For the cover I wanted to show what the book is going to be about. Therefore I needed to take into consideration the colour of the book, what images I wanted to add, the title and font. 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 included a photograph I have not done any manipulations to, to not give away what the book is about, however I wanted to include a picture of her as a younger child to show the purity behind her, the innocent girl that later shaped into who she is today. 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 book opens to show the beginning of her story, a photograph of her that is showing the youngest version of herself ever taken. It represents a beginning of her story, to show that it is about her.

From then it follows a theme showing her life from youngest to oldest, therefore I included an image where she’s in her early teens, showing the camera that the photograph was taken with next to it.

Then there’s another photograph from her mid teens which I have tampered with. How I achieved this is by peeling the ink from the other print, which was a portrait of my mum that i took recently. this shows a faint link from the past to the future, giving an impression she is looking at herself in the past, or looing into her future self from the past.

This image is one of my favourites as I wasn’t expecting the images to work out so well together. what this represents is a tie of 2 places and a link between 2 timelines. The below image is of Poland and my mum and her parents, then the landscape on top is an image of jersey which matches so well with the mountains in the background of 1stimage. As well as the burnt hole, it shifts the focus onto the most important subjects. Them walking also represents this time change, from past to future. I used red string to tie them together and to highlight this fact. to make the viewers understand what this image represents I included a text that talks about the importance of time, past and future.

Next I included images where she was in her late teens and a photograph where she was pregnant with me, from the first image I have cut her out and stuck onto the first ultrasound of me, to show the very first link that I carried a part of her in me. the cut out shows that she lost herself for me, that she had to give a part of herself to shape me. contrasting to that there’s an image of her younger self to symbolise that she never truly lost that girl.

The next pair of image link together to show the beginnings of me, this is a shift in a book where I was born, however I am only a part of her, I didn’t want to make the story about me,, therefore I carried on showing both her and me for thee rest of the book, to make the viewers understand that the photographs are showing a connection between us.

The text is in polish and it is of a song I was born to, following a quote on the next page “every new beginging comes from onother begininsgs end” in this case it wwas my mum, representing how her life metaphorically ended for me.

I wanted to show thee hardships she had to go through for me, in this case I added an image of her eye, which represents her looking back at her past. How hard it must of been for her to leave that behind and that till this day it will never leave her. the shells shape fits the eye as its round shape is similar to the eye. Throughout the book there are a couple shells that not only are significant to my mum, but also represent home, what one was a home.

This is another alteration I did to show my mothers past through her, that it is still stuck with er, and it shaped her to who she is, it is of her present self contrasting with an image of her younger self.

These images go very well together when it comes to the same tones and colours, with soft blues and purples. it is another photograph of her eye where my hands are coming out of it to show that as much as she is a part of me I am a part of her.

Then there is a contrast between her and me between 2 pages, where 1st image is showing her hand and the 2nd is of mine. i have burnt the first one to show that her hands and herself had to go through much more than me, and go through so much for me, this is implied through the hand gesture she does, opening her hands as if she is giving something, to me it is her love, then to that my hands are completely different, clean and elegant, especially the position of my hands shows me receiving this love she gave me as my hands are folded as if I was gently grabbing her love.

There is another photograph showing the connection between me and her, where the fist image is of my mum my age, then secondly in the background is a portrait of me, both are sowed into each other to show this strength.

The book then shift focus as the theme completely changes, from soft and calm tones to more vibrant and dark ones . this is to match the photographs where I represent the background from where my mum and I have been raided. the first image is of a place where both her and I lived, her longer than me, then the rest a photographs from her and mine hometown which I have presented on my body using a projector. These are not only showing how significant they are to me but also to her, them being on my body implies they area part of me, where I come from.

For these images I also made sure the tones matched each other, as one being of my mums hand and the other a portrait of me. This is the only full portrait of me in the book, which is of a similar theme as the one of my mum on a few pages back. The design and layout of the images is quite repetitive as the one colour page also follows a previous layout.

Finally I wanted to include photographs from past projects, however ones that suit the theme of the book. I went back to still life images produced in year 12, where I found a necklace that was really meaningful to me, and shells which fit well to the previous one . The photograph of me fits with the previous image of my mum in the woods, at the beginning of the book.

on the last page I added a phrase which shows how much respect and love I have for my mum , it is a thank you for her giving me this life.