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.