Sam Harris – The Middle of Somewhere:
Sam Harris is a British photographer who lived in London, his first apart in the city was turned into a makeshift darkroom were he explored and experimented with photographs. During the 90’s his passion played with capturing portraits and sleeve art for recording artists. Later on in life himself and his family moved to Western Australia for a more simplistic lifestyle, where he photographic book ‘The Middle of Somewhere’ was produced, 2015.
Narrative:
‘The Middle of Somewhere’ is a photographic book which is visual family diary, celebrating childhood, family and love. The book is based around Harris’ two daughters as they move to Australia. The imagery explores the transformation of his daughters, in particular moments of time as they are able to experience freely and wonder in their surroundings. The phonebook covers a 12 year period, as they move after seeking a simpler lifestyle. The images tend to be in naturalistic environment using naturalistic light sources which allow for the ideology of exploration and children growing up to further be emphasised. Inserts are placed within the book which allows for a descriptive perspective of this journey of the girls to be showcased. Overall, the final product is intimate and embraces a memorable collection of images which tells the story of two daughters growing up.
Deconstruction:
- Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.
The book itself feels quite heavy, the front cover is smooth, with a white fabric taped across the front with the title of the photo book on top of it. The book smells used and reminds of walking past books in a library.
- Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
All the images, whether they are in colour or black and white, are placed onto white matt paper which is smooth and reminds me of a photo scrap book which families hold their images in. Inside the book their is also text, which is stuck in on post it notes, which are all hand written, explaining or further reinforcing the girls exploration into the world. In addition, a written diary, typed in a newspaper font is used, which adds context about the moving process from the perspective of Harris
- Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
The photo book is presented in a portrait orientation, which is slightly larger than A5 but not quite A4. The shape of the book is rectangle with no vertices, as the corners are smooth and curve. In total there are 94 photographs, 2 inserts, 48 photographs, post-its and notes.
- Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello
As mentioned previously the book is a soft cover, with no dust jacket and no image wrap. The binding is a saddle stitch, as we are not able to see how the book is put together. However with the inserts they are put into the book using a Swiss stitch, which adds to the scrap book feel and almost creates child like qualities.
- Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping.
The cover itself is a piece of soft card, with a green background. On the background is yellow spirals, which is symbolic for the simplistic life that this family have moved on to. These drawings are also ‘basic’ which suggests that the two daughters drew the covers. In a sense you can feel these yellow spirals, creating a slight texture to the front cover. As mention prior, the title is placed on a white piece of fabric, with the title hand written onto the white fabric.
- Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.
The title used takes a more poetic route to suggesting what the book is. ‘The Middle Of Somewhere’, is Harris’ was of explaining how he moved from London to remote corner of the world, in order to live the simplistic lifestyle, which is also emphasised through him not naming where he has moved to. It also hints at the ideology that his daughters are free to explore and grow up without having to worry, as he is no longer living in a major city. Personally, the title is both intriguing as it makes viewers want to fully understand the context and concept of the book, but the title also has relevance to his imagery that he produces.
- Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
As mentioned in the narrative section of the blog post, the book explores Harris’ two daughters growing up and exploring the world after they move to Western Australia for a more simplistic lifestyle. The image is told through the naturalistic, documentary style photographs, both portrait and landscape, which allows viewers to visually understand their new lifestyle and the way in which his daughters are growing up and experience the world. This is reinforced through the travelogues within the book, which allows text to qualitatively describe this lifestyle, complimenting the imagery, as well as post-its of different messages the children have written, which also compliment the imagery.
- Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative. Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
The construct of the photo book is simplistic, when two images are presented over two pages, the images tend to match in location and through the formal elements of colour, which allows the viewers eyes to easily guide themselves around the book. The larger images represent the key or more substantial moments through the children’s exploration. All the photographs within the photographic book, all have a connection in the sense that they are all naturalistic, and taken in an environment in which the girls feel safe in and call home. The way in which they are sequenced, is in a chronological order in order to show the children’s age and them growing up, emphasising how they have developed and changed into the simplistic lifestyle, as well as showing how their personality has changed through exploration of the area they live in. The first image presented is a landscape of a forest area in which I believe is the place in which his daughter’s are growing up in, which allows a circular plot with the ending image being a sketched map of this specific area.
- Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
Most of the book, the landscape photographs are presented on a double page spread, with an occasional 3/4 page spread, and half of a single page spread.. The portrait pictures are consistently single page spreads. Each photograph compliments one another and allows the narrative to smoothly flow throughout. The inserts within the book is the travelogues which are all text, with one of them having a few black and white images, which are all clumped together summarising the text in a visual way.
- Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others. Use of captions (if any.)
At the beginning of the photo book is a series of 7 short sentences which describe how time goes quickly and how his daughters are growing up so fast, which allows us to consider the conceptual representation of the book. On top of this, as I have previously mentioned the book has travelogues, as inserts, which descriptively explain their new lifestyle, which almost acts as an explanation for the imagery. On top of this, post-it notes are found within the book which helps to explain a specific image and that specific moment, adding context to the imagery.
Video:
Below I have found a video which shows every page of the photo book, which will help to reinforce the comments I have made and illustrate some of the features I have outlines: