I have chosen too create a tryptic for these 3 images as together, they create movement. I experimented on photoshop to make mock-ups too see whether the images look better on a black or a white mount. I have decided I am going to go with the black card simply because I feel the images look much more detailed, however on the white card, I feel certain aspects of the imaged became muted due to the clash of the white sheet in the photos as well as the light grey skin complexion. On the black card the white sheet contrasts the black background nicely and allows us to be able to see the finer details within the images such as: the shadows of her back.

Like I did previously, I made mock ups of these images on both black and white window mounts. I have decided to chose the black mount because the images are of a deep and dark ominous road. I have chosen to do this on a window mount because it creates more physical depth for the images similar to how the images seem as if the road goes on forever, the window mount creates a sort of opening to the image transporting you into the road as if it was a portal.

I have decided to use these 2 images together to create the illusion of a deconstructed body. I have chosen a black background to contrast the heavily white/ light aspects of the images that could become muted on white backing.

Below is my final selection of images which has equated to four images, for these images I have been thinking of how to display the physical prints of them- I do not want to take away from the image by using a frame so when displaying these images I am going to stick them onto foamboard. The images have been printed in A3 size so I want just something subtle so the images stand out where they are being displayed.

FINAL PRINTS

DISPLAY

I think for my display on foamboard I am going to keep the two images on the left as a pair and have the other two as separate images.

VIRTUAL GALLERY

I did not intend my images to be displayed in a gallery, so instead of a virtual gallery I feel my images would be more suited as advertisements, film posters or billboards. On photoshop I experimented with viewing my images as billboards.

Another display of final images I may do is creating a small zine, one which would go in a DVD case containing the information for a film or in a CD case where there are song lists – my zine design is in my next blog post accessible here.

shoot 1-

My first shoot was inspired by both artists, using both of their techniques, with different framings, location, poses.

shoot 2-

My second shoot i have a wider variety of people to be able to link in with my project.

In order to help create my photobook, I hope to gain a better understanding of how they are created by researching another photobook. I created a photobook in my personal study project, in that project I studied a book by Troy Paiva. For this project I will study a book made by Raymond Meeks called: Halfstory Halflife. While the subject matter and general aesthetic of the book is different to what I envision my book will look like, I think this book executes its story very well in its presentation.

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1. Research and deconstructing photobook:

Starting with the title of the book: Halfstory Halflife, my interpretation of this idea of something being half-story/half-life, especially an image (or collection of images), is something that represents real events in someone’s life, without any filter or staging, which is what I think this photobook clearly represents in the majority of its images, a lot of them being personal, in-the-moment shots. The Half-story part comes from the fact that Meeks has sequenced these images into a book and arranged them with other images of the area.

The front cover of the book gives the impression of a hazy image, like a memory or idea. The cover is wholly a blue shade, further linking with the idea of details of an event being forgotten or altered in someone’s mind. It also reminds me of an old photographic process, such as a calotype, with the way it lacks much contrast.

All of the images in this book are black and white, giving many of the images a far more dramatic aesthetic. Some of the images depict a trip in the woods with a group of young people, jumping into a lake, the lake is never directly shown and is only seen as pure black. Other images are images of nature and some urban locations around them, practically all of the images involve nature of some sort. The vast majority of the images are portrait oriented, with only a few landscapes, no formal/traditional portraits. The images being black and white also remind me of old photographs of memories of youth and such, which I think works effectively with the snapshot style of a lot of the images.

My interpretation of the story of this book is that it is a representation of youth and memories, with a group of youths going for a trip lake-jumping in the woods. The story includes snapshot like images of the group of people, perhaps representing the fleeting nature of memories and time (which photography captures easily), while the more formal/traditional images of the locations could be used to provide a contrast to those snapshots, and perhaps representing how the earth (a location/area) does not change (or is lost like memories) as easily.

The book includes text written by Meeks and a poem excerpt by C.D. Wright, the text is largely emotional and directed at a group of people whom he mentions at the end of the book (likely the ones depicted in the book).

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2. Physical Analysis:

Book in hand: The book has a rough texture, which nicely mirrors the front cover’s slightly grainy, faded appearance. Despite being a softcover, the book feels very solid and secure due to the thickness of the book, as well as the paper used.

Paper and ink: The paper is consistent throughout the entire book. The book uses matte paper, making the pages less shiny, which I think works nicely with the style of the images as well as the front cover. The paper’s colour is white, offering a nice contrast to the large amount of black seen in Meeks’ images.

Format, size and orientation: The book has roughly 150 pages in total. It uses a portrait orientation, allowing for the predominantly portrait oriented images to fit nicely on a singular page spread. The book is not exactly A4, as it has slightly more width and less height than an A4 piece of paper.

Binding, soft/hard cover. The book is soft cover and has no dust jacket, however it does have cover flaps on the front and back cover pages. It uses a perfect binding.

Cover: The cover has an image printed on it, the colours of the image having been altered to be only a light blue. The image also has had most of its contrast taken out of it, which is what gives it that faded look. It likely uses a type of card as the material, it feels rough, which adds to the faded and slightly grainy look of the image printed on it,

Title: The title (to me) is both literal and metaphorical. As said above, the literal interpretation of the title represents the nature of the book itself representing both a real event and the story (Meeks’ perspective) of the event. The title is laid out in very small, white text with each word (‘Halfstory’, ‘Halflife’, ‘Raymond Meeks’) being on a different part of the page at different alignments

Narrative: As said above, the story is told using both snapshot images of a group of youths likely near a lake, and more formal/traditional images of the surrounding area.

Structure and architecture: The images are mostly laid out as a portrait on one page of a page spread, with the other mostly being blank (however there are a few double-page spreads and two images on each page of a page spread). All of the images are in black and white. The vast majority of images incorporate nature into them, either as the primary focus, or part of the environment the people are in.

Design and layout: All of the images have some form of border on them, none of the images bleed off of the page, except for a few landscape images that bleed onto the adjacent page. There are no inserts on any of the pages. There are only a maximum of two images on a page spread at a time, some having none.

Editing and sequencing: Some of the page spreads, such as the one shown above, juxtaposes a natural image with an image of a person. All the images being black and white (as well as the majority of the images being portrait) allows them to conform to a consistent style. There are far less landscape shots of an area than there are snapshots of people, Meeks likely using them as a contrast to the snapshot images.

Images and text: The book uses very limited text, only being seen on the front/back cover, spine, first and last pages on the book.

Whilst experimenting with possible ideas for my final display i concluded with two options; either to frame up my images on a board using A5 images, or to create a small zine. I decided to make two boards to display my separate photoshoots to show the difference between artificial vs. natural lighting and want to display them in the grid format, but was unsure in what order so I experimented on photoshop possible outcomes for my final presentation.

PHOTOSHOOT #1

My design process for the first shoot was more difficult than the second considering I had more images to work with in a limited space. The default photoshop size didn’t fit all my images so i changed the format to 20×20 where I could arrange my images and be left with enough room. A black background definitely worked better with these images as it helped the tones in my darker images stand out and made them more visible.

PHOTOSHOOT #2

Although my initial idea for this shoot was to use 5 images, after experimenting with different grids and arrangements using the default photoshop size, I decided to settle on 4 images as I felt they looked more clean and easier to look at when displayed in a 2×2 grid, giving each image it’s own space to be viewed in. I also decided on a black background to contrast my photos and help the colours in them stand out more.

What is your story?

My book will not be story orientated rather it will be a selection of my images that compliment and contrast each other in their colours, focal point and background. For example i will try and compliment a close up image with a wider angle image. This will show the viewer the details of the image such as my models face and clothing as well as the surroundings in one page.

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Motorcycles Cars People

My friends cars and motorcycles with the riders and drivers.

My friends from my driving and riding groups in their cars and on their motorcycles as well as working on their vehicles. Some photographs of the jersey hill climb and a 1920s Bentley close up for some high detail photographs.

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How you want your book to look and feel?

I want my book to look clean and neat as it shows the respect the riders and drivers give to their vehicles. I want it to have bright colours on the coloured photos and deep contrasts on the black and white photos.

Paper

I want to have a glossy photopaper as it will be the best at showing the detail of the images.

Format, size and orientation

My book will be 33cm wide and 28cm tall when closed. This is a landscape orientation

Binding and cover

It will be hard back with no sleeve.

Title

??

Design and layout

Most pages in my book have full page spreads as it best shows my images and ensures the book is full without loads of blank space. There will be a double page spread so that all aspects of one of my best images can be seen. I will do a couple pages with two photos on it so they can compliment each other and some with a white boarder a couple of cm thick.

Editing and sequencing

I am grouping each photoshoot together as the images were taken to work together.

Images and text

My photobook will be only images. The only text will be the title, my name and the names of my models.

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5. Photobook: Final layout + evaluation

6. Prints: Final outcomes + presentation

7. Prints: Virtual Gallery + Evaluation

Link to my book: Aftermath of World War II

For my photobook, I initially started off by laying all the images out in a standard landscape format but decided to then change it to the small square layout. I wanted to have this be a small book of German occupant structures just to show complexity within such a small book.

— Image selection —

For my photobook, I started off by selecting a range of images that I wanted to include within this book which I felt met the brief of what the theme was asking for. Once I edited the images, I selected the icon at the top which says “Book” and the images were automatically layed out into the formation of a photobook.

I started off by changing the format of the photobook to the standard landscape version and then arranged my images in a certain formation. I much preferred the composition of the landscape format to the portrait version as I would be able to layout my images in a better selection with full-scale double spreads and larger reflections of my singular images.

— Front cover —

For my front cover, I wanted to have a thin dust jacket over the top. I didn’t want it to cover the whole book as I would like for the book to be woven and I would like for that to be visible.

In photoshop, I coloured the entire image dark grey and then coloured in the centre a thin rectangle with the writing “Aftermath of World War II” and also my name below it in red. I wanted to just mark out what I wanted to achieve with the front cover. After I have the photobook, I will want to cut out the thin strip so that it doesn’t completely cover the book.

— Editing photographs —

Here I have an example of how I have gone about editing my images. I decided to apply a black and white filter to my images and I chose filter “PB08” as I like the overall aesthetic to gave my photos. I thought the cool tone greys, blacks and whites fit the mood that I was trying to portray with my imagery.

I wanted my photography to me somewhat similar to how old photos, during the time Auschwitz was operating, were displayed and photographed as I wanted the same wounding impact from the old photographs. I tried to edit my images as close as possible to the real thing and wanted to achieve this for my final outcomes.

— Architecture —

Above I have a layout of how I want to sequence my photographs. I want to break up the layouts by containing some pages with double page spreads, two images or one on its own. I didn’t want to be incredibly repetitive with my layout so I tried to arrange the images to create a more interesting sequence.

Juxtaposition:

Above I have an example of a juxtaposed image. I wanted to break away from containing two images including buildings and monuments side-by-side, so I went ahead and included an image of the street light with a pair of shoes hung over the wire. I thought these photos worked nicely together as they are both different images so I thought they complimented each other quite nicely. The complex and messy graffiti next to the calm and simple photograph of the sky and shoes on a barbed wire, appealed to me so I put them together.

Double page spread:

Here I have an example of a double page spread. I wanted to apply this photograph as a double page one as I want to showcase a full scale presentation of what Auschwitz looked like from the outside and just show how overbearing and scary these buildings actually were. I wanted to enhance the size so that is why I decided it would be best to expand it across two pages.

Experimenting with borders:

Here is an example of about layout experiment where I chose a different border around the full image. I wanted to break away from the repetitive aspect of just scaling up the photo and leaving it like that, so I experimented with some of the other layouts in lightroom and chose a scratchy border to have around it.

— Sequencing —

Below I have a range of images of my photobook that showcase the sequence I have decided to put my photos into.

Berlin:

Above I have my variety of Berlin photographs which I decided to put all together at the very beginning. I wanted to start off with them being the starting point for my photobook as my topic is mainly on Germany and how they were able to occupy a wide range of countries and cities. I wanted to combine them all together rather than scatter them around with the other images as to prevent any confusion.

Krakow:

Above is my second sequence of images where I have combined all the photos I took within Auschwitz. I wanted once again to combine these images all together and not mix them up with the other images I have taken. Each sequence tells a different story and I wanted to achieve that by categorising the images I took in different locations, all in one section.

Jersey:

Above is my final layout in the sequence of my photobook. I wanted to capture the essence of Jersey’s German occupation history by including all the images I took of German bunkers together.

Overall, I really like the way I sequenced all my images and the order I decided to put them in. I believe they tell a story from within each segment and also altogether.

End layout

Michelle Sank is a British photographer who was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She is best known for her documentary-style photography that often focuses on social issues and marginalized communities.

Sank studied photography at the London College of Printing before beginning her career as a professional photographer in the late 1980s. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and publications throughout the world, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and TIME Magazine.

One of Sank’s most famous projects is “In My Skin”, a series of portraits of teenagers in the UK who are coping with a variety of physical and emotional challenges. The project began in 2003 and continued for several years, resulting in a book of the same name that was published in 2007.

Her other projects have focused on a wide range of subjects, including immigrants in the UK, gay rights in Uganda, and the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Her photography is often characterized by its intimate and empathetic approach to her subjects, which allows her to capture the complexity of their lives and experiences. Her work is also notable for its use of natural light and simple compositions that highlight the humanity and dignity of her subjects.

In addition to her photography, Sank is also an educator and has taught at several institutions, including the University of Wales and the University of Falmouth in the UK.

Her work

image analysis

“My Self” is a photography project that explores the concept of identity through self-portraits. In this series, Michelle Sanks photographed individuals in a way that reveals their personalities and innermost selves. The portraits are raw, honest, and intimate, capturing the essence of the subject in a way that is both revealing and vulnerable.

Sanks’ use of black and white photography creates a timeless quality to the portraits, allowing the viewer to focus on the subject’s expressions and body language without any distraction from color. Through this series, Sanks challenges our preconceived notions of identity, showing that it is not just about how we look, but also about our experiences, emotions, and perceptions of ourselves.

Overall, “My Self” is a powerful and thought-provoking project that invites the viewer to reflect on their own identity and how we present ourselves to the world.

August Sander was a German photographer who is best known for his series of portraits capturing the people and social classes of Germany during the first half of the 20th century. His work is considered to be one of the most important contributions to the development of documentary photography.

Sander was born in Herdorf, Germany and spent much of his early life working in a mine, as his father was a mine carpenter, before discovering his passion for photography. He later moved to Cologne, where he opened his own photography studio in 1910.

Sander’s most famous work is his series of portraits titled “People of the 20th Century”, which he began in the early 1900s and continued to work on until his death. The series aimed to document the social structure of Germany during the early 20th century, and included photographs of people from all walks of life, from farmers and factory workers to artists and intellectuals.

Sander’s portraits were often shot in a straightforward, unadorned style, with his subjects typically photographed against plain backgrounds in natural light. He avoided new technologies by not using the newly invented Leica camera. Instead he remained dedicated to an old-fashioned large-format camera, glass negatives and long exposure times. This allowed him to capture smaller details of individual faces. His work was deeply influenced by the ideas of the German sociologist Max Weber, who believed that the study of social structure should be based on empirical observation.

Despite its importance, Sander’s work was often criticized by the Nazi regime, which saw his depictions of the working class and marginalized groups as a threat to their ideology. Many of his negatives were destroyed during World War II, and he was forced to abandon his work on “People of the 20th Century”.

Today, Sander’s work is recognized as a cornerstone of documentary photography, and his portraits continue to inspire generations of photographers around the world.

His work

image analysis

“Der Boxer Heinz Heese” is a portrait created in 1929. The image depicts Heinz Heese, a professional boxer, in a typical boxing stance. He is wearing boxing gloves and shorts, and his muscular build is emphasized by the strong light and shadow contrasts used in the photo.

Sander was known for his portraits of people from different social classes and professions, and “Der Boxer Heinz Heese” is part of his larger series “People of the 20th Century”, which aimed to document the diverse German society of the time.

The photograph has been described as a realistic and unidealized portrayal of a working-class boxer, reflecting Sander’s interest in capturing the essence of his subjects without any embellishments. It is considered a significant work of German modernist portraiture and a representation of the cultural and political context of the time.