The exam brief was to create a project representing the theme of transition, and as i explaining in my statement of intent, i wanted to show this through exploring jersey life, and detailing pivotal memories and places on the island. I explored this in my book as two visible chapters, the first of summer life with my friends on the island, and at the end presenting the second chapter, as a nod to Brighton, leaving island life for university in the UK. For each location i began with a double page spread image, using the slang term our friendship group would use for that place as the title; however i left that as the only text for those title pages, as in my statement i was going to also caption those images, but once i started to layout my photobook, i thought more text took away from the displayed image. and then a few pages of images from notable memories made there, some captioning whose in the image, and some had a time stamp of the date. I then decided to only use one image of Brighton at the end, the Brighton pier with its iconic neon sign saying as such, as to show the transition to where the next chapter of my life is taking me.

My entire book is mixed between group images and landscapes, showing us in each sentimental location. These images were archived, taken mostly from last summer, and followed the vernacular style of Martin Parr, who also used candid, imperfect imagery, mostly seaside capturing peoples daily experiences, which ideas i followed when choosing the images for my photobook. At the beginning of Parr’s book ‘The Last Resort’ he shows an old-timey image of Brighton (the chosen location of all the books images) and at the end uses another titled ‘New Brighton’ which unintentionally matched with where i’m moving to university, but follows the same idea of a ‘new chapter’.

My final product, the photobook, contains 40 images, including the cover image, curated to tell the narrative of a group of teenagers going through island life. Overall I am very happy with my final book and the way it looks together as a whole. I think the casual and candid style of my images tell a personal story of my adolescent life, along with the bursts of text which gave a further insight into my island memories. If i were to add to or re-style my book i would probably mix in some more large landscape shots, to capture more of the beauty of each location. However i am very happy with the outcome of my project, and due to it highlighting my personal experiences, it will be nice to have this book and be able to look back on my teenage life in the years to come.