LINK TO PHOTOBOOK:

Here is a link to my photobook: Teenage Fantasy

FRONT + BACK COVER:

PAGES:

EVALUATION:

In the process of making this book I have clearly learned key skills for future projects. After reviewing my final outcome of the photobook I am pleased with the result. My aim for this photobook was to explore the exam topic observe, seek and challenge through the concept of femininity and girlhood. In terms of my focused artist case studies I think I leant towards Nancy Honey; I did take a photoshoot focusing on Cindy Sherman however I concluded that I did not want that to be incorporated into my photobook. My inspiration for the photobook was Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures’ which I think is clearly shown through my photobook.

Overall during the process of making this photobook I really enjoyed it, I was able to use knowledge from my previous photobook and how to make it better. Even though creating the book was a very similar process it was much more different since I was using coloured images. I enjoyed experimenting with different tones and temperatures and creating a narrative through my images. The placement of the images I learned was very important, the photobook needs to flow without a disrupted pattern. I was able to create this well flowing narrative from my three key photoshoots; a party, girls watching the beach, girls together in a car and outside. By placing the images in that order I was really able to highlight the different ways in which girls spend time together. I the process of picking out the design I wanted to add more picture from my previous photobook, yet I also wanted to find a design I was able to repeated in order to still keep the photobook organised. Looking back at my photobook I am content with the final product and overall think that it clearly states and shows femininity through observe, seek and challenge.

In terms of improvement I believe I could have done slightly more shoots. I did two shoots more in the style of Sherman however didn’t like the pictures and didn’t have enough time to do a last minute shoot. Overall, I think what was needed in this photobook was some more creativity in a more hyper realistic way. I wasn’t able to do some of the shoots I wanted to do due to personal reasons however I still am pleased with my final result. Even though all my images used in the photobook fit with the aesthetic and compliment each other, I wish I had a few photos which clearly show hyper-realistic femininity in inspiration to Sherman works like hyper realistic makeup.

Here is a link to my photo book: Liminal Space

The Final work I have produced, that being prints and photo book, have turned out much differently than I had expected but better than what I had initially thought. For example:

My format of laying out my prints went well, and my choice in images for these 3 frames link well together, as I didn’t use the same environment repetitively, there are 3 different types of subjects and liminal spaces I present here, and mounting them up went well, with all of them looking unique and good.

Not only that but the overall composition of the prints I chose, give a good glimpse at what to expect in my photo book, whilst also including good depth of field, dark and light areas, cold feeling and tones. I like how it conveys a slight sense of fear through its emptiness and cold feeling, it shows eeriness, and familiarity in some images.

My initial intentions, where to capture more hotel like areas, and playgrounds whilst including some birthday styled settings, which I personally found unsettling, however creating my own models and capturing more office environments, not only linked to my artists and the idea of liminal space, but can be easily relatable a lot of people in the world, especially for people nearing my age group, with a lot of people going to offices when they leave school, or after university. Through this I found out what worked best for my photo book, which was that its better to keep the images consistent in the office rather than a scatter of different types of areas that show liminality. This keeps the narrative more understandable, and interesting as if you are the one going through this office seeing all of these weird areas you wouldn’t have seen, but through this edited lens which makes it even creepier.

I did make an attempt to do a similar style to Thomas Demand’s work in how he developed his images. This was by creating the environment from scratch, using cardboard and other paper materials, which would eventually in his case look like an office building or a weird house. These 2 images where one doing a similar method to this:

The image on the left was a piece of paper folded and cut into a way which makes it look like a hallway with doors open and closed from a certain angle. The second image being a type of house on stilts which was made out of cardboard and a bit of wood for the stilts, both are hand held size, and I had been using different types of angles and especially lighting to see which would suit the images best in my opinion. Similar to Thomas Demand and James Casebere’s work this capture of an environment shows mostly emptiness and liminality but with my own twist, of style, lighting, and setting.

As a whole my work came out well, and the aesthetic and style of image I was aiming for links well to this idea of liminal spaces, and the work that I had a initially wanted to create wouldn’t have been produced as well as I did with this one, it would have been messy, and caused me to have different types of aesthetics to each my images, which would have lost my style to the images. What I would have liked to do differently is to have taken images of different types of offices, but using the same context and environment, but different types of set ups which would be in different offices, this would have made it a bit more unique in how each these offices liminal spaces would have presented a slight change in feeling. Another thing I would change is how I imaged some of the areas I was in, for example the cave, I didn’t have enough lighting, showing how unprepared I was for it. But also the settings on the camera to capture more of the background, where I should have used a higher F stop to really express quality everywhere in the cave.

In conclusion my final result in the photo book and my prints ended up going well, choosing 52 of my best images out of around 1500 images if not more over my 10 photoshoots, created this well produced book, well composed images, using a wide range of features for what subject and area they where taken in, like the shading, colour contrast, black and whites, and directions, I am happy with what has finally come out of this project.

Photoshoots

Overall, I think my project was really successful. When first given the themes of observe, seek, challenge I thought it was difficult to find inspiration as those topics are very broad; they can be interpreted in many different ways. However, after doing research on all three and educating myself on all the topics I could do regarding the themes, I decided to choose the theme ‘seek’. I was drawn in by the idea of ‘seeking the unknown’ exploring and taking photos of places that we might not usually visit in Jersey, places that have been abandoned. I managed to follow my theme of ‘seek’ throughout my work and carry out a number of photoshoots in different locations all with worthy photos. Although the plan for my project was originally quite challenging as I had doubts about the number of places and subjects Id be able to take pictures of in relation to derelict, abandoned buildings and areas; It allowed me to explore Jersey and find out about these places that I didn’t even know were there. This was the main aim for my photobook, to show viewers the side of jersey that has been abandoned and left to kind of rot in both an eerie and beautiful way.

As well as there being a numerous amount of photos that were worthy of being final images, there was also a lot of images that were ruined in different ways. The biggest negative impact on my images was the weather, a few of my photoshoots were carried out when the weather was very overcast and dull, causing my images to be not very interesting colour and tone wise but also underexposed. Another mistake I made (only on one photoshoot) was having my camera on the wrong aperture setting, this made nearly half my images from that shoot either very black or fully black; I managed to save a few by adjusting features of the image such as the exposure, whites, blacks, shadows and changing the saturation of certain colours. However, even though that was an issue it didn’t effect my project on a whole as I had many other photos from different photoshoots and also I took enough photos in the photoshoot that happened to.

Photobook

My photobook on a whole, I think, was very successful. All my images fitted into the templates efficiently and if they didn’t I was able to manipulate and change the image size on the page to fit well. I like the outcome of the front and back cover, I think this is one of the most important features of the book as it is the first thing you look at, your initial thought on the book. I chose the front cover image carefully as I wanted the perfect image. I decided to choose the most colourful image I had as I wanted my book to stand out, as well as it being bright it also demonstrates what the rest of my book is going to be about. It displays the side wall of an abandoned hotel, the image contains a few windows of which are either smashed or breaking and also rusty railings. The colour and brightness comes from the sunset which was shining onto the side of the building creating a pink hue across the photo. I decided to make the back cover image another quite colourful image to draw attention, but also displaying smashed glass. I wanted to link it to the front cover. The front cover is showing the abandoned building, with all the smashed windows from an outside point of view; and then the back cover is showing a close up of smashed glass so it kind of follows on from the front cover. I decided to make the colour of the spine a dark purple colour, this was because the main colour of the front is pink and main colour of the back is blue, therefore, making it purple just allowed it to blend in a bit more. I then put the title of my book (‘seek’) and my full name on the spine but in a slightly lighter colour then the background of the spine. This was because any brighter colours were overpowering.

References

I was heavily inspired by the work of Matt Emmett and I think I foreshadowed his work a lot in mine. I wasn’t trying to take images that looked exactly like his I just often found similarities as I took inspiration from him. A few of his images I sort of tried to recreate, only when I found myself in situations were my surroundings looked similar to those of Emmett’s photos. I also found the composition of all Emmett’s work very capturing, the different angles and techniques he used, getting into certain positions to take the photos so there were some repetitive motifs in his work such as shapes, lines, colours. I tried to do this in my work but I was working with more lowkey derelict places compared to his of places from around the world.

Here is a link to the final photobook – Left Alone

later Developed Photobook

At this stage I have added more photos to the photobook the original number before I added the photos was 39 pages now there are 80 pages not all the pages have one photo some might be blank and some are double pages but there’s 57 photo in this book more then my first photo book.

All The Photographs In The Photobook

here are the 57 photos and there a mixture of 6 photoshoots combined to make my photobook

Figuring Out A Title

right now the title of the book is observer, challenge and seek so I want to change it to something that sounds better and that suits the book more the book has a lot of nature in it and abandoned thing there also old things in the book so maybe “left alone” sounds a bit cliche however its the best I have at the moment but it fits the book and the feel of it so I happy with the title.

Re-Doing The Layout

On day 2 of the exam I decided I didn’t like the original layout of the photobook so I changed it I took away photos that didn’t fit with the theme of the photobook and I added some new images that go with the theme of the book

the differences of the layout are noticeable most of the photos are the same however I took out all of the night photography photos because they didn’t fit with the theme of the book and added only a couple photos to fill up the book and make it look good the front cover is also different instead of being in the top left its in the bottom right of the cover.

I am using about 45 images in the book a lot less than the original 57 photos and there only 52 pages instead of the original 80 pages however the book makes a lot more sense and I will still be changing and tweaking the book so this isn’t the last change however it is still a big change to the books layout and how its viewed.

What To Write In The Book

I wrote this is in the front of the book it’s mostly talking about what’s in the book and why I took the photos that I did I think it’s good to have a little bit of writing in the book even if it’s not much just something for people to read and to see what the book is about giving the viewer a bit of context however not much as I want to let the viewer use the imagination a little when looks at my photos.

century is the font that I have been using for this photo book I used century for my first photo book the reason is I like the way it looks its very smart and not to flashy,the setting on the screen shot are from the title.

what the books layout looks like after day 2

The photobook will probably not change that much after this I might tweak it on the third day and maybe add a couple more image but nothing to much I am happy with what I have now I might also add some writing and give the images names/title but I don’t know for sure if I will yet.

Final Edit

there’s not really to much changes to the photobook however these 2 screenshots show I just added a different layout to get 2 images on 1 page to make the photo book feel and look more full the images themself look better smaller especially the ones that are showing the bar.

this is the final form of the photobook I think it looks good I might do some miner editing just before printing the book but it looks good and I am happy with my final outcome.

I then realised that the book I had chosen unfortunately had too many pages and would seem unfinished if not filled.

Before I sewed it, I drew each piece on using a pencil. I felt that I wanted to use red thread for the plane and its trail because it would be eye-catching and bright, and I think that this worked well.

Maurice Van Es

As I used Maurice Van Es’ project “now will not be with us forever” as inspiration and guidance regarding the format of my own responses. The aspects of his project that I show in my own response is mainly the colours and different ways of displaying the images, like collectively grouping the images from photoshoots together and having different zines, that are presented together to show the whole outcomes of my project. Both of mine and his follow a similar colour scheme for the covers of his outcomes, however the colour scheme he followed, the colours are much lighter and colourful, more pastel rather than mine, which are vibrant yet still colourful. This is because I though the vibrancy of them relates to the content of what is revealed on the inside. There are mainly similarities when it comes to the format of the folder as he also produced a small one to gather his prints, the similarities are also seen between the zines as majority of the outcomes he made were also zines. However the differences are between the book outcome I have made as he mostly presented his images in the zines rather than a book. this meant that when it came to sawing and producing the book I couldn’t draw inspiration from him as he didn’t produce one. I also stuck to a theme of titles, but numbering each outcome rather than giving it a title of what may be inside, like he has done.

Ansel Adams

As I analysed Ansel Adams’ work, I wanted to compare my responses to his work against one of his own photographs. I thinks there is a big resemblance on the format of the photograph, this is regarding the subject and colours of my image. when looking at the photographs side by side his has a much grater contrast in the lights and darks of the image, this is due to more sun his picture which dramatized the contrast between the 2 colours, and makes his photograph appear more sublime. regarding my own image it is much darker, with softer tones due to minimal contrast. regarding the format mine is more zoomed out then his. Although my photograph was inspired by Ansel Adams’ work, it might not look exactly like one of the images he produced, however the main topic of romanticism that Ansel Adams explored is visible through my own work. This is evident in the style of the images, not only this one but other landscapes. Especially the prints in black&white.

Here is the link to my Photobook: Hysterikos

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed this project. I am very pleased with the outcome of final project, and I am proud of how both my final book and prints have turned out.

I believe that I have explored the theme of Observe, Seek & Challenge well by choosing my own interpretation through the idea of the Male Gaze as it includes the observation of females and seeking them in an objectifying and limiting manner. Furthermore, the male gaze challenges the progression of how women are being seen and depicted in current time when compared to the past.

In addition, I enjoyed the process of researching and finding artist references which matched with my idea of observe, seek and challenge. I thought it was interesting learning about the stories behind the photographers and their series of images as it helped me view their images in another light. Cindy Sherman was a huge inspiration to me as her ‘untitled film stills’ were mainly based on the male gaze and how women can be objectified by men, however it also shows the strength behind women’s eyes. Furthermore, Nancy Honey’s work which I took inspiration from explores the coming of age females which is an empowering moment of life for women as you learn to love your body as it changes.

Moreover, watching my mood boards come to life through the process of taking images has by far been the most enjoyable experience of the whole project. I overcame many challenges throughout this process by improvising with what ever I had at the time, however, took it all as a lesson to improve my work and to know what to do the next time. I also enjoyed the process of finding models and positioning them in order to get the best outcomes and exploring with both artificial and natural lighting to create different types of effects and shadowing. With each shoot I did, I aimed to re-create at least one or two of my artist reference’s images to point me in the right direction to then create my own interpretation of their work.

To edit my images I used Adobe Light Room to create the best version of each photo. At times this was a repetitive and time consuming process as I would have to sift through hundreds of images of each shoot to select which ones I wanted to edit and select for my final images. However, watching my images which were dull becoming more vibrant and defined was satisfying and fulfilling to do.

My favourite part of this whole project has been the mounting and framing up of my images. I enjoy this process as it was physical and practical and allowed me to have creativity to show my work and see how other people will view it. To present my images, I made window mounts which creates a black frame with a white border to allow images to stand out. Further more, I created two collages on foam board and spray mounted images onto it.

All together this project has been a very enjoyable experience. I have loved seeing all of my hard work come together in a format in which other people can enjoy. There has been some challenges, however, they were resolved and overcome and I am pleased with the outcome of my work.