The book I have chosen to look at is called “half- story half-life” it seems to create a story based on perhaps masculinity and the teenage youth among boys, trying to discover their identities and bonding with one another as friends. All the images are set in a forest Using documentary style photography to create a story as although they know he is there taking photos the images are not staged as such and are just showing the adventures of the teens. I feel the story could be representing the fact they might be trying to escape reality, showing that they are care-free and just enjoying life hanging out in a forest. I also got the impression that it could perhaps also represent how males/teen boys tend to be more risk taking hence why some of the images show the boys jumping off cliffs into a natural lake. In almost all of the images the boys have no clothes on the top half of their body which also shows their muscles which could be relating more to the masculinity side of things showing again their strength and more risk taking behaviours that females arguably don’t have as much of.

Some of the images from this book:

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.)

The photographer of the book is called Raymond Meeks. Raymond Meeks is a photographer who was born in Ohio in 1963, he has been recognized for his books and pictures centered on memory and place, the way in which a landscape can shape an individual and, in the abstract, how a place possesses you in its absence.  His books have been described as a field or vertical plane for examining interior co-existences, as life moves in circles and moments and events, often years apart that unravel and overlap, informing new meanings. Raymond Meeks lives and works in the Hudson Valley, New York. He gains inspiration by book narrative and collaboration with writers of poetry and short fiction and the merging of image and text. Half story Halflife, his recent body of work, is a visual biography of the post-teen age, in a specific time of the year, that leads from blizzards on unknown paths to leaps into darkness. The audience in which Raymond Meeks targets with his photo-book is summer dwellers (which is people who enjoy summer and make the most of it). Raymond Meeks’ photobook named “half-story half-life” was big among those especially youth who were also adventurous and could relate to the images within their own lives. Here is what Raymond Meeks said about what he had gained whilst and after creating this photobook “It was ritual. I was raised Catholic, so these rock outcroppings to me were like altars. These bodies leaping into the dark void almost became like this sacrament. I feel like each generation has to pay for the sins of the previous generation. They were almost offering up their bodies and it’s the process of evolving by way of ritual, that process of coming of age, something that’s been going on at this specific place for as long as people can remember” This quote actually somewhat relates to the study that I am doing as he also bases his personal faith around the images he takes and find references to how he was raised as a catholic.

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.

The book I have felt quite heavy and the cover was smooth feeling. The smell of the book was also almost musky it smelt rather old even though it was actually fairly new. It also had that distinct paper smell.

Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.

The paper of the book was in between both thin and thick paper it had a gloss coating on the paper which gave it a smooth texture. Each of the pages were white paper ages whilst all the images were in Black & White which gave the book a nice contrast in colour.

Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.

The book “Half-story Half-life” is an A4 sized photobook in portrait format. There are 144 pages in the book and of those 144 pages 142 of them are pages with images on them.

Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello

The book I am looking at has a Soft cover where small sections have all been folded and held together before being glued to the cover. The cover is a faint image from the book imprinted on both the front and back of the cover as it loops around.

Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping.

The cover is a soft card with an image from the same photoshoot presented in the book that is enveloped on the cover on both the back and the front.

Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.

The title of Raymond Meeks’ photobook title, Half-Story Half-Life, could be described as a reflection on the fragmented nature of memory, personal experience, and storytelling, suggesting a blend of narrative and existence that is incomplete or in flux.

Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?

The photobook captures teens cliff jumping. He went back over several summers to capture the youth doing these activities. It creates a story of youth and growing up. The images seem to symbolize the transition from adolescence to adulthood as it represents the youth jumping into the unknown almost like how the future is unknown showing how the teens are fleeting from youth and going towards adulthood and the uncertainties that come with it this is represented through the images of the boys jumping into the lakes off of cliffs and exploring a forest. It also represents the desire they have to move forward and the risks that come with it when they do that, as they take a leap of faith jumping forwards into the unknown of the water below its the same as taking that leap into adulthood not knowing what is yet to come. I feel the images can create many stories through them as another way I interpreted it was as if it was showing how males are more prone to taking risks. Almost as if the book was based around masculinity and representing male strength through the shirtless images.

Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.

The image sizes throughout the book varies. Meeks may have been doing this to create a bigger picture behind the layout as all the images are different sizes and are placed in different locations on the pages this could be trying to express how not everything in life is the same and out of order as nothing goes one direct way in life. and the stages of going through life can be different for everyone with different struggles etc. Every image in the book is a single-page spread, with most pages having one image to every two pages with the occasional two pages with an image each. With some pages being very empty this could perhaps be suggesting how nothing is yet complete and there are always gaps and areas yet to be filled in life.

Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.

Meeks has selected a variety of images for this photobook however they are all very similar and are all images of either the males exploring, walking around the forest or jumping off the cliff into the water. he keeps a very structed set of images he has chosen to follow the theme. Every image in his photobook is in a black & white aesthetic and the sizing of the images when laid out varies massively amongst the book. The images look reasonably edited while also being very natural and just kept to how he has originally captured them.