For my final layout I wanted to use a mixture of archival images and new images.
Possible Layouts:
Before creating my book I placed all of the images I wanted to use in a whole different folder (collection). I then played around with the sequencing of the images to make the layout process easier.
Title layouts:
I like this on the most I think because it looks neat
But this has also been growing on me because it looks symmetrical when it’s in the middle and I think it catches the attention more
Least favourite because its the least familiar to me so it looks odd
Title ideas:
12345 No title, just an image 1. I like this title because my photobook is almost like a family album and dedicated to my mum and her life. ‘Me’ is me and ‘you’ is my mum. 2. Life doesn’t stop after you have kids. It keeps going and you also become part of your children’s life. (something like that) 3. This title just means that everything happens for a reason and it’s a phrase my mum says a lot. So even though she doesn’t live in Romania anymore and is not in contact with her childhood friends, it doesn’t matter because the universe brought her to Jersey for the better. 4. This title is in Romanian and it translates to ‘What was to be’, meaning that everything that happened was meant to and we are in the right place. Similar to the last title.
Front/Back covers:
wanted to see what it would look like if I had two images on both sides of the coverI made them smaller so that could look neatercreated a black backgrounddecided to invert the back mages using photoshop (image>adjustments>invert OR Ctrl + I)First cover ideaI really like this image as a cover, However the resolution is too low so it would look pixelated.I didn’t like the black cover so I decided to go for a light pink.I tried different shades and stuck with this one. I like this colour because pink represents femininity.I wanted to see what the cover woul dlook like with the image on the front with the title.I like it more with the image at the back and the title alone.I changed the image.Random cover ideas – I thought it might be interesting to have a timeline as a cover but I really don’t like it. I should’ve maybe changed the colour of the background or used other images. The other idea was to add mine and my mum’s old passports as the covers, but I didn’t like it because it was too plain and I also don’t like the colours of the passports.
Opening page ideas:
For my first page I knew I wanted to have a timeline of images introducing the rest of the photobook. I really liked the page layout with the film roll so I used that. My first design consisted of 6 images that went across a double page, leaving a lot of empty space which I didn’t like. I then tried the other layout that had 25 images and filled only one page. It intimidated me at first because of the amount of images I had to use, but I ended up really liking it. I didn’t like the empty page next o it be so I just added an images of my mum’s old passport from 2002.
Portrait or Landscape?
Landscape – This layout was the most convenient because most of my images are landscapes, meaning they fit easier on the pages. However, I didn’t like how some of the images were really zoomed in. I also don’t like the actual shape of the photobook because it’s so much harder to store when it’s in landscape because of its awkward length.
Portrait – I like this layout because it’s very convenient when storing the photobook because it’s in the shape of most textbooks, notebooks etc. I also liked how the portraits images fit and how the landscape ones looked on a double page because they weren’t too zoomed in. The only thing I didn’t like was how if I wanted to have one landscape on one page fully, I would have to either turn in and make it portrait or put two of them. This made some pages look cluttered.
Different page layouts I’ve used:
I favourited some page layouts to keep everything consistent in my photobook.
A sentence: I will explore the sense of family and migration through my own culture and my mother’s life.
A paragraph: In my photobook I will explore the sense of family and migration through my own mother by showing what it was living in Romania in the early 90s compared to my life in the UK in the 2020s. I will be using a series of portraits of me and/or my mother, as well as images from her photographic archive (photo albums). I’m going to also interview her and find out what it was like moving away from her own country and settling to Jersey, then I’ll add the text to some of the images to tie everything together.
Design your photobook:
I’d like my book to have a hardback cover and either be black & white, or have a neutral/muted colour because I don’t want it to be too distracting. I really liked Laia Abril’s front cover in the book ‘Epilogue’, and I might try do something similar with my mother. It will be in an A4 size and portrait, as it is easier to hold and store that way. The title is going to be formed of only 2 or 3 words, or a short sentence, that will capture the viewer’s eye. I want to write my title on a piece of cloth then stick it on the front cover, just like in Sam Harris’ book ‘The Middle of Somewhere’, in order to give the book more personality and texture.
I want the opening page of the book to have a map of Europe which I will edit and show our journey of migration from Romania to Europe, just like Dragana Jurisic’s ‘YU: The Lost Country’. The layout inside the book will be quite simple with mostly some double spreads and occasional juxta positions of the past and present. I’d also like to add some text on some pages in which I’ll either translate some Romanian writing found on the images, or my mother’s own words.
I really liked the use of inserts from Sam Harris’ book ‘The Middle of Somewhere’ and I think I might do something similar with some journal pages I have found relating to migration and wanting to go back “home”.
Mood-board
Where Mimosa Bloom by Rita Puig-Serra CostaThe Middle of Somewhere by Sam HarrisYU: The Lost Country by Dragana JurišićWhere Mimosa Bloom by Rita Puig-Serra CostaThe Epilogue by Laia Abril
The photobook I will be researching is ‘The Middle of Somewhere’ by Sam Harris. This photobook is an ongoing family diary that revolves around Harris’ two daughters, Uma and Yali, growing up throughout the years. This series began years after they moved from London (2002) and finally settled in Balingup, Australia. It shows their journey and how they also lived in India for a few years. I’d say the images in this photobook are documentary photograph as Sam Harris takes snapshots of his daughters’ day to day activities and their lives.
The Middle of Somewhere – Sam Harris
Sam Harris wanted to document his family in a way he was familiar the most so he decided to make his own family album. His personal photo project grew into an independently published book that won multiple awards including a Lucie Award 2015, and most recently the AIPP Book of the Year 2016.
The title of the book is quite poetic and literal as Harris’ family and him are quite literally in the middle of somewhere. They are far from their home land and in a small village in the middle of Australia, which is on the opposite side of the UK. The book is a conversation, a play between the reader and the photographer, both of who traverse different visual journeys that seem to meet in… the middle of somewhere.
“There’s a photo with Yael hanging the washing in a red t-shirt, with her arm going diagonally across her face. That was a sort of eureka moment for me. It was one of those happy accidents that is something I love about photography. Yael was hanging the washing and I thought it would make an interesting shot so I grabbed my camera and walked up to the washing line. I had something different in mind but as I took the shot her arm went up across her face. When I was reviewing my images it struck me, that there was something about that photo… it was like a key for me and it unlocked a lot I’d been struggling with. The moments in-between the moments. To allow myself to be looser, the ambiguity and it even has the diagonal which always seems to appear in my work. That’s when this project really got its legs, so to speak.” – Sam Harris
“My work is a celebration of childhood, family life, love and our simplistic lifestyle which intertwines with our environment. As I witness my daughters’ transformation—in what feels like the briefest of moments—I’m compelled to preserve something of our time living together.” – Sam Harris
This book has a soft green cover. There’s golden patterns on it which are indented in the cover, giving it some texture. The cover has rounded edges, giving it a more softer look and feel. The title is written on a piece of cloth and stuck at the top of the book, giving it more texture. To me the book has faint smell of sweet perfume and wood/cardboard.
Most of the pages in the book are thick and seem to be more durable than usual paper; and are filled with many coloured photographs. There are also lined & checker paper, as well as sticky notes that have been stuck down in the book with either tape or clear glue. This gives the book a variety of different types of papers and textures.
The book itself is a a bit smaller than an A4 and consists of mostly landscape photographs spread out on two pages, and juxta position images. The only times this photobook has writing is at the beginning, end and through the inserts. The book starts with a poem by W.H. Davies, Leisure, 1911, which is about life and how we have no time to appreciate it. Towards the end of the book there’s an essay called “Memories of Today” that describes what Sam Harris’ work is all about. Few pages after that there’s a two page spread written by Sam Harris in which he thanks everyone that helped him make this photobook.
opening poem
The book has two main inserts. The first one is “No Yesterdays. Notes from Somewhere”, which consists of diary entries and love letters from 2000 to 2015. The second main insert is the “Travelogue”, which shows the young family’s journey from India to Australia, 2002-2006. It’s filled with images documenting their travels, life in India and Yael’s pregnancy with Yali. This makes the photobook feel more like a diary rather than a book, making it more personal and appealing to the reader.
For my last shoot I decided to use some snapshots I have taken throughout 2022 (June to December) because I thought they might be useful as they weren’t taken for the intention to be used in this project. The images weren’t staged which makes them a bit more realistic in portraying what my life in the UK is like. The contact sheets contain images from Jersey, our trip to Greece and Turkey in July, as well as our trips to Liverpool and Southampton/Winchester in Oct-Nov.
For this photoshoot I took my camera after school and went to town. I simply focused on taking pictures of my surroundings and the shops I went to to in order to portray what a normal day looks like. I ended up not taking many images because of the weather was bad and I didn’t want to destroy the camera.
My only aim for this photoshoot was to take some portraits of me and my friend. I decided to go to the studio and use a dark background for the shoot because white can be quite distracting and I wanted us to be the main focus of the images. I experimented with different shutter speeds, which is why some images are blurrier that some and look like the camera has moved. I used a low shutter speed for my Identity Project and found it very interesting and enjoyed it, which is why I wanted to try it out again.
Overall, I wouldn’t call the shoot successful as it was hard photographing without a plan and any props, but I did manage to get some images that I think will be helpful when creating my photobook. I also enjoyed using the setup in the studio as I haven’t been able to use it for a few months and I am now more confident in using it.
For my second shoot I decided to take some pictures of myself and some of my mum. The first part of the shoot consisted of me recreating three images from our family album. The second part were some self portraits of me doing things my mum usually does, like washing the dishes, eating etc. I tried dressing similar to how she usually does when she is home. At the end of the photoshoot, I took some pictures of my mum sitting by the window and doing what she usually does after work, that I can compare to the images I took of myself. The process of the photoshoot wasn’t that bad, but I didn’t like recreating the images with myself because I couldn’t get it right. I did however enjoy taking pictures of my mum.
For my first shoot I decided to look through my mum’s photo album and scan some the images in order to use them for my project. I chose a mixture of pictures from the 90s and 2000s in order to show her growing up through out the years. I started by scanning pictures of her at a very young age in primary school, then in secondary school with her and her group friend, few images of her in her late teens after meeting my dad, and finally some photographs of her in her early 20s with her kids. Some of the images had writing at the back of then and I decided to scan them as well and use them in my photobook. I believe they were written years later by my mother, in which she explains how she felt. I enjoyed doing this as it gave me a wider understand of what it is like being a teenager in Romania.
To get more ideas for my projects I looked at the book ‘Family Photography Now’ by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, and chose a few artists that I thought had interesting photographs. I then did some research on them and their projects. This helped me get a better understanding of what I want to do, as well as give me some more ideas for my own project.
Key characteristics/conventions: To make photography an accepted art form. People saw photography as being too easy because all you did was click a button, which was so much different that going to school for years and learning how to be a “real” artist.
Influences:Their ideas came from the history of painting, more specifically: allegorical painting. Peter Henry Emerson’s naturalistic photography. Julia Margaret Cameron used her family and created spiritual images.
John Everett Millais (1829-1896)“An Allegory” by Sandro Botticelli, 1488 – 1552J.M.W. Turner: The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up, 1838“Leda and the Swan” by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1895Rime Crystals, from Marsh Leaves by Peter Henry Emerson, 1895Julia Margaret Cameron, The Rosebud Garden of Girls, 1868
Artists associated: Alfred Stieglitz – Heinrich Kuhn –
Key works:
Motiv aus Pommern by Hugo Henneberg, 1902Hans und Edeltrude by Heinrich Kuhn, 1910/11Am alten Kanal by Alfred Baron Liebig, 1891The Wiener Kamera-Club Reflections by George Davison, 1899Alfred Horsley Hinton, 1890Pulborough Bridge by Charles Job, 1900The Linked Ring, British 1892 – 1909
Methods/ techniques/ processes: They would use vaseline on the lenses to make the photographs blurry and painting like. Scratching the negatives. They used chemicals in the printing process to manipulate he colour of the photographs.
REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Time period: 1920s
Key characteristics/ conventions:To capture things as they were without any manipulation. To emphasise the quality of photography. The photographs differed depending on the photographer’s eyes. Abstraction as a genre was born in this period.
Influences: Inspired by the pictorialisms and cubism (Picasso and Braque).
Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso, 1937Violin and Candlesticks by Georges Braque, 1910
Artists associated: Ansel Adams – Edward Weston – Alfred Stieglitz – Paul Strand – Walker Evans
Methods/ techniques/ processes: To produce sharply focused mages without any manipulation and relay on the camera to record things as they are.
MODERNISM
Time period: 1900s – 1940s
Key characteristics/ conventions: Photojournalism, emphasised the truth/materiality of a work of art, believed meaning was embedded in work/created by the artist themselves (not interested in context), tried to produce timeless pieces that did not link to history/tradition, rejected older concepts + movements,
Influences: Against the enlightenment (pro science and technology), Dadaism (Hannah Hoch), expressionism, surrealism
Artists associated: Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams
Methods/ techniques/ processes: Form, composition, focuses on object rather than content
POST-MODERNISM
Time period: 1970 – current
Key characteristics/ conventions: It explores power and the way economic and social forces exert that power by shaping the identities of individuals and entire cultures. It has a sceptical and political approach to the world. It has no rules or manifesto. This type of photography also often features surrealism, expressionism or other similar themes.
Influences: Themes and ideas came from the modernism period (to reject it). Technology also had an impact.
Artists associated: Lee Friedlander, William Eggleston, Jeff Wall, Andreas Gursky and Cindy Sherman.
Newark, New Jersey, Lee Friedlander, 1962William Eggleston’s “Untitled”, 1970-73Overpass by Jeff Wall, 2001
Key works:
Cindy Sherman “Film Stills” late 70s Marina Abramović “Rhythm 0”
Methods/ techniques/ processes:
Eclecticism – mixing art forms, mixing cultures, mixing styles
No Value to the worth of Art – mixing high art with pop culture
Intertextuality – Including the work of others, the “quoting” of others work
Collaboration – Creating work with others
Pastiche – copying an original
Parody – imitating in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some fun at
Recycling – re-using the same material more than once
Refiguration – re-structuring of an original
Bricolage – deconstructing and then restructuring existing materials in a new, exciting and inventive way
