Progress Update, 18 July 2017

Well, I’ve very nearly finished the course! I have revised my photo book, adding a couple of extra images, and have reached the point where I am happy with both the text and images – no further alterations will be made. Likewise, I am happy with the cover design. I have made various decisions regarding the design of the book. Only two major project decisions remain to be made: firstly, whether to submit a self-published version of the book for assessment or the commercially produced book and secondly whether to accompany the book with a multimedia presentation, which I have not started. Work carried out since my last update is described below.

Book Text and Images

In the first draft of the book, the passages of text accompanying each of the images varied in length from around 120 words to over 400 words. This necessitated using a smaller font size for some of the longer passages. I knew that I would have to do something about this and my tutor concurred. I therefore spent some time revising and, in some cases, splitting the text whilst trying to retain the sentiments expressed throughout the book. Eventually I was able, by incorporating two additional passages of text, to cut down the length of each passage to a maximum of 270 words. Although not perfect (around 175 words for each section would have been ideal) I decided that I could make no further compromises on this issue. Each section of text comfortably fits the page, using a standard 12 point ‘Times New Roman’ font size.

I decided to produce two new images to accompany the extra passages of text. I chose to ‘start from scratch’, rather than return to previously discarded images, and the result was two images that blended text with photographs – perhaps an indication of my increasing interest in this area (as noted by my post on the influences of the art of Peter Beard and David Wojnarowicz ). I feel that both new images fit well within the book, with one (used in the short section discussing the illness of clinical depression) perhaps posing some interesting questions for the viewer.

I also made (mainly minor) alterations to some of my other images, following a careful review of how they looked and ‘felt’ in the first draft of the photo book. My tutor agrees with me that desaturation works for my images, so desaturated images will be retained in the final version of the book.

I have now reached the point where I can draw a line under this work. The text and images are complete – no further alterations will be made.

Book Design

I have, following my tutor’s recommendation, changed the text on the front cover from bold to normal and moved the text to below the image. We concur that with this change the front and back covers look fine.

The first draft of the book was published ‘softback’ and my tutor was happy with this. However, I would like to look at producing a hardback book, with a matt cover, to investigate whether the surface is more tactile.

I have decided not to number the pages, because I don’t think that this will add any value to the book.

Although I felt that the size of the book was a little small my tutor was happy with this, describing it as “like a keepsake, or memento…” I will retain this size for future commercial editions, although for self-publishing I may (whether or not by choice) go slightly larger.

I have added a couple of ‘chapter titles’ to separate the section on clinical depression from the rest of the book, using the same format (bold title on faint Yorkshire Dales landscape) as has been used elsewhere in the book. This brings the book size up to 66 pages.

I have placed the double page graph at the centre of the book (pages 33-34). I hope that a self-published, stapled book will then avoid the danger of the centre of the graph being lost in the centrefold – something that I anticipate will occur in my commercially published book drafts. My tutor suggested that the graph could be included as a ‘foldout’, but this would require a lot of extra work. I will write a separate post on self-publishing (research and application) at a later date.

The typeface (‘Times New Roman’) is consistent throughout the book and the font size (12) is consistent for all passages of text.

Future Work

Having completed the changes described above and applied all my design decisions I have ordered a ‘second draft’ photo book from a commercial supplier (‘Blurb’) and await its arrival. I plan to use this book as a fall back for assessment submission, whilst I investigate self-publishing the book. The main disadvantage of the ‘Blurb’ book is that part of the graph will be hidden by the centrefold. I also hope to have more flexibility by self-publishing. Research and practice of self-publication will therefore take up much of my time in the next month. I will continue to update my blog, although I feel that my posts on influences, exhibitions, books etc. are pretty much complete. I’m currently writing an artist statement and introduction to the project for the assessors. I don’t intend to write explanatory notes for each image, as I have done in the past, because I feel that the accompanying text in the photo book offers enough information.

I will produce square prints of all my images, to include in my submission. However, I am starting to have doubts about the importance of supplying an accompanying multimedia presentation for the assessors – will it add value to my submission? I’ll make a final decision on this when the book has been finished and the chosen copy for submission is in my hands.

Major Project Influences (19): Peter Beard and David Wojnarowicz. Photo-collages and Photo-montages of Images and Text

During this course I have researched the work of leading figures in the history of photo-montage, including John Heartfield and Peter Kennard, whose work predominantly consists of the blending of two or more images. However, I have become increasingly interested in art that consists of the blending of one or more images with (a) passage(s) of text. The written word has the power to create atmosphere and emotion in the mind of the reader, just as an image can. A combination of both has, at least, the potential to amplify these feelings, provided an appropriate juxtaposition can be found. For this reason I have looked at blending text into some of my images during the later stages of the project. Two influences in this area have been the Americans Peter Beard and David Wojnarowicz.

Peter Beard (1938 - )

The writer, artist, photographer and diarist Peter Beard is a true polymath. He has spent much of his life living in Kenya, where he has been a protector of endangered wildlife. He has also been a renowned fashion photographer and was a close friend of, amongst others, Andy Warhol, Karen Blixen and Francis Bacon. However, he is perhaps best known for his amazing diaries (or, perhaps more accurately, journals), which fuse photographs, writing, newspaper cuttings, artwork, food labels and much more to produce intricate, multi-layered, rich visual experiences. I was particularly attracted to the pages in which he has blended images of some of the fashion models that he has worked with together with other material. One example is shown below (Image 1). The rich imagery created by this type of work can certainly produce an emotional response, although the nature of that response is hard to gauge - Beard’s diaries are essentially documenting his life rather than trying to overtly make a political point (although he has been and doubtless still is concerned with political and, in particular, environmental issues).

Image 1 (Peter Beard)

David Wojnarowicz (1954 – 1992)

David Wojnarowicz was a painter, writer, photographer, filmmaker and performance artist, active in the 1980s and early 1990s. Following a troubled childhood he became a part of the New York avant-garde arts community. He was gay and saw many friends, as well as his lover, become victims of the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s. As a consequence of his experiences he became an AIDS activist and his work took on a strongly political content, concentrating on the social and legal injustices inherent in the response to the AIDS epidemic in the USA. Image 2 is one potent example of his work during this period, combining text and images to produce a powerful essay on the injustices felt by sexually active gay people at that time. Wojnarowicz was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and died of an AIDS–related illness in 1992.

Image 2 (David Wojnarowicz)

Comments and Learning Points

The art of Wojnarowicz and Beard has little in common, other than for the fact that both Americans have produced work that merges images and text. Beard’s work is arguably more creative and certainly more complex, as well as having a more pleasing aesthetic. Wojnarowicz’s work is direct, uncompromising and juxtaposes text and imagery to make a strong political point. As such it has the capacity to stir the emotions of the viewer in a different way to that of Beard. Both types of image are equally valid, although perhaps Wojnarowicz’s work is a clearer example of conceptual art. I have developed and tried to fuse some of the ideas displayed in both the images shown here with my own ideas, in order to produce two new images for my photo book – the last two to be inserted. Many other artists combine images (painted, drawn and/or photographed) with text and I suspect that I will investigate this type of work again in the future: it interests me greatly from an artistic perspective. The work of the two artists discussed in this post is therefore a late but very important influence on my output.