Overall, I believe that this project was successful. I enjoyed the process of staging and taking my photos and have learnt a lot along the way. I have found that I have become even more confident behind the camera and have a greater understanding of the selection process of making a book, and the amount of time it needs to design the layout of each page. One stage I particularly enjoyed was creating a narrative with all of my images and placing them near or next to correlating images which allows them to flow more easily. I think I have stuck to my artist references well and kept within the theme of nostalgia. Nostalgia is a very personal theme which can be interpreted in many different ways in which I decided to focus on femininity and youth culture and it is shown throughout the book.
I did struggle in light room slightly as my images were in folders instead of collections which didn’t allow me to produce my book in light room. However I managed to overcome this issue when designing my book by re-editing a selection of images within collections and moving some folders around.
This is my virtual gallery its displaying my favourite photographs these photo I will be printing out and displaying them I do believe these are my best photographs
evaluation: making these photographs was a creative process in which I explored night and urban photography the later photoshoot that I took I know turned out the best out of all my photos you can see that my early photos are not as good as my later photo these photos in the gallery are only a selection of my photographs.
The photobook overall is set to the small square size (7×7 inches) and has a total of 42 pages, a lot more pages I was expecting. The front cover, I wanted the title to be simplistic and nominal, of course I also chose a text colour to stand out from the dark image. I also put the date of publication on the back. I liked the font because it looks bold and serious, similar to the text you’d see on a sign telling you to stay out.
For the photobook, I wanted to feature mostly square photos placed in the middle of the page. I feel this makes the pages feel more professional and nicer to look at, it also makes the images print out at a higher quality. I selected these two images because they both feature a fence and some form of un-welcomeness, with the signs and the dark doorway.
For this page, I wanted to put the images of the same thing but with different colours, I felt it made sense and made the order of the images tidier. I also did this for the page with the polaroid too.
For these pages, I wanted to mix the layout a bit to cause less repetition. They also matched the same sizes too so It made them fit better together. The image that goes through the gutter makes the photo more interesting to look at while not differentiating too far from the general style of the book.
These pages, because they feature landscape photos, have the photo stretch over the middle too. To emphasise that of the long subject in the photo.
When making the photobook I was sticking with my night photography theme so I only edited the night photography ones, when the book came down I realised that some of my photos are a little to dark I believe this is because the monitor that used to edited the photos has its brightness setting up a little bit making the photos look brighter then they actually are however this is only for a couple of photographs most of the photographers are turn out really good and came out the way I wanted them to turn out, there are also some spelling mistakes in the writing on the first page on the book I believe this is because I didn’t get it proof read and I was tried when writing it however its not that bad you can read it and get the message that I trying to say, and as I said it not to bad but there are some grammar and spelling mistakes, besides all the mistakes the book turn out great and I am happy how it came out. If I was to do it again I would proof read the text before printing the book and I would check the brightness on my monitor I would also give my images titles and add more text into the book to fill in pages or add more images I would like to make another and see how the difference between the 2 books and see how much I can improve in making a better and more finished product. The book also dose look a bit thin so if I did make a new book I would add a lot more photo and I think people viewing the book would appreciate that also I would make it landscape not portrait just because I would be something new.
Overall, I am quite happy with my final prints and the outcome of my personal study. I really liked the composition and juxtaposition of the different images in terms of sizes, content and colours of the pictures. I think the presentation could be worked on as some of the foam board was cut wrong and a few pictures were a little wonky, this is something I will work on next time.
I decided to name my book ‘Chasing Dreams’ because I feel like it gives the reader an idea of the contents, and the meaning of my images. It also links with my front cover, which is an archived image of me as a child. I chose to edit the images in a dreamy style to link to the idea of childhood, and how for me, I remember places feeling magical. I chose the back image to be the shells, because it connects to the beach on the front cover, and the leading lines follow in a direction that lead through the image; foreshadowing the idea of having something to chase.
Whilst making the book, I decided to add test from a series of poems I had read to me as a child. The collection is from the Flower Fairies. They link well with the nostalgic theme, but also are based on nature and connect with the images. I selected the poems I would want, using just some sentences, or the full poem, and spreading them across pages or just on one. I carefully decided which images I would use, and made sure I kept a reasonable amount without over using them. Again, these poems and fairies are very nostalgic to me, and they help my boo feel personal in some senses.
Unlike Kawauchi, I used a variety of layouts to create an unorganised flow throughout the book. I made sure there wasn’t too much repetition of layouts, and that my best images were on double pages spreads.
I experimented placing different images next to each other to make sure there was a story being told, whilst creating an aesthetic that linked between images.
I decided to put my essay at the end of the book because it authenticates my thought process behind my images, and how I was inspired by the Japanese aethetics.
Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of my book because it captures the dream-like aesthetic I was aiming for, whilst creating a visceral and surreal feeling. Its meaning is slightly ambiguous, which I really enjoy because it gives the reader a reason to think about the meaning and what the story is. I made sure my edits all had similar colour tones, exposures and light, shadows and depth to keep each shoot alike. One thing I may have changed would be taking more photos to give a greater variety of images, like Kawauchi. However her collection in Illuminance were taken over fifteen years, so I think I would struggle to create such a wide range. I feel like I have captured nostalgia and childhood dreams in my own way, and I am happy with the overall outcome.
In my opinion the final outcome of the photobook was successful. There are aspects within it that went very well, how I imagined and some that did the opposite of that. overall I am happy there is a fluent message that flows throughout the book with the arrangement of the images, text within the book, cover etc. there are certain areas where I could have improved, the main one being: Including a wider range of photographs which were collected by me, I think this because overall I had successful outcomes from a variety of photoshoots, but in the final book there seems to be a a bigger portion of archival images and the manipulation of them. But I am happy with the proportion of them as it also fits to the narrative, and since it is a project mainly about my mum then it is essential to include archival images.
First starting with the cover of the photobook, the cover is an opening as well as a brief what the book is going to be about. I settled down for having red as a background colour to represent love, passion as well as being as symbolising both mine and my mothers descent, being Polish. I decided to call it “echo” is I think of myself as a mirrored version of my mum, and I think she too thinks of a child her echoing in a woman she is. I like to think she echo’s in me, that I mimic her. the back cover photo is edited in a way to match the colours of the first image, but also to show that I create a responses to photographs of her. the font is carefully chose to add a welcoming feel to the book as well as a nostalgic one. Overall the cover incited the reader, what’s great is how much the colour of it makes the book stand out. what I regret not doing is using white on the spine of the cover to show these accents that are with the book, the white with red will furthermore represent national polish colours, like the ones seen in the flag. I think without it the cover seems a little bit empty, therefore adding these details would make it more interesting.
When it comes to the photographs themselves in the book, I think they are successful with showing the story behind them, making the story flow throughout the book. this is the area I’m most proud of as the narrative is clear to see, with images of my mum from a young age, then a teenager, and an adult. there is also a shift f focus to the similarities between us but most importantly showing me as a part of her. This shift of focus is also very visible with the black background and darker images, contrasting with the soft feel of the book so far.
I think because behind every image there is a hint of symbolism to the narrative, this makes the book successful. when it comes to the variety of the outcomes I like how there is at lest one digital image alteration as it shows what I’m interested in as well as being able to show I am capable of achieving similar outcomes using complete different methods.
I love how I was able to study inspirational artists that guided the plan and look of the project. this mainly being Jessa Fairbrother, where I took the symbolism and manipulation of photographs from her. To me behind every image within the book there is symbolism being represented, although not all the photographs are manipulated and altered in the same way, most are, and the theme of photograph altering carries through the book, without overly being done.
Overall I enjoyed this project due to the freedom I had when it came to image altering, I like how through a variety of experimentation I was able to create interesting-looking images. I enjoyed burning, stitching, staining and cutting the photographs as it made more of a connection between me and the work, through this process it made it more personal to me. This project was fun as I could plan ahead the different photoshoots, which were all different from each other, like still life, portraits and studio portraits. However I would improve adding these in more, the fact that the images are so similar to each other on technical level makes it hard to display this variety of different themed photographs so on the other hand I am uncertain is I love or hate this aspect. I do also think the book would benefit in more little detail when it came to the design, like frames around some images, or more writing. Alternatively what makes this book and project successful is how the images all have a symbolic value to the message, and this storyline flows through the book.
I have created a virtual gallery to show my final outcomes. I did this to present my final photographs in a different format than a book.
When designing the gallery I needed to carefully think of the placement of the photographs, these followed a similar pattern to the book, however the book follows a story line where a specific order of the images responds to the narrative. When displaying them in a virtual gallery I mainly focused on aligning them next to each other based of the similarities between them.
For example the photographs from the same photoshoot fitted well together due to the most similar colour and technical aspects.
I think this virtual gallery turned out successful due to the similarities between the photographs, so it gives an impression that when you walk along the gallery the photographs slowly change with the gradient of the colour. One of the things I would improve is that I should have selected a different room where all the photographs can be displayed in, as 4 of the images didn’t fit into one room.
