Zine: design and layout mock ups and actual design and layout

General layout:

Measurements:
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width: 148mm
height: 210
pages: 16
orientation: portrait
columns:2
column gutter: 5mm
margins: top, bottom, inside, outside: 10mm
bleed: top, bottom, inside, outside: 3mm

Paper plan:

This was my first ever mock plan. I liked the Sequence of the photos however I didn’t really like the Layout of it and the fact that there was too much images to produce so this plan was rejected.

Indesign plan:

I liked the layout more and the features however the fonts and writing weren’t what I was looking for and there was too little images so I wanted to incorporate more images so this plan was rejected.

Actual Indesign plan:

I loved everything about it, I liked the layout the sequence of images and most important the fonts and placement of the text. The design of the zine was also something that I was extremely proud of.

Mirrors and Windows

What are the differences between photographs that are WINDOWS and MIRRORS?

“Mirrors” are photographs through which a photographer is trying to tell us how he feels about himself. “Windows” are those in which he is trying to tell us how he feels about the world. Although both are expressive, they can be subjective due to the fact a photo can be both. “Mirrors” were images meant to mirror the photographer’s own sensibility. “Windows” were photos meant to act as a window for the viewer to see something that is primarily factual and external to the photographer’s own sensibility. Keep in mind that Szarkowski stressed this was not a very strict dichotomy.

In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as a mirror – a romantic expression of the photographer’s sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window – through which the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality.”

The exhibition Mirrors and Windows, an exhibition of American photography since 1960, opened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in July of 1978. The curator John Szarkowski’s attempted to categorise photographers whose work largely reflected the subjectivity of the artist in comparison with those whose work largely sought to see outside themselves. Szarkowski wrote in the catalogue essay that accompanied the exhibition:

 “The distance between them is to be measured not in terms of the relative force or originality of their work, but in terms of their conceptions of what a photograph is: is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?” 
— John Szarkowski, 1978

This quote explains the difference between mirrors and windows, but also states that there is a range of where they can be within mirrors and windows. In fact, an image can be both and it is not a strict dichotomy.

Eugene Atget 1898

Nan Goldin – Nan and Brian in bed, NYC. 1983

I would personally place this images within this range;

For the ‘ window’ image, I personally would say it fits more of a window, as the image is of street musicians in 1898. This image does not link to the photographer, instead the photographer is making the image about what he can see, rather than what is behind the camera. I would say it documents, is real, public and objective. However, for the ‘ Mirrors’ image, I would personally say it fits more of the mirrors side, as it is an image of the artist himself, and another. Its very personal due to them being in bed and shows who they are through expressions such as smoking and lying in bed. It is very subjective as it is showing a lifestyle, and everyone’s life style is different. Whereas, in contrast to windows which is very objective and documentary.

windows and mirrors

What is the difference between photographs that are mirrors or windows?

Mirrors tends to classed as quite subjective and romantic. It has denotations of a photographers sensibility of view which is a projection of self. Windows is objective, it explored the exterior region and illustrates reality and presence

  1. Read two texts above (John Szarkowski’s introduction and review by Jed Pearl) and select 3 quotes form each that is relevant to your essay.

John:

The pictures included here are arranged in two
sections,”

Szarkowski suggests that there is a,
“fundamental dichotomy today between photographers
who believe that all art is concerned with self-expression
and those who see it as a means of exploration”

“Art is a mirror, reflecting a
portrait of the artist who made it, and those who see it as a
window, through which one may better know the world”

Jed:

White, toward an idealist, “romantic” goal of “self-expression,” a “mirror” that primarily describes the self; Frank, toward an introverted “realism,” involved with the “exploration” of a private “window” on the world.

“the general movement in American photography in the past quarter-century has been from public to private concerns”

 Now, in Mirrors and Windows, he presents a binary theory of photography as art: an evolution from public to private concerns

RE-DO this

2. Select two images, one that represent a mirror and another that represents a window as examples to use in your essay.

Mirror-Cindy Sherman

Windows- Henri Cartier-Bresson

3. Use some of the key words that you listed above to describe what the mirrors and windows suggest.

Mirrors: subjective, personal, romantic, sensibility, private, expression, projection and complex,

Windows: objective, exterior, documentary, tableux, public, escape, landscape, still life, explore, world and elements

Windows & Mirrors: CONTEXT

Task 1: Question: What are the differences between photographs that are WINDOWS and MIRRORS.

Answer in your own words and include quote from Szarkowski’s text and comment on it.

Task 2: Key words associated with:

MIRRORS: tableaux, subjective, romanticism, fiction, staged, personal, reflective, internal, manipulated

WINDOWS: documentary, objective, realism, candid, public, external, truthful, straight, optical, views…

Think of binary opposites…

Task 3: Upload your chosen image and describe why the image is either a mirror or a window, or both.