For my mounting mock exam, I first wanted to group my photographs. I had a total of 9 final prints, grouped into a 4, a 2, and a 3. I was very careful about the photos and their group, didn’t want an anomaly in a group, since I want my photos to look professional and put together, even when being mounted.

Group 1 :

These 3 photos were grouped together due to their nature, I thought all 3 fit a description of ‘teenage dirt bag’. Their rough nature and daring symbolism depict a small glimpse into a teenager life in this day and age, so I thought the grouping of these photos would work well together.

Group 2 :

With this group of 4 photos, the link between was family. all 4 photos has the inclusion of my 15 year old brother, these photos depict family and union through touch and emotion, shown through the sitters in the photo.

Group 3 :

With this last group of photographs, they were kind of my red herrings of my shoots. Since both photos are headshot portraits, I thought they went perfectly together anyway. Even with different symbolism and background thoughts to each photo, I thought side by side they looked really well.

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The thought behind this layout is the close up and far away contrast. While having 2 of 3 photos being close up headshots, while one being from a distance, I thought instead of alternating, just to do top and bottom. The bottom photo, in my opinion, is more impactful, while the other two help show the story. The bottom photo includes emotion, blank staring and an emotionless face, so I thought that could be the focal point of this board.

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With the layout on this group of photographs, because some of the photos are similar I thought to put them in opposite corners of the layout. This gives my work dimension but also comfort through the known. The contrast between each person in the layout go very well together, the difference in the photos work simultaneously together.

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For the last group layout, I thought that having a male, love interest, as the initial photo, it tells a smaller story, an explanation where as teenagers, our family ( bottom photo ) is always there, but we choose the temporary fix ( top photo ) as main priority, even over friends and family.

I gathered and placed all photos I may incorporate into my photobook, and made a smart collection of them all. Again, sifting through and ignoring ones that don’t particularly fit with my project.

Carefully placing each photo into their own cell, acknowledging the clash of colours and photo contents, found where they may fit best.

Knowing my sequence of photos is one coloured and one black and white, I left gaps to add my additional photos in when they have been completed.

I’ve chosen very specifically which photos would go best together, which photos could tell a story, entice viewers and keep them drawn. The screengrab above, shows this simply, with the childhood photo including food, the teenage/young adult photo depicts stomach. This allows viewers to relate in whatever way they saw fit.

With my title having the name ‘roots’ it gives 2 meanings. The idea of my roots being my family and my childhood but also my root of my hair, as I had copper hair as a child, I dyed over it as I grew up but every couple of weeks, the ginger would come through ever so slightly.

The font I used for this title was ‘Agency FB’. This font really stuck out to me because of it’s harsh block like letters. I feel that this reflects the idea that life is harsh and stubborn too. Un malleable and very ‘it is what it is’.

I finished editing and choosing the black and white photos that will fit well with each archived photo, playing around with placement and checking what photo compliments the other the most. Some of the photos matched so well (snake photos), and they look perfect together.

For the cover, the simple but effective idea of using a photo of roots from someone’s hair gives my work a sense of abstractness and almost blindsides the viewer on what the story will be.

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Sticking with the black and white theme for my photoshoots, this will be the last one. I want to show and incorporate a lot more feeling and emotion with this photoshoot, with the sense of family and support backing this photoshoot I believe that will encourage a lot more un normalised feeling.

I used natural, and a simple camera flash for the lighting of these photos. Dark backgrounds to give a neutral but opposing finish in the photos. The contrast of the light and dark to build tension throughout worked so well for the outcome of these photos.

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Virtual gallery –

for the entirety of my project, I will need multiple photoshoots to gather all the photographs I may need for all topics I wish to include. Focusing in on topics of relationships, upbringing, family, and teenage life overall. Harnessing the ins and outs of life as a girl, the love and enjoyment but also the difficulties too, whether that is insecurity, or hurdles they may face along the way. All of this is girlhood and growing up so I want to capture all of it as best that I can.

Photoshoot 1 –

For the first photoshoot, I wanted to focus in on relationships, in more depth, ‘teenage love’. Using myself and a friend to show this through ambient lighting and coloured spotlighted lights. I focused on gaze and touch to show affection and red and blue light to focus in on lust, the red symbolising almost the ‘rose tinted glasses’ saying more deeply.

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For my second photoshoot I focused on capturing teenage life, the good, bad, drunk and sober, anything I can think of that may not be normal for a teenager to experience, but has been normalised. It not just shows the messy aspect of partying, but the friendship and love that young adults have to give. I wanted to include milestones and downsides these special years that each teenager goes through ( I’m aware not all teenagers live like this ). However since I want this project to reflect on me and my growth not just through my actions but as a person, the raw and unfiltered reality would be really important to include.

Teenage life is full of love and whether that is hard to see sometimes, its always around. The love and respect I have for all my friends is a very big part of me and I don’t want to keep that out of my project and my life in general. The raw natural light photographs show the bare truth of how life is behind the cover of parents and guardians and the touch and comfort you will find in this photoshoot really embrace that.

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For my third photoshoot, I wanted to focus solely of collecting photos that show woman’s hardship. Since I want to show both sides of girlhood, one being the fun, exciting side that you see all over social media, and second being the issues and difficulties that woman and girls face on the day to day. I want to use these photos (after editing) to place along side not only photos I’ve taken from these photoshoots but archived photos of my childhood. This is to show contrast and almost what’s behind the wall of personality that girls not just my age but of all ages may put up.

For example, along side an archived photo of maybe my parents and siblings, I could put an edited photo of a younger girl with bruises, evidence of domestic violence. I want to include this in my Personal project because it is raw, it is something people don’t talk about or see very often and it is definitely something I want to bring awareness too. Too many people can understand and relate to this kind of experience, especially from a young age and that makes me want to showcase my story even more.

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Obviously, I did not take these photos myself, they are a collection my parents have been growing for my entire childhood. Capturing memory after memory and depicting the innocence and love that filled my childhood. Showing a happy family with loads of friends and endless support.

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I really don’t want to change these photos significantly. I want them to obtain their authenticity, and I believe that altering them too much will take away from that. I have sifted through almost 2000 photos and narrowed it down to 15 photos that I believe will fit my project the best and tell a story individually as well as together.

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Virtual gallery –

For this photoshoot, I want to elaborate the idea of hardship. Experimenting with different difficulties woman and teenage girls may face. Sticking with the black and white theme, ill edit them with a simple black and white filter and adding a few tweaks with highlights and shadows to perfect the photo edit.

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After doing some evaluation, I want to edit the photos in black and white, to contrast with the coloured archived photos, or visa versa.

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1. Write a book specification and describe in detail what your book will be about in terms of narrative, concept and design with reference to the same elements of bookmaking as above.

Narrative: What is your story?
Describe in:

• 3 words

My child hood.

• A sentence

My experience growing up, the good bad and interesting.

• A paragraph

My story will portray the growth and understanding of my childhood. Exploring the hardships and importance of growing up and the individuality of each persons story.

Design: Consider the following

• How you want your book to look and feel

I want my book to be a hard cover book, I want it to be heavy too.

• Paper and ink

I want the paper on the inside of my book to be thick, durable and sturdy. Almost to symbolise skin, as weird as that sounds.

• Format, size and orientation

I want my book to be as big as an A4 sheet of paper, big enough to catch someone’s eye but not too big to bother.

• Binding and cover

I think my front cover should be a portrait photo, almost like a school photo or ‘mug shot’ of me, well not actually me but a model.

• Title 

‘ROOTS’ – I had black hair growing up and since I’m naturally ginger, my roots would show as my hair grew. And since I’m talking about my childhood, my roots, I thought it was fitting.

• Design and layout

I want there to be a photo on each page, each photo couple to contradict each other.

• Images and text

The title of each photograph will be in the bottom right corner of each page in small simple text.

All these photos will indefinitely be edited the same. I want to make shadows a very prominent feature of the photos as well as keeping natural highlights one of the main focuses. I want to look at the vibrancy and saturation of each photo, focusing on levelling out colour and adapting each vibrancy to each individual photo.

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After a lot of development, I want to re-edit this photoshoot to black and white. This will make it fit my project and my other edits a lot more.

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

The photobook I’ve chosen is called ‘FEMALE’. This photobook is made with individual portraits. Each photograph being completely different, a different person, place and style. If I were to assume that the topic of the photobook was ‘females’ then the artist has produced that perfectly. All models included in this project were women, and seem completely different, woman of all walks of life were included in this project.

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 a woman called Jitka Hanzlova. A German based Czech artist. Jitka wanted her work to bring a sense of home to her viewers, she moved from Czech to Germany young, with her environments being uncertain, new people place language and surroundings. She didn’t feel like she had a place, so her work helps give herself and others a form of security and home.

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

For this Photobook, there doesn’t seem to be a story, but pages and pages of individual stories. Each and every separate woman included in this piece has their own individual story, and I believe that is more powerful then a singular story. It brings variety and experience from loads of different perspectives.

• Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.

The book is a hard cover book, thick paper with a papery smell. Thick paper for ease of printing the photo, and hardcover used for formality.

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

The paper type stays the same throughout the whole book, I don’t know if that is because of the theme of neutrality throughout the photobook but it is very impactful. The first and last page is in sugar paper/cardboard too.

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

Each photo is printed onto the A4 in landscape. The photos were taken with the technique of portraiture, almost mug shots. Simple quick photos of women. There are 128 pages (not including first and last page) in this photobook, which may be significant to Jitka Hanzlova in some sentimental way but from what I can see, there is no straight up reason for it.

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

This photo is a hard cover book, with a plastically film surrounding it. Probably for ‘wear and tear’ reasons. To keep it safe.

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

The front page has a large printed photo on the cover. The photo from page 39. This photo must have some significance to Jitka for it to be used twice.

• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.

The title ‘FEMALE’ is very intriguing, it leaves a lot open for interpretation. It is also very relevant for this specific photobook too, since every person photographed is a female/woman.

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

From what I can gather, each page has its own story, each specific person on each page has a life and a story of their own. Their stories are told through not just facial expressions but body language too. The poise and structure of their stance, illuminates it all.

• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative.

The repeating technique of portraiture, shows a distinct similarity between each photograph, a woman in her own world, with no bothers in the moment the photo was taken.

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

Each individual photo has its own 2 pages, while only sitting on one, is the photo. There is no fold outs or double spreads but only a couple pages with writing.

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

The editing of these photos are difficult to point out, they seem like raw, untouched candid portraits. However the portraits show juxtaposition through the repetitiveness of the photographing style.

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

This photobook contained an essay, however it was in Czech, so was not understandable.