Evaluation

Evaluation

The outcome set for this project by my University and myself has been to produce images of a professional exhibition standard and to produce my own professionally made photo book. Upon completion of University, I aim to find a job in the field of documentary photography or photojournalism. This is therefore the reason I set myself the task of not only capturing documentary shots, but capturing them with the concept in mind that they were going to be used in a book in order to tell a story to a wider audience. 

After completing my minor project, where I had to create a maquette book, I wanted to carry on this process into my Major project and develop my skills of visual story telling and book making. During this process of making a book, I came to learn just how many aspects must be taken into consideration, such as text, colours, paper, the cover, placement of images, placement of text, introduction pages and acknowledgement pages. I now understand why there is often more than just one person working on making a book and why so many photographers use editors or use outside people to produce the writing and other important aspects involved.

I attempted several different edits of the book, some in which had masses of photographs in them. I was scared to edit the images down to a smaller amount as I worried the images I liked or would choose, may not be enough to clearly communicate the story of the unique event to the viewer. Something that massively helped me overcome this issue was the group critique that I was able to participate in almost every two weeks. Being able to bring my ideas to a group of people and hear their feedback often helped me get back on track with my work. Many of my peers during one particular critique reassured me that from an outsider’s perspective, they were able to understand what I was documenting through the select images I had chosen. This made me realise I was possibly thinking too far into things and by adding more images just for the sake of trying to desperately get the point of Sedgefield Ball Game across to people, I was in fact over complicating the project. 

With more time and a larger budget, I know I could of made the book to a higher standard. I had looked into the possibility of embossing the front cover, which would have made the cover look a lot more professional. If I were to remake the book, I would have had the first page as a plain white page as appose to the image I used, as I honestly do not feel this is a successful factor of the book. The introductory pages were probably what I struggled with most as I was so inexperienced in making books and understanding what ways do and don't work in terms of the layout of these first few very important pages. Despite this however, I am happy with the particular image I chose to place on this very first page, as although I may not think it works, it is atlas a strong image and is an image, which gives the viewer a good idea of what Sedgefield Ball game is about. With the unique title then followed by this image, I should hope this works in leaving the viewer questioning what the book is about and wanting to know more.

Originally I preferred my images in black and white, as I felt they looked more powerful and striking due to the more contrasted and bold tones I was able to create. Again with input from my peers, tutors and guest photographers, I came to realise the images had a complete different feel and visual language about them once converted into black and white. A crucial stepping-stone in my progression as a documentary photographer was when I chose to research further into the use of colour or black and white in photography. I came to grasp the concept of ‘Subjectivity’ and ‘Objectivity’ within photography. It is important in photography to not just capture the images, but think about what it is you're trying to say with you're images.

My main influences during this project came from Martin Parr and Paul Graham. Not only did I find inspiration in their actual photography but also I found inspiration and learnt a lot from looking at their own photo books. 

My final prints are something which I am very happy with and feel they work successfully as a collective. I chose to frame my images to ensure they were of the highest standard and ready for instillation in my degree show. The four images I chose, I personally feel give a good idea of what Sedgefield Ball game is about and will draw people in when viewing them in an exhibition. Overall, I feel the final images compliment the professional book I made, the work as a collective has been a success for me.

Final Images

Final Images

As the brief for this project requires, I must hand in...

• "A series of exhibition quality prints / imagery, presented for exhibition or other appropriate form of installation as part of group show in ‘pop- up’ external gallery venue"
  
  
  I had to choose numerous images which would be printed large and are images which I would be happy to have put up in an exhibition. During this project I have focused very much on the book of Sedgefield Ball Game which I made. This book presented a series of my best images in order from the start of this day to the end, telling the days events. For large exhibition prints I therefore want to select images from the book, 'One Hand Over The Eye'. 
  
  In order to choose my final image, I printed off several images which I personally liked best and felt were the strongest. I took into consideration when choosing the images that they had to be images which were able to work within a series. 
  
  I then laid the images across the table and worked by trying different sequences to see which images worked best as a series. I was looking for an interesting range of subject matter, a series of images which would help give a good idea what the event was about and a series of images which would look balanced and work well along side one another.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   Images such as the police image and the children walking by are both images which I think are strong and I personally really like. However I had to eliminate these from my final selection as the colours and subject matter in particular just did not seem to fit in or flow with the other images I had selected. I felt this was okay however as I know those images feature in the book that I made. So in order to have a strong selection of images ready to be presented in a gallery, I was willing to eliminate any image that may need doing so. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When choosing my final images the number which I felt would be best suitable would be around 4-5 images. Any more than that would really defeat the object of my book which is a supporting piece of the work, telling the full story. I also felt if I were to use only 2-3 images, that may not be a great enough amount of images to be able to give the viewer an idea of what this event is about. For example, one images of the old man holding his hands up and the image of the men sat on the pavement may come across as rather confusing when in a gallery. My work is all about series, and telling visual stories, so a a very minimal amount of images may not be best to do so. 
  
  
  I wanted to make sure all the images didn't include the same subject matter or scenes. Such as 4 images of people drinking or celebrating or 4 images of all very similar fighting scenes. I wanted to make sure there was a variety within my selection while still making sure the images looked fitting as a collective and didn't look completely odd from one another.  

As can be seen in these image, which is something I like and think works well is the similarities in colours, the images are tied together by the theme of mainly blue and some red through the images. This is why I definitely felt the image of the police was just not suitable in the final selection as when looking at the series on a whole, that image stood out and overpowered the other images far too much, which was definitely a negative thing as I did not want to put the impression across of this event mainly being about police or 'crime' as such. 

Among the selection I have these two images above which single out an individual in each image. There is drama in both images and both men hold there arms in the air. These were definitely two of my strongest images from the book in my opinion and I felt with choosing to use both of these in my 4 image selection created a balance due to the subtle similarities in the images. 

The next two images are again obviously another two images which I deffinately regard as my strongest from the book. The reason I felt these images worked well is because both images include several men, they include the road markings and they include fairly similar colours. These subtle similarities are again a reason why I felt they would work well together in helping to balance the 4 image series. Whats great about these images in a series together is the fact that one is such a dramatic action shot, while the other shows a different side to the game, where the males are taking time out to do the complete opposite. 

The image as a series shows the players, the roughness of the game, the way the players still act as a community and help each other through the game and it shows the onlookers. The drama and excitement of the game is shown in this series and I feel they give an overall general idea of what the day and the game really involves. Obviously I did say it would be hard to give the viewer an idea of what this game is really about just from a few select images as appose to a larger series however I do feel that I have done a good job in doing so. 

To check this selection was the one I have happy with and to give myself a more realistic idea on what the prints would finally look like I used pieces of A3 paper and tried each images with a thick white board as this is how I would hope to present them and this is the size I was aiming to also use. 

Final Framed images

For the hand in of my final major project I had considered placing my images in print sleeves and putting them in a print box. However this is the standard way I have always handed work in, and as the brief asks that the prints i submit for this project to be of an exhibition standard and ready for instillation, I chose to go out and buy frames for my work. 

I got the images printed form Loxley colour lab which was a printing lab recommenced to be by one of my tutors. Other students had used this site prior to myself and had given me really good feed back on the company. The pricing and shipping speed for this site were also amazing in comparison to many other printing labs i've used. I ordered my prints and I was extremely happy with the outcome when they arrived. The quality was of a high standard. 

Because I had decided to place my images in frames, I decided it would be a sensible idea to firstly go and look at frames in the shops and decide what size frame I would want to use and see exactly what was available. When looking at the 12x16 size frames which I had originally had in mind to use, I felt these frame would be too large, as I intended to place my images all side by side, so they would take up quite a lot of room length ways if I were to print too large. I then considered 9x12" size prints however when looking for frames I struggled to really find anything suitable. A4 would deffinately have been too small for what I wanted, so after a lot of debating, I found some frames at 11x14" which I was really happy with. The sizing seemed just right for what I was imagining my prints to look like in their end result. 

I chose to use white frames as I felt they looked best with the white borders I had added to my images. I feel black would of looked to harsh and any kind of wood frame just wouldn't have suited the subject matter of the images. I had considered just mounting the images however I feel these white frames give the images the perfect finishing touch. 

My book

Final book


I was thrilled to see my book once I had ordered it and it had arrived from the site Photo box. Because I had not used the website Blurb, which to me seemed to look a bit more of a professional website, I was slightly anxious to what the quality of the book would be like. I chose to use Photobox as is was more within my budget of what I was prepared to spend. 

When the book arrived however, the quality exceeded my expectations and to say this is my first experience of ever making a professional book I was extremely happy with the out come. 


The Cover

To make the presentation of the book even more professional I also purchased an A4 sized presentation box. This will not only help protect my book but I feel it really does add to the presentation of the book.

 I chose a hardback cover for my book as after creating several hand made moquettes myself, I want to step my work up a level and create a much more professional sturdy book. I chose to remain simple with the front cover. I felt black looked more striking than another plain colour such as white. I also didn't think there was any particular colour other than something dark like black that would really tie in with the book and the story within it. I think however, If I were to make the book again, I would defiantly use an image on the front cover. With this concept in mind however I do believe it would take a great deal of through and consideration in choosing what single image I could place on the front and where the placement of it should be / what size it would be. I do feel however, the plain cover works well with the intriguing title of ''One hand over the eye" as without an image on the front cover, the viewer should hopefully be left wanting to know more. 

Introduction pages

To keep in theme with the black cover and to keep the book quite simplified I chose to use black paper on this first coloured sheet page. Like the cover of the book, I didn't want to use any random colour that wouldn't be fitting with the book. There was not really any colour I felt I would suit the book or the narrative of the images other than black. I feel the use of black continues to create a clean, professional and smart feel to the book. 

When looking at several other books, images were presented among the introductory pages, mostly along side the text or the title. Something which created a slight challenge for me was the fact that 'Photobox' did not allow this page to be completely blank. The site required an image to be on the first page of the book. I tried several ways to try and get around this but ended up having to use an image here. I think if I were to make the book again I would have the image presented much smaller with space around it as I feel the large image here as the very first page of the book is slightly miss-leading in that the viewer is led to believe the images start straight away, you do not turn the page expect to then see titles and writing. 

I do think however, that the choice of image is a good choice an very suitable in being an introductory image to the book. The image sets the scene and gives the viewer a good idea of what to expect next. It still however, creates some mystery, and makes the reader want to read further, as the image presents total carnage, and to someone who who's nothing about Sedgefield Ball Game and has not had chance to read the next couple of pages which explain the game, will be left wondering what is happening here in the image. 

Because I had used an image on the previous page, as appose to using another image and placing it here next to the title page, I chose to leave the page blank. For the layout of the text on this page I deffinately took inspiration from the book I researched called Home and Abroad by Martin Parr. 

I wanted to make it clear beneath the title and my name that the narrative within the book was not just down to me, but down the help and inspiration I gained from the Sedgefield resident Kenny Moyle. 

I was really happy with the page following the title page. I think the use of newspaper next to the writing really helps add context and explain more about the history of this unique tradition. I chose to present the writing in columns as appose to lines that would fill the full length of the page, because I felt the wiring looked tidier and more professional in this way.

As can be seen, with the layout of my images I experimented between smaller images an larger images. I really like both of these pages which can be seen above and below. I feel these pages are examples of two of my favourite layouts. I chose to present this rather unique image of a male stood on the roof of a bus stop as quite small and surrounded by space. When viewing the double page the viewer is therefore drawn into that one particular area as appose to looking across the two images. 

I chose to present this larger image as across two double pages. I got the inspiration for this from a Paul Graham book. I really do think the use of space on this page again works well, with the placement of the image being slightly situated away from the right hand side edge of the page. This is one of my strongest images in my opinion and the fact the individual is giving the camera eye contact encouraged me to want to present the image big to create more of an impact for the viewer. I feel when looking at this image you can almost feel as the viewer that you are actually in that situation yourself, looking into the eyes of the player. 

Some of the images I used in my book are from when I photographed the ball game in 2014. This was not something I was originally going to do until I was encouraged by my tutor and peers. There is only about 4 images used in the book which are from 2014, but the reason I used them is because they are such strong images and each one of them portray Sedgefield ball game extremely well. None of these images of course would be the images I use to hand in as part of final selection of exhibition images which I will hand in as part of this project. This is also one reason why I could not chose to call my book 'Sedgefield Ball game 2016'.

Photobox

Creating my book


After finalising my book using 'BookWright' the Blurb app, I priced up how much my book would cost to make on blurb. I had originally gone to the website blurb to create my book as it was a website which was highly recommended to me by peers and some of my tutors. I was also drawn to using the site because of the several different options it gave you in order to create your book.

However due to the fairly slow delivery time and the fact the website was suggesting a very expensive and almost unaffordable price for me to make my book how I wanted. I chose to do some research online and see if there were any other book making companies or websites that would be more suitable for myself. I found several websites which were cheaper but I was worried the standard ad quality of the book would not be suitable.

One website which was recommended to me during my search was 'Photobox'. https://www.photobox.co.uk/a/
I was able to actually look at the quality of the books this site produce first hand, as one of my peers had a book made through them prior to the making of my own. I chose to look on the site and found that the way in which the site enabled people to make books was a very simple and easy to use layout.

Because I had created a final version of my book on 'BookWright' I was able to copy exactly what I had done there over to Photobox.

The layout of photo box was very easy and simple to use. I was able to create my book within about an hour on here as I knew exactly where to place my images and text by this point. 

Adding writing

Book text



Now that I had a more final layout for my book, and especially after researching several photography books, I had to begin looking into the more finishing factors that would help tie the book together.

Because Sedgefield Ball game is such a unique event, and often difficult to explain to other people, I was concerned the images alone would not give a good enough indication to what the day is all about. I decided using some sort of writing, maybe placed at the beginning of the book would help give a bit more of an explanation. A lot of the books I have looked at so far have writing at the beginning either written by the photographer themselves, explaining what the images consist of, or they have had a piece of writing written for them. 

I felt a good starting point for creating some writing for my book would be to ask someone who knows a lot about the game and had attend the game many more years than I have. In many of my images from this day, this same character appeared throughout. This character was an elderly male from the village called Kenny. Kenny has lived in Sedgefield all of his life and attends Sedgefield ball game every year. I had considered interviewing Kenny and asking him a few brief questions about the day, but instead, as a starting point I chose to ask him to write his own account of Sedgefield ball game. I felt having someone who knows the game so well write their interpretation of the game would be much better than me writing something myself. 

Kenny very kindly wrote me his own explanation of Sedgefield Bal game and explained what it meant to him. I was extremely happy with what he had wrote and so incredibly grateful. The writing included humour and really showed Kenny's personality.

I then had to edit the writing down, as although I was really pleased with the writing Kenny had given me, my main aim was to make sure the writing which I placed in my book was clear an concise, in order for it to make sense to people reading the book who knew nothing about the game or tradition.

After typing up exactly what Kenny had written me, I created several versions of edited text where I placed my own words and explanation of the game among the words Kenny had written me.


Final outcome

By the time I got to my final draft which I was happy to use in my book, I basically ended up using the writing Kenny had provided me as a starting point more than anything else. I created my own body of writing biased upon the information he had given. Because I had edited down a lot of the writing Kenny had provided me with, I chose to put a quote from exactly what he had wrote for me, and I placed this in quotation marks and put his name at the bottom as seen here. 

Book Title


One key aspect of Kenny's writing which is something he did without me asking was titling the piece of writing. He called the writing "One hand over the eye". Which I feel sums up the Sedgefield ball game incredibly well. It really is a game you want to watch because of how fast paced and exciting it is, but because of the rough nature of the game you find yourself watching it literally peeking from behind your hands. Luckily I have been provided with this writing a long time before I had even began to consider what the title of the book could be. My initial ideas was just to called it 'Sedgefield Ball Game' or 'Sedgefield Ball Game 2016' however this title provided by Kenny, I feel, works perfectly. 

Newspapers

Newspaper Pieces


Following looking at the Mark Power book where he documented the fall of Berlin wall, I was really inspired by the use of News paper cut outs to create context in the book. Because the event which I photographed is so unique and like I have previously explained it often makes the news each year, I thought this could be a great opportunity to use some newspaper cuttings myself. The ball game today tends to more so feature on the news on TV or on online articles.

Luckily however, I had some old news paper cuttings from the 1980's from when my Grandfather intact won the game. In my text which I am placing at the beginning of my book, I try to get across to the viewer how much of a traditional and historical event Sedgefield Ball game actually is. I explain how the game has been around for 1,000 years. The use of old news paper cuttings therefore I felt would again help add context and explain more about the game.

I scanned the news papers into my computer before then taking to photoshop to edit both pieces into a collage. I did this because I wanted both the newspapers to be the same black and white tone. As appose to using the newspapers as a cover for the book like the book by Mark Power which I was very much inspired by, I chose to place the newspaper image along side the text at the beginning of the book, in order to help inform the viewer and add context along side the writing. 

Landscape Maquette

Landscape Maquette


After looking at several examples of photo books and especially being inspired by the book 'In Umbra Res' by Paul Graham I wanted to try and see what my book would look like made in a landscape style. The reasons I wanted to make a landscape maquette was because I came to the realisation that because my images were landscape, they would be able to be placed much better and I could afford to experiment more with the sizing of my images if I were to use a book that was landscape. Many of the documentary books I looked at were also landscape to suit the landscape images presented within them.
Once 

I made this book by hand by sticking individual pages together then cutting and sticking images on the pages. Although this was very time consuming and was beginning to get frustrating after making several moquettes, I knew it was important to keep creating these physical books along the process as it is difficult to get a real feel of a book and how the order flows when just looking at it on a computer screen.

After making numerous maquette books in order to help trouble shoot with how I should layout my images in terms of sizing, order and where they are placed on my page, I decided to try and find a more time efficient way to create a book. When researching online for places I could get my book made, I came across the website 'Blurb' what caught my attention with the webiste blurb was that in order to create the a book you could download their own program which is designed for creating books. The app which I downloaded to my mac was called 'Bookwright'. This was a very simple and straightforward program which which was free to down load.

Even if I didn't want to purchase or make my book through blurb, this program was brilliant in helping me look at the layout of the book and being able to change around images as and when I wanted. This was a much better way as appose to constantly printing images and using folded paper.

Through the use of hand made maquettes and through the use of the online program blurb, once I had finally come to an order and layout of the images I was pleased with, I then had to think about the addition factors to the book such as the writing.  As the image above shows, I placed the writing which had been produced by Kenny Moyle then edited and added to by me, at the front of the book. However when in a tutorial with my tutor Jamie, we looked at an example of a photo book which was American. The images were placed to the right on every double page, and there was writing to the left. Not every image in the book, but several had writing to accompany them. The captions would have a title then a shot brief description or something about the image. I and my tutor really liked this idea and at this point I said to Jamie I had considered using writing throughout my book but had been yet to see any examples of this In other photo books. I decided this use of small captions throughout the book would help explain the days events a lot more as I was still very concerned with the fact people who know nothing about this unique event, still may struggle to grasp what exactly was happening in the images.

What I chose to do from here, was either use my own captions, which I created to help give a brief explanation of the images or I used actual quotes from the original piece of writing Kenny provided me with, as I found much of what he wrote, worked well in accompanying some of the images I had taken.

Because I had placed my images in chronological order, in order to tell the days events from begging to end, I had the idea of placing a time next to each caption to give the viewer of the book an idea of what time in the day these scenes took place.


For example

This concept was only an idea at this stage. I had to decide whether it was really necessary to use time frames next to the images. The only downfall I felt with this idea was the fact that not all the images had captions next to them meaning not all the images had times written next to them.