UNDERSTANDING PHOTOBOOKS:
NARRATIVE, EDITING, SEQUENCING, DESIGN, FORM, FUNCTION 

1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating  with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.

2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)

3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:

• Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.
• Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
• Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
• Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello
• Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping.
• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.
• Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative.
• Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
• Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
• Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others.  Use of captions (if any.)

Vivian Maier: Street Photography

This photobook is not very colourful but still has a way of standing out, the front cover is a picture of Vivian Maier herself, in a black and white effect, her photograph exhibit a rich tonal range and a strong sense of contrast. This monochromatic approach lends a timeless quality to her photographs, allowing the viewer to focus on the subject matter and composition. Maier’s aim was to take pictures to show that the world keeps spinning no matter what happens, its a moment in time.  “She had a tentacular way of embracing the world, picking up little narratives she found just in the street or wherever—little things.” she liked making small things into something important, as all her photographs have a strong meaning to them.

This book has a dust jacket, with all the details attached. The actual book itself has a grey hard cover and is quite plain, the dusk jacket provides the information needed for the viewers, with the author, the book name and what the book is about, this would also be called an image wrap due to the image of Vivian taking up the whole page. The format of this is book shows an A3 portrait book with the length of 10.125 x 11.25 inches, 136 pages included, the title is relevant to the book but it is quite basic but literal, its an open title, stays original. The book was published on November 16, 2011. The editing of this photobook was very put together, they made sure to put photos that link together to make the book more powerful. for example, they had put an photograph of a man on a horse walking through New York next to a man wearing a cowboy costume, they link and make the book relevant. The photograph are also put on with a white border leaving space around the photograph.

The Book does have an introduction written by John Maloof who had found Maier’s photos, he describes how he had stumbled onto Maier’s work and what they had done to him. He also implied how Maier’s photos had a sense of hunger. They showed how curious Vivian was and exactly what she had found. He states how grateful he is to have an opportunity to find these photographs and is happy to share them to the world he describes it as “a simultaneously a very humbling and extremely surreal experience”. Geoff Dyer, also created a piece of writing based on Maier stating that Maier represents an extreme instance of posthumous discovery. At the end of the book there is a page dedicated to acknowledgments thanking the many other people who helped with the findings and history of Vivian Maier, with the last pictures being pictures Vivian taken by herself through the use of a Mirror or a window. Vivian would tend to find multiple mirrors around her and wouldn’t hesitate to snap an image of herself, this becomes very useful for John Maloof to get an idea on who Vivian Maier really was. Most of the paper was white but at the end of the book the paper become black, attached with the photograph of Maier. This could be a sign of dedication towards Vivian and all her work and how it has changed street photography and how people have a different perspective of the world.

Vivian Maier’s, street photography photobook, edited by John Maloof, in 2007 Maloof discovered Maier’s negatives, Maier was deeply interested in the world around her. She started photography in 1950s until the late 1990s where she started to photograph everything around her, she took over 100,000 photographs worldwide— from France to New York City to Chicago and dozens of other countries, she didn’t seem to get rid of any of her photographs either almost as it was a sign of the past, the past that you cant get back. It was said that Maier had lost her possession of her art when her storage locker was sold off for non-payment. she had later passed away in 2009 at the age of 83. One quote that Maier used that influenced many people including Maloof was ” we have to make room for other people. it’s a wheel- you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else takes their place. There’s nothing new under the sun.” it’s representation of life and death, everyone should get the same opportunities

MORE ABOUT VIVIAN MAIER:

Vivian Maier was seen as a person who fit the stereotypical European sensibilities of an independent liberated woman, accent and all, yet born in New York City. she was seen as very  guarded and private and didn’t seem to share anything with the world, Vivian would go to amass a group of storage lockers stuffed to the brim with found items, art books, newspaper clippings, home films, as well as political tchotchkes and knick-knacks. Vivian was firstly known as a nanny, by only a certain amount of people then become recognised thanks to he incidentally recorded marvels and peculiarities of Urban America in the second half of the twentieth century. Her images become very famous due to the unknown and sense of mystery that was added, every person she photographed was natural and didn’t react to her photographing them, mostly as her images were candid and she was hidden from the world.  Vivian bounced between Europe and the United States before coming back to New York City in 1951. By 1956 Vivian left the East Coast for Chicago, where she’d spend most of the rest of her life working as a caregiver. Vivian had unfortunately became poor and was saved by three of the children she had nannied earlier on in her life. They had remembered Maier as a second mother, they had assembled together to pay for an apartment and took the best of care for her. However, one of Vivian’s storage lockers was auctioned off due to the delay of payments. In those storage lockers lay the massive hoard of negatives Maier secretly stashed throughout her lifetime. Later on in 2007, John Maloof had discovered most of Maier’s negatives and had later published her photos for the world to see. Now, with roughly 90% of her archive reconstructed, Vivian’s work is part of a renaissance in interest in the art of Street Photography.