machquette

Making a maquette book


In my minor project where I photographed Durham Miners Gala, as the end result in the way I chose to present my work I chose to create a maquette book. This was a A5 size paper back book which I hand made through saddle stitching the pages together and printing the pages myself. I made this book as a mock up version ready for when can progress onto making my own professionally printed book. 

As I began to discuss in a previous post in which I looked at a book which was produced by the documentary photographer 'Mark Power', my aim for my final project will be similar to my minor, In that I will produce a visual book as one outcome. 

Once I had converted my images into black and white, I was very undecided on whether I should use my original coloured images, or use the converted black and white images.

As I also had to concentrate on narrowing down my images and choosing a selection to create a book. I chose to create a mock up book of a coloured version and a black and white version. 

I chose to work with A5 sized portrait style books to begin with. During a tutorial with my tutor I was shown a small maquette around this size in black and white. The way the images had been laid out was two images side by side on a double page. I really liked this layout and thought it worked well. The images used in this maquette were also shot in landscape like my own images so I decided to attempt this layout myself, however I experimented slightly with the layout as I placed some images in different positions on the page and some sanding alone. The inspiration to create this layout was from a Paul Graham book. 

Own work

I then made a colour version of the book so I could compare the two. I made the colour book the exact same shape and size, as well as sticking to a very similar order with the images. I found when using colour some images worked better than they had in black and white therefore meaning I found I had more images I needed to include in my colour maquette. 

After making both maquettes one thing I had gained was a better idea of the order I actually wanted the images to be placed in. I still didn't feel completely sure on the layout of the images on each page or whether I wanted to use black and white images. However getting a final idea on the order of the images was something which was really important as I didn't want the images placed in an order where they there was no thought put into it. I wanted to make sure the images, if anything, where in chronological order to a certain extent so that they would make sense in telling a story to someone who may know nothing about this day. 

To help me decide on whether to use black and white or colour images before moving forward to making more mock up versions of my book I presented the two books to my peers in a group critique in order to gain some feed back. The feedback I gained that almost everyone preferred my images in colour. 

This feedback led me think about my what my aims were with the work originally. My original intentions were to capture not only the event its self but the community of Sedgefield on this day and the parts of the day such as the celebration and drinking which is a side no photographers ever seem to capture. This therefore along side my feedback from my peers helped me to decide on using colour. Photographing the happy spirits and community wouldn't be as affective in black and white. The positive response from my peers over my coloured images also re-stored my confidence in my original images. 

Black and White

Changing Images to black and white


After looking at the work by Stephen Curry in which he photographed the Sedgefield Ball Game over around 10 years in black and white, I was inspired to see what my own images would look like in black and white. On the day I shot these images the sky was very grey and it was quite a cold and bleak day, As it was after all the beginning of February. I felt the colours in the images weren't as vibrant as they could of been because of this and the sky in many of the images was bleached out, which I wasn't awful keen on. This therefore encouraged me more so to want to try my images in black and white. 

I chose to use Adobe lightroom to edit my images. When changing the images to black and white I found I could experiment more with making the images more contrasted and dramatic. 

To look at, I honestly feel as though I prefer my images once converted into black and white. The feel to images is completely different. The images look more defined, dramatic and powerful. The use of black and white eliminates the trouble I was having over thinking some of my images looked very washed out due to the grey bleak sky that was experienced that day. Although I prefer the look of the images in black and white, I have to think about the deeper meaning the use of black and white portrays. As the images were originally taken in colour I am still quite reluctant to use images which have been converted from colour to black and white. 

Martin Parr Exhibition

Martin Parr Exhibiton/ Own work


During the Easter holidays I visited the Martin Parr exhibition a the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. Visiting this exhibition was a great experience and I felt I was able to take a lot from seeing Parr's work actually in an exhibition as appose to just on a computer screen or in a book. As I have mentioned previously within my research for this major project, Parr's work is something which is of great influence to me and my own work.

My work from my minor project focused heavily on bright saturated colours much like that of Parr's. At the moment in my major project, I have been torn between the use of colour or black and white. It was therefore really useful to see a range of Parr's work dating right from the earliest of his career to now. 

The exhibition started with very old black and white documentary prints from the early years of his interest in photography. The images consisted of documentation of a church he was familiar with in his own life and other simple ideas of documentary work such as these. Evidently Parr was documenting whatever he could, simply for his own personal enjoyment. What I enjoyed about this particular work was that it was so different from the work I am personally familiar with and very different to the work Parr is really known for. It was brilliant to be able to see where he started and see how his style has changed through the years up to the work he is producing now.

The next work being exhibited focused heavily on probably his most famous work, from the 1980's or 'Thatcher period' as some refer to it as. Several pieces are on show from Parr's project, 'Last resort' where he documented Brighton beach. The images focus heavily upon the people here as appose to the area or and landscapes, which I felt was much like the work I have been producing; It wouldn't be what it is without the people who are in the images.

This particular work wasn't taken too lightly by some people at the time as it was said that it quite shockingly exposed working class people, in an unfair way. Parr's work isn't just about simply documenting people, a lot of his work focus' upon people in terms of consumerism and the british class system. These particular images taken on Brighton beach focus on the working class. However Parr was not intentionally wanting to expose these people in a negative light. He was rather just documenting this class as they were. Maybe he was drawn to the more shocking sights he saw and chose to document theses however his intentions were not to set out to document people negatively. 

Following this work, the next images in his exhibition were the documentation of middle class people. As explained in the information provided in the gallery next to the work, Parr documented the middle class as it seemed to be a class no one seemed to take a great interest in. Especially in terms of photography. During this time in Britain, a heavy emphasis in the media was already created over the working class as the country watched Thatcherism treat the working class so unfairly. 

I think Parr seems to be very good at documenting the ordinary and by doing so he manages to make it unordinary or extremely interesting. He photographed middle class people at 'Tory tea parties' and in the images we look upon what to me, look like typically british people, socialising, which to anyone on looking in that situation or if I were to see that kind of scene today, Id probably think nothing of it. British people having tea parities or just british people socialising is what we class as the 'norm'. However, the fact Parr thinks to stop and capture these moments as a still in his images, make them extremely interesting to look at as a photograph, as normally we would not look twice at these situations. 

Again this is something which I felt related to what I've been trying to portray in my own photography. I feel this concept is what I am also naturally drawn to. For instance, my Minor project images focused heavily and if not completely on the ordinary situations you'd expect to see at an event such as that. I focused my images on people socialising and drinking, as appose to the actual event.

This is also something I had in mind and wanted to focus upon when shooting the images for my major project. I focused a lot of my shots on the celebration and the way people socialise at this event, which to most is something they would not look twice at. 



The next lot of work presented by Parr I felt really changed my way of thinking or affected me was in two rooms, where Parr presented his most recent work where he had documented Wakefield's rhubarb farming and trade industry. Again, a heavy emphasis on colour is evident in Parr's work. Without the use of colour I do not feel the images would have the same impact. This has encouraged me to really think about my own work when it comes to the decision of whether to use black and white or coloured images. 

 This is therefore the reason Parr exhibited his work in the Hepworth at Wakefield. This work wasn't necessarily what was in the images which really got me thinking, it was in fact the way they had been presented in the exhibition. I took note of the layout and the way the exhibition had been curated throughout. Parr's earlier and more traditional style images shot on film were presented much larger than what I was expecting. The frames where white and for each section of the exhibition from his earlier work the images were matching in size and placed at eye height; the kind of level one would mostly expect to see in an exhibition of photography. 


In the next rooms however, where the images focus heavily on consumerism and are of much more recent times the images did not have frames, they were simply pinned to the walls. This really surprised me and the layout surprised me even more so, the images were of various sizes and dotted in random places upon the walls. Some really up a height. I thought this layout so interesting and different. It wasn't what I was expecting at all but I felt it worked so well.

Another wall in one of the rooms had small images all exactly the same size, packed tightly together like a collage filling a vast amount of the wall. The images were all in the same style of close ups of materialistic and almost grotesque objects. Again, a project which was very consumer based and not just a project simply documenting something but trying to say more about people and the society we live in. The images are extremely bright and saturated, yet another project which almost completely relies on the emphasis and use of colour. This particular project had a real impact when you walked into the room and saw the wall covered in these images.

I really like how Parr had catered the layout of his images to what the projects or photographs were about or trying to say. Until visiting this exhibition I had never thought of any inventive ways to present my work. So this exhibition really left me with something to think about. 

Events

Event: Football Game


One event I chose to photograph within the process of finding a fitting event more my major project to make a book from was a football game. With the same concept in mind once again, I set out to capture not the event itself, but the people involved in the days events. The people watching the game, betting, drinking, eating, celebrating and sulking. I used my small digital compact camera which I newly purchased as I knew this would be perfect for snapping images of people as they would be unaware of my camera.

I tended to be very drawn to supporters wearing the Middlesbrough merchandise or anything red to support the players. I found some very interesting individuals to photograph and i feel some of the images even have a slight humour to them although they were intended to just be simple documentary shots of exactly what I myself was seeing. 

I this image I really like the way the subject of the image, male in the red hat and scarf, is walking in from the side of the image. As appose to the focus of the image being exactly central the eye of the viewer is drawn to the left hand side of the image first, before then viewing what is going on in the foreground of the image of all the other people rushing by.  

The purchasing of my new compact camera really shows off to be beneficial in shots such as they as the subjects carry on to act natural and are completely unaware of the presence of my camera. 

Although the image below is slightly blurred, and could have been captured much better. I wanted to include this image and the image above, as both of the images capture the emotion of shock or enjoyment when watching a football match. This is something I was really wanting to try capture as appose to the actually footballers themselves playing the football. I think these images capture that emotion and what watching football is like to  certain extent however If i were to go and capture images of a football match again, would definitely want to focus more upon this aspect and really try and get some better shots like this. 

I really liked the images I managed to capture this day. However much like some of the other subjects I've attempted to photograph, I feel in order to make an interesting narrative or a photo book, the event would have to be photographed on several occasions as appose to just one day. If I were to photograph every Middlesbrough game for a full season or even several years I can image I would be  able to create a brilliant body of work, made up of many interesting shots. Photographing just one day however, doesn't create as interesting of a narrative as I feel it could after being shot several times. This is definitely an interesting idea and good concept which I would be more than willing to start as a personal project once leaving university. 

Photographer Research

Peter Dench

A photographer which may help explain a little better the kind of photography I aim to produce during this project is Peter Dench. Peter Dench is a photographer I am very much inspired by and is a photographer I feel produces work similar to what I seem to also naturally want to produce myself. He seems to capture images of subject matter similar to what I am naturally drawn towards when using my own camera. 

During this project of my Final Major I aim to capture images at events. These events will be british and what I aim to do through my own natural style is capture images of the social aspect of these events such as people drinking and socialising or celebration just as much as photographing the event itself. I am very drawn to people when I photographer and I see this similarity in attraction to photographing people in Peter Dench's work.

One particular project by Peter Dench which I feel I really relate to and take great inspiration from is that of 'Alcohol & England.'

http://www.peterdench.com/alcohol-england/A_E24/

Dench has photographed events such as the races and focused his images upon the British people specialising and drinking as appose to the actual races themselves. This is similar to a project Martin Parr has done and is something I have previously discussed about possibly trying myself.

I really like the way his images catch people off guard. His work does quite remind me of Martin Parr's with the bright and bold colours and the fact some of the images are very up close of people. When looking at this work I do feel this is exactly what I find trying to capture and it seems what he photographs is the kind of subject matter I am naturally drawn to also. 

For example. My Previous work

http://www.peterdench.com/alcohol-england/A_E34/

Berlin book

Researching Documentary photo books

As my Major project consists of the documentation of a particular event, and I want to tell the story of that event through the use of these images, I have decided the visual narrative should be made into a photo book. Creating a photo book for my minor project, where I made a small maquette version is something which I really enjoyed the process of and I felt it was something which suited my work so well and tied together my work perfectly. The images I have taken in previous projects and the work I will be producing during this project always seem to follow this style of visual story telling, therefore my images need to be shown as a collective as appose to a few individual images. I feel some work like this often needs contact behind it such as text or information to set the scene or tell the story before diving into the imagery. With the decision of creating a photo book now made, I want to research into different styles of photo books, preferably of documentary work of course. 

I aim to look at all the aspects which need to be taken into consideration when making my own book such as the front cover, the shape or size of the book, colour of the cover or colour schemes throughout, whether to use text and finally how to layout the contents of the book for example text and the images. 

I have been looking at this book by Mark Power, which is his documentation of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The way power sets the scene and gives more contact to the reader than just through the images them selves is with these newspaper cut outs which cover the front of the book and take up the first and last pages of the book. The news paper used on the front of the book is apparently a newspaper Power actually purchased the day after the wall had been pulled down.

" a newspaper Power purchased in Berlin the morning after."

http://www.markpower.co.uk/die-mauer-ist-weg

As can be seen in the image below, following the some news paper cut outs which really set the scene, inform them and takes them back to this time, there is text presented across a double page.

The situation power was in when over in Berlin taking these images is explained. Its incredibly interesting to hear his story and the reasoning behind the images. Without this text the images would be viewed in a very different way I feel. 

What I liked about this book is the impact the images have by being spread across full double pages. Obviously with such an iconic and dramatic subject matter and point in history, way the images were presented had to give an impact too. 

I like the fact just because some images are portray doesn't mean they couldn't be included in the landscape style book or that they should be presented in a standard way. The fact the portrait images are still presented across a double page and the viewer is encouraged to turn the book to view the image is something which I think works well. I personally wouldn't think to do this and would stick too much to a typical formal idea of having to have all the images presented the same way. The images I will be working with to create my own photo book are both landscape and portrait so this idea of a layout is definitely something I feel I should consider. 

Obviously during the time this was project of images was made, film camera were what photographers used. So the fact these images are black and white I understand is completely unintentional however I like the way the images are black and white and the news paper cuttings are still visible throughout reading the book, not just on the front and back pages. Because the project is a documentary / photojournalistic style piece, when looking through the book as the viewer you feel as though you are reading a newspaper.