My concept

My photobook will act as a Time Machine; taking you back in time to where my two friends first met each other. Throughout the photobook, I will be creating a journey that’s representative of the strength and length of their friendship. The beginning of the book will be focused around their friendship when they were in primary school and will include individual portrait images of themselves. This will then be followed by images of them in the present which will allow the viewer to see how although they may have evolved and changed overtime, their friendship has remained constant. 

The main message I want my photobook to portray is strength and beauty of friendship by showing the unique bond between my two friends. I hope to convey the idea of appreciating the people who choose to stay, who show up and who make time for each other even when life gets complicated. Their story is proof that friendship can still be maintained even as the individuals within it change. By looking at where their friendship started and where it stands today, I hope to remind people of the importance of holding onto these special people in a world that moves quickly and changes constantly. I am planning to add a variation of different layouts of images in my book such as having some single images fully spread out onto one page and then some pages where there’s 4 or more images on one side. I am also going to make my photobook portrait as this is how most of my images as oriented too and have a hard cover as it gives it a more professional and sleeker look.

Designing process

In order to make my photobook, I first imported all of my edits I had made on photoshop onto Lightroom then began narrowing down the ones I wanted to use by assigning them a white flag and the rest a black flag. I then created a new collection and called it photobook which I then dragged all the images I wanted to include in it. I then ensured my book was in a portrait orientation and saved it beforehand.

I wanted my photobook to tell a story of their friendship so I decided to have the first couple of pages of my book dedicated to images of them when they were younger. I experimented with different layouts and numbers of pictures but ultimately decided on a page which had 4 images together as I thought this replicated the photo albums in which they found these images. Additionally, this layout ensured that all of the images were quite small in size which was essential for making sure that they wouldn’t print out blurry/ of not good quality as they would’ve if they had been bigger due to the photographs being from a time where the camera quality on phones weren’t as advanced. I then decided to add my David Hockney inspired images that depicted their old primary school as I felt this linked in well to their childhood photographs. Next, I added in my images where I experimented with adding pictures of them now with pictures of them as small children as this was supposed to represent how much time has passed and how they’re still friends despite this. I then decided to add some more of my David Hockney inspired images but this time it involved images of their bedrooms now, both of which are significantly different and represent their opposing personalities. Finally, I ended my book with a variety of photographs of them in the present both together and individually. Once I had finished my layout of my images, I then decided to add a black boarder around some of them as some of the pages felt sparse. I then went onto the front cover of my book and picked out an image. I decided to use the same image as the last one in the back of the book as I thought it was a nice way to link the whole book and story together. Next, I experimented with making different short, simple titles for my book but ultimately decided on ’14 years’ as it is a bit vague and so the viewer has to actually look at the book to understand what it is about. I chose this title as this is the amount of years my two friends have been friends for and since the book is about their friendship from beginning to end, I thought it fit quite well.

Final photobook

Overall, I like how my photobook ‘14 years’ came out. I believe I was able to successfully convey the strength and value their friendship holds as I explored their friendship not only now but since they were younger too, through using pictures of them in primary school and pictures of them now, still close as ever. Additionally, I also like the layout of my photobook as it is not repetitive in nature. I ensured to use a variety page layouts throughout my book and not have the same layout more than twice in a row. I think this makes my photobook more interesting and exciting to look at as you can’t predict how the images will be laid out on the next page. Another thing I like about my photobook is the lack of writing in it. I think this is a positive thing as in my last photobook I had quite a lot of writing as I felt like it was necessary in order for people to understand what story I was trying to convey, but in this photobook I think my images and the order of them are effective in creating a story that does not need words to explain it, showing the quality of my images and clarity of my idea this time around. However, when looking over my photobook once I thought I had finished, I noticed I had some pictures of my friends now right after the images of them as children. I thought this didn’t fit the storyline as I wanted my book to act as a journey of their friendship starting from the beginning to the end and so I decided to move these pages further down to make my story more smooth. One improvement I would make to my photobook is adding more pages that only consist of one full sized image whether that be on a single page or a double page spread as I think it would help my book look less cluttered and read more smoothly. Additionally, I would have liked to use more raw studio photographs I had taken as it would’ve allowed me to show off my photography skills in taking studio portraits and adjusting things like lighting, as most of my images involve me using photoshop to manipulate them so you cannot really see the raw image behind it.