changed due to the illness and the adaptations he has to make to his daily routine.  Although the window is seen as white in the photograph due to the light reacting with the camera, the main focus is my granddad so I feel this does not matter as much as if it was a environmental or landscape photograph. This is a portrait image and shows my granddad in action.

I decided to make a collective image of all his medication he uses for various reasons- all resulting from his strokes. Every week he puts his tablets into his container so that he remembers to take them as he regularly used to forget to take them all. This way they are all in the same place and this is kept next to his bedside table, the tablets has changed his life significantly as they are extremely strong, which results in him not being allowed to drink or take any other tablets in conjunction with them. They are also evidence that he needs medical help, which is something he never needed before his strokes. The tablets are also placed in an orderly manner, which is to show the structure in his life as he has a very structured routine when it comes to his medication and medical care.

These are interviews with my uncles, which are my Granddad’s sons. I turned the interviews into paragraphs about my Granddad and also took images of them to show who said it. This provides outside voices and opinions about my Granddad’s condition, supplying further details.

This shows the house from the outside looking in. You can see my Granddad sitting on his chair, which shows what people see from the external. His chair is where he spends most of his time. So this will be an image others see regularly.

These are interviews with my Mum and Gran, which are my Granddad’s daughter and wife. I turned the interviews into paragraphs about my Granddad and also took images of them to show who said it. This provides outside voices and opinions about my Granddad’s condition, supplying further details.

The images are of my granddad’s glass eye, this goes in his right eye socket, he hates putting it in as it causes discomfit and pain for him. He got his eye taken out after his second stroke in an attempt to remove pain he was getting behind the eye, he had already lost his sight in that eye and he was desperate to stop the pain, he agreed to have his eye taken out and replaced with a glass eye, which was matched to the original colour of his eye.  He told me that this was the hardest part of his stroke and often thinks about how he regrets making this decision as the pain is still there and the glass eye causes infections, which are again extremely painful. The box is what he keeps it in to protect it from damage, when in the house he takes it out and relaxes his eye, he finds this extremely soothing and relaxing, This represents the change in my granddad’s life as he has had things taken off him- his freedom, his eye, his ability to see, walk and talk as he did before.

I felt it was equally important to have words from my Granddad about what he thought about his current situation and how he feels both physically and mentally. You see him from a almost side profile, revealing his nose, which as you can see has partly deteriorated leaving him with half a right nostril. It was the whole of the right side of his body which was mostly affected by the stroke. This image shows this as you see his eye socket without his glass eye in it.

This is a photograph from the 60’s of my granddad and his friends, in this photograph is he 21. The red overlay over half the photo is to show separation between the boys as the two underneath the overlay are not here anymore as they passed away over the last 5 years, which brought a lot of emotional to my granddad as he felt this was a part of his childhood disappearing. He currently still has his brother with him but doesn’t see him due to him too being ill, he also had a stroke, which could link to my granddad as an heredity factor.

This is a snapshot of my granddad, receiving his birthday cake. He is now 80 years old, I wanted an image in the book to show his age. I feel like this shows this well. This is also a natural image of my Granddad, which means it is his true self.

This image has been edited  in photoshop, only half of the image has been manipulated to show the loss of feeling in one side of his body due to the stroke. He finds it difficult to move this part of his body and this is represented in the photograph by a darken the right side of the body/photograph. Also when you cover one half of the photograph each part looks like a different person to show how he has changed as a person both physically and mentally. The text along side this image, describes what a stroke is and what the short and long term symptoms are. I felt this was important for the viewers to know as they go through the book.

This is my granddad’s eye patch, this is to protect his eye socket from getting infections when he is not wearing his glass eye, as this is potentially a hole or wound in his face. My granddad does not like wearing this as he finds it uncomfortable and he often calls it his pirate patch as admittedly he looks like a pirate when wearing it. He also has to get a new eye patch every few months as it gets dirty, which could result in infection this is collected from the chemist and comes with his repeat descriptions. This is something he uses regularly, which is why I felt it was important to photograph this. The image of the face is the symbol of fate, this is a common theme within my book.

I took images of thinks I seen round where they live. These would be objects my granddad would see when he leaves the house. This tree is located outside their house and is in clear view out of the window next to my granddad’s chair. I decided to turn it black and white and add more contrast to make it a bit eerie, which is because its something my granddad can see but will never touch as its too fair of a walk for him.

This photograph was taken while sitting in my Granddad’s chair. The photograph shows what he would see when looking out the window, I thought this was quite interesting as the viewer sees what my Granddad sees daily, almost putting themselves in his shoes.

These are archival photographs. One of my Granddad and my mum and the one of my Granddad and I. These correlate with each other because he made my mum, who made me. This shows generation and family.

This photograph seems like he is thinking about something, my Nan says he does this daily and she thinks that he is thinking about the life he used to have but whenever anyone asks him what he is thinking about he demands its nothing. Again this is demonstrating that his life is mostly him sitting on his chair. I often catch him staring into space and I am convinced he is reminiscing about how good his life used to be and how he wishes he could move. He also frequently grips his hands together and scratches his head, maybe to release his pain as his grip is usually tight and strong as if he is distracting his attention to other pressure instead of the pain he feels in his body.

This is a cut down tree, which is near their house. About 10 years ago my granddad fought to keep this tree, instead of it being cut down, however he lost that battle. The tree was 15 years old and it was a beautiful feature, they cut it down to give one of the houses a sufficient view. My granddad didn’t think this was a good enough reason to cut down trees and ruin out environment and nature. This image illustrates his strong beliefs in nature.

Finally, this image is my Granddad singing, which he has loved to do from a very young age. This represents his personality and hobbies, he was always a very outgoing person, who would always want to be the life and soul of the party. He was confident and witty, which I feels shows in this image. I wanted to start with an archival image and end with one also, these photographs are included so that the viewer can make comparisons of who he was then and who he is now. The other peoples fill the gaps and explain his journey. I have enjoyed making this book as I felt I was able to reconnect with my Granddad in a much deeper way. A way I never thought I would. Making the comparison myself about what my Granddad used to be like before the stroke made me and my family realise just how much he has been affected by his illness. This is a sensitive topic and I hope my concern for his health and my love for my family show within this book.