Overall the photobook has gone very well, my idea for it was to follow a narrative sequence of a person’s journey through mental deterioration, it starts with the protagonist going through mental health and personal problems, they then attempt to find a resolution to their pain through the supernatural and religion, they feel a calling, in the end their mental health becomes more severe as if they’ve been possessed by their obsession with the unknown.
The reason I made this photobook and the images within was to visually interpret hidden feelings and portray how they can feel. My intention was to make my images look chaotic and dramatic to try and capture strong emotions such as dread, anger and frustration which are common feelings associated with mental health problems like depression. The subject of depression in particular was my main inspiration when making this project.
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
Struggles, Athlete, Recovery.
A sentence
It will show the physical, mental and emotional struggles an athlete has to deal with, due to injuries.
A paragraph
My story will give another view on my subject’s life and how the struggles he has to deal with are a lot harder than the viewers would see. I go in-depth with different angles of him to showcase the loneliness, separation and isolation he has to deal with whilst being injured.
Design: Consider the following
How you want your book to look and feel
Hard, stiff, clean, smooth with good clear images and text across all the pages.
Paper and ink
Premium Lustre
Format, size and orientation I used A3 for my landscape photographs and A4 for my portrait photographs.
Binding and cover Standard Landscape Hardcover Image wrap
Title Rise to Recovery
Structure and architecture I have text across a few pages before my images to structure my idea for loneliness and isolation across the storybook.
Design and layout I used some single page photographs for my portrait ones, but for my landscape images, I used a two-page spread layout, with black paper to match the theme of my images, but the paper and text colour changes throughout the essay.
Editing and sequencing I edited my photographs mainly in black and white, but for some images I used colour-popping to show the red and orange throughout basketball. I also, made the images that were still in colour, to all match the other images in colour by having a similar tint on the top of them.
Images and text My images are mainly in black and white but some are in colour with a same tint across all the in-colour images. For my text I used the font ‘High Tower Text’ with size 24pt for titles, 14pt for paragraphs and with a 24pt leading, spacing out my lines.
2. Produce a mood-board of design ideas for inspiration. Look atBLURB online book making website, photo books from photographers or see previous books produced by Hautlieu students on the table in class.
I have chosen to pick two strong images from my photoshoots to use as the front and back cover of my photobook, this is to immediately get the viewers attention of what is expected inside the book. I like this image because it displays the high quality images that are going to be inside the book. This gives the viewer a clear indicator of what images are going to be inside and what the intention of the book may be about.
PARAGRAPH OF INTRODUCTION:
I would first like to begin with a small introduction to my book and explain the contents and basically why there is three different magazines inside and WHY there is 3 different viewpoints throughout time, of women. By having this introduction, the viewer will be able to understand the intent of the book, before they read it, by understanding the contents before they read it, a more straightforward flow of reading and viewing images, is able to take place. This contents page includes a small picture of each magazine cover and a small paragraph explaining which artist the section is inspired by, and what style of photography is included. The paragraph also includes
MAGAZINE COVER 1- 1970s Style Magazine.
This is the beginning image for my photobook. This image consists of a front cover of a 1960’s/1970’s women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine which is used to influence the styles and choices day-to-day, of women that were living during this period. Whilst analysing magazines from this period in order to create the best product possible, I took ideas on which colours, layout designs and which key headings were used to draw in the attention of this target audience.
HERE ARE MY TOP 3 IDEAS THAT I USED FOR INSPIRATION.
I chose to have a red border in order to incorporate an eye-catching bold colour surrounding my chosen image with a semi border of black to help it to stand out. I feel this black border also ties with the black title and this automatically displays that this is a women’s magazine aimed at this specific demographic of audience. I then chose to create phrases such as “Get the hourglass figure with a tiny waist and wide hips in these 3 tips.” and “CLEANING AND COOKING TIPS YOU WILL NOT KNOWHOW YOU LIVEDWITHOUT” these are some quotes from this cover which demonstrate the target beauty standard for this era and what the traditional beauty standards were for women in order for them to be beautiful and attractive. I chose these specific ones as the ‘hourglass figure and wide hips’ was the most idealistic body type for women. I wanted these phrases to be short and demanding in order to demonstrate that these magazines and media products chose to push these standards on to women and make them feel as if they are pressured to look this way, and that the way for females to look like this, was my purchasing their products and in taking the advice from’ their favourite stars’ and how they look in order to get male attention.
IMAGES INCLUDED FOR INSIDE THIS SECTION.
MAGAZINE COVER 2- Modern Style Magazine.
This is the front cover for my modern day girls magazine section of my magazine. This section is demonstrating a magazine targeted at teenage girls and younger adults and the unrealistic beauty standards that are forced upon them. Whilst analysing magazines in this style in order to create the best product possible, I took ideas on which colours, layout designs and which key headings were used to draw in the attention of this target audience.
HERE ARE MY TOP 3 IDEAS THAT I USED FOR INSPIRATION.
This is inspired by magazines such as OK! and US weekly. These magazines include lots of products being advertised throughout, which pressures people to want to purchase the products. I have chosen for my magazine cover to include lots of pastel colours and bright colours which would catch the eye of a young adult and have a large picture of a beautiful girl on the cover which a girl may aspire to look like and therefore want to read. I also used phrases such as “Wake up pretty” and “5 Diet tips to lose weight” which may appeal to girls which want to in- fact be pretty and lose weight. Whereas in reality, these are derogatory and toxic phrases which may pressure girls into wanting to fit in, I chose to have such harsh things said on a seemingly wholesome and girly front cover to show how easy it is for these things to be covered up and ignored when people who actually read them are affected by their content. I also used flowers, pinks, purples and bright short quotes such as “Don’t look tired, look good” and “Glow Up” which are all small things girls have reported that they feel are pressures they feel in their teenage and young adult years. The idea of having words such as “glow up” on my cover, insinuate that inside there will be products that people can buy in order to glow up and ‘become pretty’. Then, inside my book there is a multitude of images which have been made into perfume and makeup advertisements which will force young girls to want to buy in order to fit in with trends and preferences which make them a stereotypical beautiful woman.
IMAGES INCLUDED FOR INSIDE THIS SECTION.
MAGAZINE COVER 3- Modern Style Women’s Empowerment Magazine.
This is the front cover for my modern day women’s magazine section of my magazine. This section is demonstrating a magazine targeted at women who may be transitioning into older age, or who may just be struggling with body image. It is a magazine which is highlighting the unrealistic beauty standards that are forced upon them in today’s age and how they are toxic and must be overcome. Whilst analysing magazines in this style in order to create the best product possible, I took ideas on which colours, layout designs and which key headings were used to draw in the attention of this target audience.
HERE ARE MY TOP 3 IDEAS THAT I USED FOR INSPIRATION.
I chose for this magazine cover to have a more homely, welcoming feel to it which is able to let the reader know it is a safe space within the magazine and that they will not be pressured or encouraged to purchase products that are meant to make them look thin or beautiful or always well dressed, but instead to promote comfort over look and natural over glam. This style of magazine is the future of women’s magazine, but for now targets a more niche market of women seeking peace within themselves and the way they look, dress and feel. I chose to have colours such as browns, whites and very beige colours for this cover as it is less eye-catching and popping with colour like the other magazines, as these magazines use these colours and bold writing to mask the underlying message of “if you do not purchase these products, then you will not become beautiful” whereas, in this magazine, the message is ‘Natural beauty is key, to finding yourself and your inner peace. The photograph on the front cover also displays a girl in her pyjamas and wearing no makeup, this is to automatically stick out from other products as viewers will notice that there is no, over the top, dramatized image with bold colours and makeup, and instead appreciate the unconventional front cover of a popular magazine, where a model is seen in her pyjamas and with no makeup on.
EssayLayout.
IMAGES INCLUDED FOR INSIDE THIS SECTION.
Inside Back Page Contents.
This page includes a final overview of the book through photos. I chose to include the section of the book and a small section of pictures included in the back to display a different perspective of the women included in my book and how they are displayed as positive and happy in their natural state, clothing and comfortable in their own skin. I believe that this was necessary to include in my book to shine a positive light on this project and subject that I have explored and display a natural and positive end to my book after exploring such complex and negative stereotypes of women and highlighting many errors in society.
For my personal study I have chosen my theme to be youth culture and identity expressed through nightlife. I have chosen this theme as I think it is a fun thing to be taking pictures of and a good way to take fun photos and experiment with them. Firstly I did a photoshoot with my friends of us at one of our houses and got my friend to act drunk in the shower
For this image I got my friend to act drunk in the shower, I had her put makeup and a nice dress on because this matched with one of the parties that I took pictures at so I thought it would be a good filler image to use. I edited this with high contrast and increased highlights and whites to make it look brighter. I wanted this effect because It’s very in your face and in contrast to the images of one of the parties that I went to it has the opposite lighting effect which looks cool.
This image is also set up where I had my friend smoke out of a window to represent someone who is hungover after a night out. I turned the exposure down to replicate the early hours of the morning. I increased the contrast to make the image seem a bit more rough and turned up the saturation for this yellow tone which matches with the final images in my photobook.
This image of two girls hanging out of a car is a filler image for my photobook, as it will be used to separate one night from another. I decided to use this photo because it still fits my theme of youth culture and identity in nightlife as its night time and its two girls having fun but without going to a party which is a break from all my other images of partying. I increased the exposure the overall image brighter but also for the car to look brighter because it contrasts better with the hair coming out of the car window.
AI
For this image I used AI to remove a water bottle and replace it with a metal cup because the water bottle looked out of place and to me ruined the picture, I couldn’t remove it fully without it looking weird, so I replaced it with the cup, which looked better overall and matched with the other things on the desk better. I also used a blurring filter for this photo so you could focus fully at the DJ and the 4 girls at the front. It also looked nice with the blurred background with the little star lights in the background.
Colours
For this the picture it originally had green lighting but I changed it to pink to match another image that I was using in my book with the same posing and movement, which is originally a pink/purple colour but I made it brighter and the colour stand out more.
How its used in the photobook:
How I edited this image:
The first image already had bright lighting but I turned up the dehaze and clarity to make the lighting pop out more while also turning down the exposure and contrast to make it darker in general with the bright colourful lighting in the background. For the second image I turned up contrast so it wasn’t too blurry and then turned up vibrance and saturation to make the colours stand out more. I made the overall tone much darker than the original because the picture looked well lit with blue tones but looked too bright compared with the other.
For this image it originally was more orangey and bright but but I turned down exposure so that you could see things more clearly without it being so bright and then turning down vibrance and increasing the pink tint for a neutral tone because it is placed in my photobook next to images with brown and neutral tones.
I chose these two images as my front cover image and back cover image. The reason I chose the front cover image, was because it explains my whole theme with the struggles my subject has to deal with through injuries in basketball and the still photograph in the dark, sat underneath the hoop with a spotlight shined down onto him, is very powerful for emotion.
I chose the back cover image to be that multiple photograph of my subject shooting and playing basketball on the court because as the storybook starts, he has the injuries, but as you progress through the storybook, you see he slowly heals and can then play back to normal again in the end. Hence the ‘Rise to Recovery’ title, but with the back cover image, it just shows how he is back to playing and can run and shoot around the whole court again.
I chose black pages as most of my photographs are in black and white, or involve it in the images. Also, black pages helps the photographs show isolation, loneliness and separation from playing basketball with friends.
I added my title ‘Rise to Recovery’ with my second main image after the front cover image, because this photograph is similar to the front cover but instead he is holding a basketball, looking down at it, instead of covering his face with his wrist. Also, it is in black and white to help showcase the physical, mental and emotional struggles that viewers may not be able to see.
I used this image of when he was in a boot from breaking his ankle, but I made it in black and white too, and selected it to go over the top of two pages.
For these photograph’s, I really wanted to keep the theme of black and white, but with the basketballs, shoes and even the graffiti in the background of the first image. I decided to do a colour-popping edit for both of them, only allowing the red and orange in each photographs to be let through resulting in these dark meaningful images.
This title, really expresses how his dreams of playing basketball everyday and night have now been shattered as he has to take onboard all these injuries preventing him from playing and excluding him from friend activities.
I then added these photographs with them all having a similar theme of how my subject ‘Bruce’ is excluded from playing with the rest and has to just sit down and watch from afar. I chose to have one photograph on each side that involves black and white to equal out the balance between the four photographs.
These photograph just involve my full photograph in the first image, with my subject sat down hiding behind his cast on his wrist, holding the basketball, sat under the hoop. But then, the image on the right is after I edited it and drew over his cast with a red, to show the frustration through his cast and injury and also it links to my reference of the girls coat in Schindler’s List.
These images just involve a picture of a basketball hoop against the wall, and a long exposure photograph of the court with all of its lines, on the right, which together is what resembles a basketball court. I made the hoop image in black and white to resemble forgotten/fade. This is because it is not being used anymore as my subject is injured, so it is being forgotten and fading.
I then chose to add this image which I created by making two cut outs of my subject layered on top of one another, with the ‘hue’ tool, which makes him kind of transparent, over the image of a basketball hoop against a wall. I used the title ‘Isolation’ because he is isolated away from everyone and is sat by himself in the dark.
I then changed the background of the paper to a light grey to match my inverted theme of this white inverted photograph of my subject in the same position centre of the hoop sat on a bench, with his jersey and ball darker compared to the rest of the image.
Then I created the title ‘Inverted’ on the next page, with two of the same photographs but in opposite inverts, with one in white and one in black next to each other.
The inverted photograph’s is from this overall image with this one in full colour next to a singular photograph of the hoop at millennium park, with the title on the left ‘Hoops, Ascend’ which resembles how he is ascending back to the top again and back out of injury to full playing.
Finally, I used this image I edited with multiple photographs in one big one, spreading across two pages, but keeping the black and white theme, which shows the overall story, of him having injuries but then after recovering he is rising back to playing again including dunking the basketball.
These are all of the images I have used in my photobook and including my reference images.
This was my idea for my layout with all of my final images but I will change it around.
This is my final layout including my final essay at the back.
For my text throughout the photobook, I used ‘High Tower Text’ font, with size 12pt, for paragraphs and size 24pt for titles. I used size 24pt for leading which spaced out my lines helping my essay look more professional and it was the idea I had in mind. I also used centre lining for all my text because I felt the layout looks better overall and looks better next to my images.
Evaluation
For my evaluation, I chose my final images which are specific to my theme for a lonely, isolated basketball player who has to deal with injuries. But, what my photographs show and tell are the thoughts and feelings not everyone sees, but he has to deal with everyday whilst being unable to play. I used a lot of black and white photographs, or photographs in colour but involve black and white, like when I made just my subject in black and white to showcase how he is left out and/or how he is the one struggling whilst all his friends are playing.
I used black paper for most of my photobook, but for my inverted images, I chose to use a mid-grey colour for the paper, so my images blend nicer against the background.
Also, for my essay at the end, I started the introduction in black paper with white text, but as I got to the historical and theoretical context, I decided to switch the paper and text colour to opposite, so now the paper is white with the text in black and I carried on switching between the shades after each section of my essay.
Virtual Gallery
I created a virtual gallery in Photoshop, transforming my final images to fit in-between the frames against the walls, creating this.
I have 4 main focuses while designing my photobook;
Simplicity – 1 photo on each page; the photos I have taken are very good standalone, therefore each photo will be presented on the right page, with a blank page on the left throughout the book, creating a simple sequence that visually appeals to the viewer, while also directly disconnecting each photo from each other.
Create a narrative – my photo taking was very spontaneous, and no photo is the same really, however if I describe to the viewer what the Ferrariesta means to meat the start of the book, the viewer is more inclined to view the photobook as a journal, or a documentation of the Ferrariesta, similar to how 240 Landscapes by Helge Skodvin is presented.
Start with the best photos – if my best photos are scattered around near the front of the book, the first impressions of my photography will be much better, and since this book only has a loose narrative, I am able to do this.
Create connections between photos – there are some elements of my photos that are similar, and therefore it is best to put these photos together in the book so that the viewer recognises these similarities also.
When building my sequence, I knew to start with my best images and move through the book trying to loosely connect each photo with each other. The majority of photos do not link, which made this slightly challenging, however I did find that these two photos would be perfect when put next to each other in the sequence.
To start with my photobook, I moved around the images, placing them next to others or alone to figure out where they would best be presented. While doing this, I also evaluated each image, deciding whether or not it would make the final cut, removing some images or replacing them with better versions, as well as adding in completely new photographs that I hadn’t been sure on.
I also moved them around and experimented with different orders to present the photographs. This was the harder part as the images are from photoshoots with different scenarios. However, once I figured how to arrange them synonymously, I was able to position the images well within the book. I believe that the final way the photographs are ordered works well with the narrative and aesthetics of the entire book.
Finally, I went back through the images, changing the placement of how they were displayed on the page. I used a variety of positionings such as in the middle with a border, across the whole page, or a double page spread. This allows for a change in the book, avoiding too much repetition too often.
Final Layout:
Overall, I think my photobook turned out well. I was able to present my photographs as I had hoped to, with the images in such an order that the narrative is portrayed effectively. I believe the final images that I chose to use in the photobook work really well together and I think that they are good photographs. I also really like how the black and white theme turned out, I think that all of the photographs being black and white makes the aesthetics better than if I had a mix. If I were to do this project again, I would take photographs of other friends and family close to me, allowing myself to illustrate different lives and aspects of life to what is already shown.
This photobook is a glimpse inside the life of another.
In a paragraph:
The narrative of this photobook, is to show a small segment of the lives of the people close to me. My aim is to portray the differences in the way every person lives their life uniquely from one another. Although this photobook only reflects particular moments, when observing the images, you are looking into a part of my life, and more specifically my friends and family’s who are in the images. This could be considered as ‘mirror’ images as they are reflecting myself and that is the main idea.
Design:
My photobook will use matte photopaper to make my images look classy and for a more subdued feel. I will be making a standard landscape photobook (25 x 20cm). I am going to use a hardcover image wrap for my book.
The title of my book is ‘3:38’, I have decided on this title as there are no words to describe what is inside of the book and I think it makes it more intriguing.
When designing this book, I carefully picked which images would sit well next to one another. I decided on whether the photographs fit well into the story together, whether they shared some similarities, if the people in the photographs differentiated etc. to come to the final sequence of images.
Once I had the order of my photographs in place, I then altered the presentation of each image. I have displayed some images across the whole singular page, some in the middle with the page bordering them, and some across a whole double page spread. I used a variety of ways to show my images to avoid repetition, and to reflect on how each page was a different part of the story.
