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.