1. Research a photo-book (select one you have looked at previously in your project) and describe what story/ narrative the book is telling – its subject-matter, genre, style, approach etc.

I have previously fully explored a book circulating the meaning of the human body and the emotions it can express, however, Because I feel as if I have annotated this book enough that it would be more beneficial for myself to look at a different book for a new fresh perspective of inspiration. I chose this book due to its eye catching images based off surrealism, with the contextual side of influences such as mystical stories and the sublime experiences people have shared. All the images have a direct narrative and area of interests, that I too wanted to show in my images.

The creator of this book traveled many breadths from the north of Iceland further travelling to the south, east and West, all in order to search for where magical beings live. She sought out people who have a special ability to see them, asking around in every gas station, library, grocery store or hotel for anyone who could communicate with the Beings of the Earth. She was never deterred but the wild of the Icelandic weather being unforgiving. she persisted through language barriers of Spanish speaking stranger, continuing to trek over the most remote parts of the country. She was powered by her curiosity and imagination, her journey was long, but she found many people who were certain of their experiences. The people Bego visited shared their deeply personal experiences with the magical Beings of the Earth, and she reveals all in this fascinating book. Bego says, “I’m not a dreamer, but I do believe that every reality deserves to be examined and that there can be an intermediate world between reality and imagination.” I find her attitude compelling and I think it was interesting to see an environment of people who would usually be said to be crazed and isolated from society, being shown interest in and welcomed to share experiences. In a fascinating and in such a unique and creative manner.  Not only are her images more surreal in the way she uses composition in order to express and individuals mind, the use of coloured rainbows over images exploits a typical mind set of the mystique. Not only do the images themselves express a reality of stories but the stories themselves are displayed beautifully and shown to be from a demeanour of understanding and belief, rather than of mocking someone. The style of this book is so unique, which is to my mind why I find it so fascinating. Her approach is so individualistic but works for each person in such a unique manner.  Each of her images have the ability to keep their own and are so interesting as an individual image.

2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, awards, legacy etc.)

She made this book in order to find out more about the subject matter themselves, and as an insight into these people and what there beliefs are. The artist believes what these people can see is a gift and should be celebrated through any means, this is why she explores this as a  ability or strength. In order to know how to photograph the person she asks them an arrangement of weird and fascinating questions. She states that ‘nature is our temple, so we call magic things we cannot understand, we have no reason to belive our five senses are enough to see the world, when you turn on the radio do you hear the waves?’ I believe it was well received as it was a unique and a new spectrum of photography work that had never been done before , I do not belive it won any awards, however it was widely loved within many communities. I understand that the audience they are trying to communicate with are those who are also interested within the views and abilities of other people. Perhaps they too think they have an ability, however I think it would be more likely for them to get this book as more of a spiritual development of people and their surrounding. I think due to the writers attitude of love and passion for her discovery of this topic it allows people to see this through her work and so too be inspired.

However not all the imagery is just a fantasy, her landscape imagery shows a significant talent and a complete relationship within the landscape is too found within herself.  Her capability to not only caption emotion, but a distinct and unique narrative to each and every individual is the pivotal point of her unique style and methods. I belive many people would also purchase this book due to the accord of the successful surreal imagery, she is a prime example of surreal art without having to take it through extreme editing, she perfectly captures a moment of sanctity accompanied with fantasy.

If it were possible, I would be interested in too finding similarities such as this in order to make my book more interesting, Including the use of stories to give more of a narrative to my images, Interesting colour concepts that connote the feeling of emotions of the person themselves, The composition and layout of the book having pages overlapping on another and a multitude of images over a double spread. Lastly, The use of having a dynamic design on the front which is an illustrations of the ideas and beliefs of the people, I think the colour and design on the front is part of the unique ability of the book, and creates an interest for the reader.

For the investigation into a photobook, I will be researching the book ‘Where the Mimosa Bloom’ by Rita Puig – Serra Costa, which focuses on the life of her mother who recently passed away, she tries to capture her life in a documentary approach through objects, places, family and friends. I have paid close attention to this particular book throughout the whole of the project, as the subject matter is similar to my personal study, but I am focusing on my own life. 

Cover of the Book 

There are no words on the front of the book, which is the first indication, that is photobook rather than than an informative book about her mother’s life. The image on the front cover is  faded photo of  Yolanda Costa Rico ( her mother ) in a garden as a child. The spine is a warm yellow the same colour of the mimosa trees, which where her mother mother favourite plant. Later in the book we see a photo of blooming mimosa tree, which are native to her home city of Barcelona, growing in a densely populated area which give an indication of the symbolism of the tree, the title of the book itself.

Design and Layout

The first two and the last two pages of the book are the same colour as the spine which is the colour of the mimosa tree which this a running feature throughout the whole of the book.

• The book is an A5 linen hardcover and consist of 96 pages.
• 18 archival images.
• 5 full bleeds.
• 22 objects.
• 13 blank pages
• 5 pages with sections cut out
• 10 formal portraits
• 0 inserts or fold out
• 4 pages of letters

Sequencing

The first five pages of the book have a small squares cut out to reveal a portrait of what we can assume is Rita’s family tree, as you continue turn the page another portrait is revealed and so on and so forth until we can see all six family members. Throughout the book we seen ten portraits of different people taken using natural light, but there is no indication that they are the people from the family tree. We can assume that these people are friends of Rita’s mother.  The portraits in the book are commonly juxtaposed by photograph of a small possession of Yolanda’s eg a shopping list, small toy or a black page, to draw the attention to the portrait, or may shows that in Yolands life she cared more about the experiences and the people around her than physical objects .

Structure 

The narraitve the book is telling to story Yoloands life through her possesions, her friends, family, places she visited. The book unlike most photobooks nearly entirely consists of photos that don’t seem to have any correlation to each other until you get towards the end of the book and find the index pages in which all of the images are given context, I think that by Rita doing this it gives the audience a better chance to connect the the book in a personal matter. I think that by not having any words next to the image creates a rather pleasant anthetic and makes the audience look at the book in two different way; as an outside having no connection to her at all, then the perspective of Rita, grieving daughter trying to honour her mother and still trying to keep the bond that she had with her mother alive.

Editing 

The book as a whole has a light and bright feel to it, the background for the majority of the book is white as objects that have been scanned onto a computer, or she has taken images of physical objects that wouldn’t have been able to scan in, she has photographed them with a white screen behind them. So this gives some depth to the images rather than them all being very flat from having been scanned in. All of the objects have been edited onto a pure white background, apart from one page.  On this page is a branch of the mimosa tree, which looks as if it is slowing dying, this could be a references to how Rita see the memory of her mother, that all of her possessions bring back happy memories of the times that they shared together hence the bright backgrounds, but when she thinks about her actual mother all she is reminded of is that she is no longer there. 

Text 

The only large amount of text in the book comes at the very back of the book, in which there is an index page of sorts which describes   all of the images that have come before so that the audience can have some of context as to what these objects are, it also gives context to where the images where taken so we are given an idea of where Yoland spent different parts of her life. At the end of the book there is a letter from Rita in which she speaks of the ways that she still feels that her mother is present in her life even though she is no longer there the letter is first written in her mother native language of Catalan and then in English.

1. Write a book specification and describe in detail what your book will be about in terms of narrative, concept and design.  Produce a mood-board of design ideas and consider the following:

Narrative: What is your story?
Describe in:

• 3 words: family, memories, loss
• A sentence: My book is about my grandpa and the memories I have with him surrounding the natural landscapes we spent time in.
• A paragraphs: My book will focus the relationship between me and my grandfather and the memories I have of my time with him. I will structure the book with three key sections divided with poems he wrote which all link to natural environments we spent time in. I hope the book will display the connection we had as a family and even people who did not know my grandpa can relate it to special memories with their own families.

Design: 

• How you want your book to look and feel: I want my book to have a personal feel, not just to me but to anyone looking at it, I will achieve this by using settle materials, nothing extravagant or over the top. It should feel like an old book which has been used and read with textured thick pages.
• Paper and ink: I want to use a matte finish paper so that my photos don’t reflect too much light and look like a magazine image. This should help to give it a personal and simple look.  
  
• Format, size and orientation: I want the book to be small and discrete, something that can easily be carried around and stored on a book shelf with family albums of on a coffee table to be looked through. possibly in a portrait format however i may change this once I start the layout
• Binding and cover: my cover will display a landscape image that links to the ideas running through the book, potentially a place where I made fond memories with my grandpa such as the beach. I want it to wrap around the cover similarly to how the landscape painting wraps around my grandpas Anthology. 
  
• Title: The title of my book will be ‘little changes’ , this is the name of one of the poems my grandpa wrote which will feature in the book as a stimulus for my photos.
• Structure and architecture: there are going to be 3 main sections in the book split with the use of each poem, firstly tunnelling which focuses on his childhood and memories of the beaches which I also visited with him. the next poem will be Steffi’s castle relating back to when I was younger playing with my grandpa in their house. the final poem will be
• Design and layout: I will have a large variety of image types to include such as portraits of family member, landscapes of memorable places, archival images and scans of documents. I will arrange these image types in a complimentary oder depending on shapes and colours that run through them. i also want the images to relate for example a picture taken recently placed next to a similar archival image to show the jumping time.
• Editing and sequencing: I want to edit the photos naturally but also with a slight vintage feel to look as though they are looking back, linking the the idea of memories.
• Images and text: I will type the poems out as in a type written font because this is how my grandpa would have originally worked. This style will run through the book with all the text. I am going to try an use as many original images as possible however the archival element will play a big part of the story acting as the anchor for the memories, my own photos will illustrate the memories which were not recorded by photographs at the time.

Photo book generally have a narrative or story line, this is more than just the sequencing of images and the aesthetics is how each image links and follows on. A stand alone image speaks for itself, we often will notice more details in these our eyes are not distracted my anything else. However multiple images is not always a distraction they can work together and create a more advanced understanding for the audience.

I have chosen to look into ‘Where Mimosa Bloom’ by Rita Puig-Serra Costa in more detail and analyse all aspects of it. The subject matter of the book is Rita and her mum and family memories all link with use of the yellow mimosa tree. The style of the book is very personal and aesthetically soft, with a faded pastel colour pallet. She has approached her photobook with a very unique structure, a mix of archival images, portraits, still life, landscapes and documents have all worked together to create a broad overview of her family and memories.

Firstly the design of the cover is distorted and not completely clear, this is an archival image from the photographers family achieve showing the subject of the book as a child. The faded effect and pixelation shows the vintage feel, we could link this to how photographs capture and preserve distant memories but also shows hoe nothing is permanent. The back cover is again distorted in the same way as the front and shows a landscape image with trees which could link to the title of the book. The spine of the book is in a bright yellow colour which stands out from the brown toned images, the text is debossed and printed in black. The same yellow colour has been used for the inside lining of the cover, and after researching the title this colour links to the flowers (bloom) or the mimosa tree.

The first few pages of the book progressively show and reveal a family tree, presumably which shows the link between the photographer and the subject of the book. As you turn each page a new image is revealed through frames cute into the paper.

Refined

 Rephotography

Rephotography is the act of repeat photography of the same site, with a time lag between the two images; a “then and now” view of a particular area. Some are casual, usually taken from the same view point but without regard to season, lens coverage or framing. Some are very precise and involve a careful study of the original. Rephotography was developed as early as 1850 in the natural sciences to demonstrate environmental change, such as erosion or receding glaciers, and has been applied to fields such as sociology to show social change, usually in the built environment e.g., towns and cities.

Morden day Rephotography can be seen in the McCord Museum of Canadian History’s virtual exhibition “Urban Life through Two Lenses.” It shows the nineteenth-century views of Montreal by William Notman, rephotographed by Andrzej Maciejewski in 2002. Another is Douglas Levere’s project, “New York Changing”; here Levere rephotographed 114 of Berenice Abbott’s, “Changing New York” images.

The French rephotographer Vincent Zénon Rigaud is comparing views of Reims in Champagne before and after the almost complete destruction of the city by first world war bombshells. “Reims avant, pendant et après la première guerre mondiale” Rigaud’s work shows the impact of war on urbanism. War severely damaged The cathedral Notre-Dame of Reims, UNESCO’s utmost masterpiece of Gothic architecture, is still under several heavy restoration processes where accurate rephotography is used as a site supervision and a duty of memory.

Christopher Moloney is a Canadian writer and photographer born August 4, 1977, he is best known for his ongoing rephotography project entitled FILMography.  He studied radio and television arts at Ryerson University in Toronto. After earning his degree, Moloney moved to New York City to work in television working on shows such as Late Show with David Letterman and Erin Burnett OutFront.

In June 2012,he began experimenting with an on-location layering technique of holding up a black-and-white printout of a scene from a movie and taking another photography otherwise known as ‘Rephotography’

The critics are divided on his work. Flare praised Moloney for “Flawlessly [lining] up every brick in a building and curb on the street to make the visuals look as one”. Whilst The Atlantic was more critical, noting “the buildings don’t always line up perfectly; the colors seldom match” 

His photographs have been featured by a number of magazines including Esquire, Complex, Wired,Fast Company and Vanity Fair.In 2013, his photographs were part of exhibitions during the Cannes Film Festival and Ischia Film Festival.

Personally I think the idea is very good and a interesting concept, I had previously seen these images floating around the internet, and  hadn’t heard of ‘Rephotography’ so I think that Chris has brought the style of photography back into the modern era as previously it was only used by scientist  and historians to document time changes, but now i see lots of brands and photographers using this style. But I think that if Chris had taken a bit more time when executing theses images the overall project would look a lot better, such as this image, the sun is reflecting off the paper into the lens so half of the left side of the image is too bright so we cannot see what is on that side, so maybe he could have though ahead and taken the images at a different time of the day so that the sun would have been in a different location. The image taken from ‘The Avengers’ could have been of better quality

Phillip Toledano was the sole inspiration for this shoot, he created a project in which he photographed a box of his sister possession who passed in a car accident when she was only six years, he used the experience to get closer to his sister. Which made me think out of all of my possessions, which are the things that are the most important to me, whether it be because of their practical use that they hold or because of their sentimental value.

Edits

Christopher Phillip Verene is an American fine arts and documentary photographer born on  October 29, 1969 in  DeKalb, Illinois, and is the son of the philosopher Donald Verene. He spent his teens and twenties in Atlanta, Georgia and studied art at Georgia State University. Verene moved to Brooklyn in 1999. In 2000, he was included the Whitney Biennial with his 1998 series Camera Club and the performance installation piece, The Self-Esteem Salon.  

He is most recognized for his work ‘Family’ a project which he began at aged 16 as a simple pastime, which has transformed into a 23 year ongoing project.  Three generations of his family still live in Galesburg and the family, is friends and the city are the subjects of the body of work. Verene began working with a medium format camera and started taking pictures of his family and friends within the small town of Galesburg. While having many diverse interests in music, film, and escape magic, the subject of his photographic career eventually became centered on the town of Galesburg and various events that take place within it. In 1998, The New York Times observed: “… anthropological portraits, like Chris Verene’s of a cousin at her wedding banquet in Illinois… Such portraits tell us less about individual people than about the worlds they inhabit, which is perhaps the main truth of most portraits.” 

The works on the town of  Galesburg, shows everyday life ans the struggling families trying to carry on family traditions and a past way of life in the declining American Midwest.  All of Verene’s images are unstaged documentary color photography, all though they may appear to look staged at some points. With its Arbusian style his work is largely appreciated for its honesty, intense color, and composition.

In a review of Verene’s Galesburg portraits shown at Postmasters Gallery in 2010, Cora Fisher writes in The Brooklyn Rail: “At no point in their stories of separation, divorce, remarriage, and birth across generational ties, class differences, and economic changes do they seem any less than Verene’s co-authors in the construction of their narrative.”

What I like about these images so much of Chris’s is that he had given these images context and given the images real meaning and by having ma small description of why the image was taken it gives the audience so understand of the meaning behind the image. As many photographers take images they are very symbolic and meaningful to them but to the on looking eye it has no real meaning or significance. So this is a technique that I want to incorporate  into my work.

Toledano is a English photographer born in 1968 in London, to a French Moroccan mother and an American father. He grew up in London and Casablanca. He received a BA in English literature from Tufts University in Boston. Toledano considers himself a conceptual artist: Everything starts with an idea, and the idea determines the execution. Consequently, his work varies in medium, ranging from photography to installation, sculpture, painting and video.

His project ‘When I was Six ‘, focuses on the short life of his younger sister Claudia  who passed away in a car accident when he was six, and then again was never spoke of again and subsequently because the elephant in the room between him and his mother and father, who found the situation too painful to speak about. After his both of his parents had passed away he found a box of all her her things neatly packed away by his mother. He used this project to get to know his sister who he a very little time with, the project also help him to understand how his parents dealt with the trauma of losing a child. 

‘This work was a way of getting to know Claudia. But it was also a way of getting to know my parents and their relationship with her. It gave me a glimpse into the pain and courage it took to stay together as husband and wife, as mother and father, to give me the beautiful life they gave me. I have no memories of my life after my sister’s death for a few years, other than an obsession with space, planets, and distant universes. Perhaps it was a way of being somewhere else, distant. Half of the images in the book are of the imagined landscapes that saved me, when I was a child that needed saving. The other half, of things that belonged to my sister. Things that explain who she was, how she loved my parents, and what happened after her death.’