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

The story is communicating the life of an old man and his love for flowers and his wife who he lost it also shows what life was like for him being in a home by himself without his wife. The first page of images shows a photo album where the only pictures are of his wife and flowers showing his two most precious things in life. The first image was of his wife and the images were in a photo album, suggesting that they were very precious images to him.

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 photographers I’m using are Mark Power and Ansel Adams. Mark Power made these images to document the special places that people had strong memories with, these memories could be happy joyful memories or sad and quite solemn memories. For example he took photos of hospital waiting rooms that could be a memory that was sad but important to that particular person. he also took images of landscapes and buildings many of his landscape images are of houses that are abandoned or derelict or places that have been knocked down and are no longer there, suggesting that they could be images of places that used to be special or where that particular person may of grown up in. Power won Terence Donovan Award and an Honorary Fellowship. Ansel Adams took images of nature and landscapes showing the beauty in the nature world. His work shows romanticism and how he made his images showcase that. Ansel Adams did this because as a child he loved nature and took lots of photos at Yosemite National Park where he first discovered his love for nature. His work is for anyone that appreciates the wonders and the beauty of the natural world. Adams won the Hasselblad Award in 1981 and then won the Sierra Club John Muir Award in 1963.

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

How does the book feel/smell ?

The book smells like its very old and worn and it feels precious and special like your holding someone’s life.

Paper and Ink – use of different patterns/texture/colours or black and white for all images.

I want to do coloured images but then have some in black and white to emphasise the solemn feelings about the story. There will be no textures in he book or on any of the photographs.

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

The photographs will be both portrait and landscape as there are a lot of photos with the surrounding environment there will be filtered through the portrait images of my dad.

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

The cover will be a hard cover and the stitching will be a saddle stitch. I might put a dust jacket over the hard cover to protect it.

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

The cover will be a card cover and then will have a printed image on the front with debossed writing that I’m then going to make gold so it stands out against the dark colours of the image that’s going to be printed on the front cover.

Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing

The title will be literal and will be relevant but I want to make it as intriguing as I can to make it sound interesting and worth looking at.

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

The story will unfold from the first images, there will be photographs of my grandad in the front pages and then there will be the landscape images and the restaged images throughout the rest of the book.

Structure and architecture: how is it designed/ repeating motifs/ or do specific features develop a concept or construct a narrative.

There will be specific features that construct the narrative and add to the story to help develop what the book will be about.

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

The portrait images I want to put on one page but some of the landscape images I want to put on a double page so they are bigger. For the first page I might do a grid of images of my grandad and then the rest of the photos in the book will be one landscape or portrait image on individual pages.

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

The images will not show juxtaposition but they will contrast against the landscape and portrait images.

Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/essay/statement by artists or others. Use of captions if there are any.

The images and text will be linked together and I will put statements from the artists in the book to help understand the meaning behind the images.