The book Mongrelism by Jono Rotman displays portraits of people within the gang, focusing in on their clothing and tattoos, along with photos of correlating objects, scenery and towns. Showing the identity of the gang members in hope to make viewers more vigilant to their traditional beliefs and values. Rotman’s desire for completing this project lead from his interest in power and its representation in society. His approach to image-making was to carry out the sessions without any styling or direction from Rotman, this way each sitter had control over his representation. All of the portraits were shot with a large-format camera, against a dark background with available light. This photobook received the Images Vevey Book Award. The layout of the book is described by a reviewer as having a ‘simple clean design, aimed at keeping our full attention on its content.’
The book cover is a red, linen material with an emboss of a traditional adaptation of a self-portrait whakairo carved by Little Man Rogue, filled with gold leaf. The name and book author is also embossed with gold leafing on the spine.
The first half of the book shows the photos Rotman took on his project, including portraits of mob members, landscapes of the areas they are from and object images of things members of the mob uses. The paper used for this half is glossed, thick photograph paper, with one photo on each page along with their names and the county of New Zealand they are based.
The second part of the book includes texts, and a series of documented conversations between Rotman and various members, during his tour. These pages are a newspaper like texture, with each interview in a chapter format. My favourite aspect of these pages is that Rotman censored with red blocks what seems to be personal or disturbing information, I like this as it shows the respect that he has for these members and it shows the relationships he has formed during the project.
DAY 1: Essay: Complete essay, incl illustrations, referencing and bibliography + publish on blog (essay also needs to be added and presented at the end of your photobook)
DAY 2: Photoshoots/ recordings: Begin editing images or recordings for your photobook / film + produce blog posts showing selection process and experimentation of images. Use a combination of print screens + annotation. Write an evaluation about what went well and what you need to do next to develop your shoots and project.
DAY 3 Photobook/ film: Begin photobook design/ edit film + produce blogpost showing design process and evaluate. Use a combination of print screens + annotation.
Prints: Begin to consider final prints and produce blog post showing presentation ideas and create mock-up in Photoshop and virtual gallery.
Blogposts: Finish and publish any missing blog posts as per Planner and your tracking sheet.
ESSAY Publish final essay as a separate blog post with illustrations of key works by artists and your own images analysed in your text, as well as a bibliography listing all literary sources used. Also incorporate essay in the back of your book using layout in text columns and include illustrations and bibliography.
PHOTOBOOK Make sure you have a made a blog post that charts your design decisions, including prints screens of layout with annotation and write an ongoing evaluation. If you complete it; final book design must be checked and signed off by teacher.
For more help and guidance editing, process and evaluation go to blog post below.
BLURB – ORDER BOOK Inside Lightroom upload book design to BLURB, log onto your account on their website, pay and order the book.
Consider spending a few extra pounds on choosing better paper, such as Premium Lustre in check-out, change colour on end paper or choose different cloth/ linen if needed.
FILM Make sure you have a made a blog post that charts your editing process, including prints screens with annotation and write an evaluation. If you complete it; final film must be checked and signed off by teacher.
For more help and guidance on editing, process and evaluation go to blog post below.
Export final film as mp4 file and upload to Youtube / Microsoft Streams and embed on Blog. Follow these steps:
In Premier: Click on Sequence > Render IN/OUT
File > Export > Media
Export Settings: Format H.264
Output Name: use title of your film and save to V:Data drive
Click Export at bottom
Using Microsoft Stream: Open up Office 365
Go to All Apps and select Stream
Create > Upload Video
Browse to upload your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description, choose thumbnail and publish
My Content > Videos > embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
In Youtube: Set up an account at home (www.youtube.com)
Click Create (top right corner) > Upload video
Select file > your exported film from V:Data drive
Write a short description and choose thumbnail
Once uploaded, embed film into Blog post with evaluation.
BLOGPOSTS All blog posts in relation to the above must be published, including any other posts missing from previous work modules since the beginning of A2 academic year, including Zines which must be printed & bound, and NFT film and digital image, including a statement, uploaded to both blog and folders here ready for the exhibition:
FINAL PRINTS Select your final prints (5-7) from photobook/ film and make a blog post showing ideas about how to present them.
In photoshop produce a mock display (create new document size A1: 594 x 841mm) using different image sizes, for example: A3 x 2, A4 x 2, A5 x 3
PREPARE AND SAVE IMAGES FOR PRINTING:
Add your images to the print folder here…M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\Printing Yr 13 IDENTITY
Complete any unfinished work from last term if you have time, For example: select images for print form Zine and NFT projects.
File Handling and printing...
Remember when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to 1000 pixels on the Short edge for “blog-friendly” images (JPEGS)
BUT…for editing and printing when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to Short edge for “high resolution” images (JPEGS) like this…
A5 Short Edge = 14.8 cm
A4 Short Edge = 21.0 cm
A3 Short Edge =29.7 cm
This will ensure you have the correct ASPECT RATIO
Ensure you label and save your file in you M :Drive and then copy across to the PRINT FOLDER / IMAGE TRANSFER
For a combination of images, or square format images you use the ADOBE PHOTOSHOP > NEW DOCUMENT + PRINT PRESETS on to help arrange images on the correct size page (A3, A4, A5)
You can do this using Photoshop, Set up the page sizes as templates and import images into each template, then you can see for themselves how well they fit… but remember to add an extra 6mm for bleed (3mm on each side of the page) to the original templates. i.e. A4 = 297mm x 210 but the template size for this would be 303mm x 216mm.
Making a Virtual Gallery in Photoshop
Download an empty gallery file…then insert your images and palce them on the walls. Adjust the persepctive, size and shape using CTRL T (free transform) You can also add things like a drop shadow to make the image look more realistic…
For my first shoot I went to speak to my Grandmother who keeps good records of out family history. I looked at the images and chose the ones which are important to where I come from and my family. I then scanned in and cropped the images so they are ready to edit.
Using these images I can now create a timeline using the dates of images I have also scanned in.
