Rita Puig-Serra: Where Mimosa Bloom

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.)

The photographer is called Rita Puig-Serra Costa

The book was created after the death of her mother, she made it as a way to deal with her grief following this.

The book “Where Mimosa Bloom” takes the form of an extended farewell letter with the use of photography presenting a visual outlook. It is part photo-essay, part family biography, part of a personal message to her mother.

The elements combine to create an intriguing view and discourse of love, sorrow and loss. The book is a finished result of over 2 years collecting different materials as well as preserving and maintaining them. She also took photographs of places, objects and people that had a significant part in her relationship to her mother.

She proves in her book that some aspects of grief can be universal or can be made so through the honest and precision with they are articulated.

The book is a First Edition and from what I found out it has:

• 460 copies
• 96 pages, 54 colour plates
• 5 die cut pages
• 16.0 cm x 22.5 cm
• Hot foil embossed printed textured hardcover
• Offset printing
• Éditions du LIC 2014

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.

The book has a hardcover as well as including inside matte paper pages this is consistent throughout the whole book.

The book is in a portrait format and of A4? The front cover has printed matte image of a young child, the front cover is quite blurry so it isn’t clear what the image actually is trying to make out to be. The title appears on the spine of the book which include the name of the photographer the title in the middle stating “WHERE MIMOSA BLOOM” as well as in the right corner “Editions du LIC”.

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.)

(do this part)

UNDERSTANDING PHOTOBOOKS: