"I am not There": Photo Book Design

Introduction

From the outset of the project I intended to produce a photo book as part of my submission for assessment. As the project moved forwards it gradually became clear that the book would be the primary submission document. This post describes my thought processes regarding the design of the book.

Book Evolution

Some aspects of the book design have remained in place from the outset. I wanted to document my relationship with my mother in her final years in both words and images, with each passage of text relating to a single image. I could see no simple alternative to placing each passage of text on the left hand page, with the corresponding image on the right hand page, separated by the centrefold. Most photo books contain little or no text, but for me the text was an essential part of the project. Other examples of photo books where the text and images occupy roughly equal space were hard to come by, but I did find a template in “Gary’s Friends”, by Adrian Clarke (Adrian Clarke), and this book has proved to be very useful in developing the design.

In the early stages of the project I produced a mixture of A4-shaped ‘landscape’ and ‘portrait’ images. Half way through the project I thought about whether to (a) retain the shapes of the images and place them horizontally (for landscape images) or vertically on square pages, with white surrounds, (b) convert all the images to ‘landscape’ format and incorporate them either ‘full bleed’ or with a white surround onto the appropriate A4 landscape-shaped pages or (c) convert all the images to a square format for square pages, with or without ‘full bleed’. Adrian Clarke used choice (a). However, both my tutor and I preferred to use a ‘full bleed’, so option (a) was eliminated. It would have been almost impossible for me to convert some of the (minority of) portrait format images into landscape format, so in the end I chose option (c), with full bleed, and converted all the images that had already been given the ‘thumbs up’ by my tutor into square format. All future images were also produced in square format.

For stylistic reasons I chose to produce 50% desaturated images having a ‘matt’ finish (very few glossy images appear in published photo books and a matt finish seemed entirely appropriate for partially desaturated images). I chose the images to be caption-less, since they already related to the text on the opposite page and the caption would have had to have been placed either over the image or below the text on the opposite page. From the start my square images were all produced at 300dpi and 2500 pixels length, for printing. I intended to use my favourite ‘Calibri’ font for the text, but eventually had to settle for ‘Times New Roman’, because the software that I used to create the book would not accept ‘Calibri’. A typical double page from the finished photo book, illustrating the design decisions that had been made by this stage, is shown below (Image 1).

Image 1: A Typical Page from my finished (Hard Cover) Photo Book

Book Production

Serious design considerations came to the fore after I had produced my first draft photo book, a softback version using the ‘print on demand’ publisher Blurb. The front and back covers from this book are illustrated below (Image 2). Feedback from my tutor included the advice that I should get my hands on every photo book that I could, not just to consider design issues but also to examine how the look and feel of the book could influence both the creator and the observer. I tried to carry out his advice as best I could. “The Photobook: a History Volume III” (Badger and Parr) was also consulted extensively. Some of the more important design issues that were discussed with my tutor, together with how they were resolved, are discussed below.

Image 2: Back and Front Covers of the first (Soft Cover) Draft of my Photo Book

My tutor was happy with the use of a soft cover for the book, but not with the gloss cover and bold text. For future drafts of the book and for the final version I used a matt cover and made modifications to the nature of the cover text (see Image 3). However, having subsequently produced a book with a hardback cover (Image 3) I preferred the feel and texture of the hard back, so this was retained for further drafts and the final version of the book.

I was a little concerned that the book, with pages approximately 17cm square, was a little smaller than I would have liked. However, my tutor was happy with the size so it was left unaltered. I chose not to number the pages of the book – this didn’t seem necessary and is not common practice for published photo books.

Image 3: Front Cover of the first Draft of the Hard Cover Photo Book, showing Text Design Changes

There was a serious problem with the ‘graph’. This ‘one off’ image was designed to be (2:1) ‘letterbox’ size, to fit across two pages. However, the centre of the graph predictably disappeared into the centrefold of the book (hard and soft cover). I considered a number of options. My tutor was keen for me to investigate self-publishing the book and attaching the graph either as a ‘fold-out’ or glued/printed/pasted across the centre pages of a book whose pages had been stapled together, so that there would be no centrefold. I looked at self-publishing, both by reading books and by visiting a photo book fair in London, where the ‘Self Publish Be Happy’ representative confirmed that a stapled book with blank central pages would be my best option. The graph could be printed on or attached across the central pages. Following this advice I carefully considered what to do. I thought about how many copies of this very personal document I was likely to produce – probably no more than six to eight for the assessors, my tutor, close family and me. In the end I decided to produce a ‘print on demand’ book with two blank pages. I then separately produced the graph with exactly the same dimensions as the book. I will permanently attach the graph as a ‘foldout’ onto the right hand of the two blank pages that have been left in each copy of the book. This will add a ‘personal touch’ to the book, whilst ensuring that I do not have to do too much work in order to produce the few copies needed.

The design of the photo book is now complete and I have produced a single copy that incorporates the graph, as well as all the other changes mentioned above. An image of the fold-out graph, attached to the book, is below (Image 4). I am happy with the overall result: all that remains for me to do at this point is to produce further copies of the book and attach a copy of the graph to each copy of the book. One copy of the book will then, together with other project material, be sent for assessment.

Image 4: Fold-out Graph attached to a Hard Cover Version of the Photo Book

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.

Progress Update 30 May 2017

Having received my first draft photo book back from ‘Blurb’ I posted a copy to my tutor, together with a progress update – this constituted my 6^th and final assignment for this course. I’ve now had feedback from him in the form of both a tutor report and a final ‘Skype’ tutorial and I’m very pleased to know that I’m almost finished, with plenty of time to prepare for submission. I can’t believe that after almost 10 years of part-time study, I’ve almost reached the end of my degree course: what will I do with myself afterwards?

The bulk of the feedback concentrated on the design of the photo book. Since I have practically no experience of book design, my tutor’s comments and suggestions in this area were very welcome and much appreciated. These are discussed below, but first I’ll look briefly at the contents of the book.

Book Text and Images

The text and images are fine in their current format. The images (including the new ones) “work harmoniously” and “front and back cover images work well”. I had already planned to correct some technical issues relating to some of the images in the book and I will make these corrections in the next week or two, in order to produce a complete set of images that can go into the final photo book without further alteration. The square format and 50% saturation work, so I will make no changes in this regard. Likewise, the text is fine (as it has been for some time) and could go into the final draft of the book ‘as is’.

However, I will have to make some changes to the text and possibly add more images, in order to accommodate alterations to the design of the book (see below).

Book Design

General Design

·         My tutor felt that the feel and tactility of the book could be considerably improved by losing the gloss cover, although softback (as submitted) was fine. He suggested aiming for the tactile nature of Kennard’s “@earth” book (which I have). As for many of the bullets listed here, he suggested research in the form of looking at and handling a variety of photo books would be invaluable. In the light of these comments I will avoid using gloss on the cover, but will likely switch to a hard cover (as for Kennard’s book) for the final version.

·         He liked the (relatively small) size of the book, making it feel “like a keepsake, or memento”. I had favoured using a slightly larger size (21cm instead of 18cm) for the final version. However, I will probably now retain the original size (if possible), at least for the final draft (see below).

·         The text on the front cover (Times New Roman, bold) was too large and heavy. My tutor also suggested moving the title and author to the bottom of the front cover page, with title aligned left and author aligned right. I’m happy to go along with this, but will consider other options before making a decision.

·         The design, with all photos on the right page, “is classic but works well”.

·         The inside typeface is mismatched: I will alter this.

·         The pages in the draft book were not numbered. There seems little reason to number pages, except for reference purposes if I decide to include explanatory text with my assessment submission. I’ll make a final decision about numbering at a late stage.

Specific Issues

The two biggest issues that I have with regard to the book design are dealt with below.

·         The amount of text that accompanies each image in the book is very variable. On some pages there was so much text that I had to use a smaller font size to accommodate it on a single page. I realised at the time that I would need to do something about this in the final draft of the book, but was hoping that by producing a somewhat larger book I would be able to use the smaller font size throughout and that the text would then be clearly legible. However, my tutor (and I can see his point) felt that I should simply use less text per page, with more space, on every page. This may involve, as he said, “increasing overall size or number of pages”. This leaves me with a significant problem: should I try to remove some sections of text on particularly ‘wordy’ pages in order to produce a roughly consistent amount of text for each page or allow the text to ‘roll over’ onto a second page? In the latter case should I produce additional image montages, use (say) additional Nidderdale landscapes or simply leave the right hand pages adjacent to the ‘roll over’ text blank? Adrian Clarke used a variation on the ‘Nidderdale landscapes’ theme in his book “Gary’s Friends”. This is the one dilemma that remains for me to solve.

·         The one-off ‘graph’ that my tutor and I are both very keen to incorporate into the final book was included in the draft book as a (2:1) ‘letterbox’ sized image across two pages. However, the centre of the graph was, predictably, lost in the guttering. Whilst my tutor has been keen to incorporate the graph as a ‘foldout’, this would be challenging to achieve. I attended a photo book publishers’ fair at the Tate Modern (London) a week ago and had a chat with a knowledgeable gentleman from the “Self-Publish, Be Happy” company. His advice, which I intend to take, was to make the graph the centrefold of a stapled book, when there would be no guttering.

Future Work

I am planning to sort out as many of the outstanding issues relating to the production of a final photo book as I can in the first three weeks of June, before holidays start to eat into my time. My immediate plan of action is to:

·         Make final alterations to the images that I already have, so that they are ready to incorporate in the ‘assessment’ version of my photo book.

·         Make a decision on how to modify the text and whether to produce extra images (see bullet point above) and then carry out the necessary modifications.

·         Make recommended alterations to the cover design.

·         Incorporate the graph as a ‘centrefold’ in the book, once other alterations have been made.

·         Continue researching the design of photo books, then make decisions about the size, tactility, etc. of my final photo book.

·         Research opportunities for self-publishing.

·         Having incorporated all the design alterations, produce a ‘final draft’ template and obtain the book from ‘Blurb’. This book could be used as a ‘fall back’ for assessment if I am unable to produce a stapled, self-published version in time for submission.

I will concentrate on the “last level of experimentation” (self-publishing the photo book, with final alterations) in July and August, prior to submission for assessment. I still plan to produce an accompanying multimedia presentation for assessment (time permitting) and will likewise obtain prints of all the images used in the photo book, during this period. My blog will be developed throughout, until close to submission in September.

Progress Update 2 May 2017

I’ve now received my draft photo book back from ‘Blurb’ and had a good look through it. Overall I’m reasonably happy with the design and feel of the book, although I can see a number of ways in which it can be improved (discussed below). I hope that a further iteration of the book should see me reach the final product. More advice from my tutor will be sought and I am prepared to change, add and/or remove images in order to produce the final version. I’ve actioned some (mainly technical) changes to the current images, but I don’t envisage making more than a tiny number of alterations to the text. The key questions to answer are whether the images in the book work artistically, whether they enhance the emotions invoked by the text, whether they fit together from a stylistic point of view and whether they tell the story of my relationship with my mother in her final years in a way that encourages empathy in the viewer/reader. The front and back covers of the draft (by no means certain to be used in the final product) are shown in the image below.

Covers for Draft Photo Book

There are (mostly) minor technical issues with specific images, which will be rectified if the images are retained, before a final draft is produced. The following general comments can be made.

General Comments on the Photo Book

·         The book (7” square; soft cover) feels too small and lightweight. Ideally I’d like it to be 20-25cm square and have a hard cover. ‘Blurb’ only does 7” and 12” square sizes, so I should research other book-making companies as I think that 12” square is too large.

·         I’m happy with the general presentation (text on the left, images on the right with a full ‘bleed’).

·         There are some issues with images ‘disappearing’ into the spine: these will be addressed for the next (final?) version.

·         Ideally I would like slightly bigger margins around the text.

·         Should the pages be numbered (at the moment they are not)? Numbering (LHS only) might assist the assessors and also help during the preparation of the book, but should not be necessary for the general reader.

·         The shorter passages of text should be placed consistently on each page (Centrally? Near the top?) in the next iteration: at the moment there are some disparities between the pages of text.

·         I have introduced single ‘prologue’ and ‘epilogue’ double pages of an image and corresponding text. These have, together with the main story, been given title pages with faint images of Nidderdale landscapes in the background. I like this idea, but have not yet consulted my tutor about it. Does this idea work?

·         Do I make an effort to separate out the two ‘clinical depression intermission’ double pages (two pages of text, two images) from the main work, relating to my relationship with my mother, which is on either side of this text? Likewise, do I separate out the unique double page graph in some way?

General Comments on the Text

·         I used a ‘Times New Roman’ font for the text (‘Blurb’ doesn’t offer my favoured ‘Calibri’). I’m happy with the font, but still open to alternative suggestions.

·         The font size is consistent on most of the pages but in one or two cases I had to use a smaller font size in order to fit all the text onto a single page. I must ensure that the font size is consistent throughout in the final book, which I could do in the following ways: (a) alter the font size for all the text to the smaller font size – this should read ok in a larger book; (b) reduce the amount of text for the pages where a smaller font size has been used by re-writing the text; (c) split the longer passages of text into two and incorporate additional images. I currently favour the ‘easy’ option (a), but am open to alternatives.

·         I have used ‘justify’ rather than ‘align text left’. This is my preferred option, but I am open to the alternative option if a good argument can be put forward for it.

·         I would like to make the right hand margin slightly larger, so that there is no chance of the text disappearing into the spine of the book in (say) a hard copy edition.

·         I would like to somehow differentiate the two pages of text relating to clinical depression from the rest of the text, since this represents an ‘intermission’ in my story. How do I do this? See also the final bullet of ‘General Comments on the photo book’ above.

General Comments on the Images

·         The images have all (with the exception of the monochrome first image of my mother, taken in 1940, and the final colour image of my mother, taken on her 80^th birthday) been produced as 50% saturated. This, together with the square format of the images, benefits consistency of style. Does this format work in book form? I think that it does, but I can change to full colour or modify the saturation level to any degree if necessary.

·         Some images need to be moved a little right (i.e. away from the spine of the book) in order to demonstrate key features, but generally there is no issue with them ‘disappearing’ into the spine of the book in this particular ‘Blurb’ soft cover edition.

·         This minor issue aside, the full bleed appears to work well.

·         Does the design of the new prologue, main title and epilogue pages, using faint images of Nidderdale landscapes as background, work?

·         Some of the images, particularly those in the first half of the book, have printed out a little too dark or light in places. These images will be altered, if they are retained for the final version.

·         Following my tutor’s comments on the set of images that I submitted for my last assignment (Assignment 5) and a reappraisal of the connection between the text, images and the emphasis of the book I have introduced one additional new image, replaced another image, drastically altered a third and made significant modifications to a few others. The artistic and technical content of these images need to be discussed with my tutor, in addition to the points raised above.

Hopefully, once the issues described above have been addressed, I will be in a good position to produce a final photo book. I also intend to produce a multimedia presentation, with video, but will wait until the image set has been finalised before getting round to this.

Progress Update 12 April 2017

My major project work is moving inexorably forwards and yesterday (11 April) I completed a first draft of my photo book for publication and sent it off to ‘Blurb’ for printing. When I receive the book later in the month I will, for the first time, be able to look at a hard copy version of the result of 18 months’ worth of project work. I have asked for two copies of the book; one for myself and one to send to my tutor for feedback. I am under no illusions that there is still work to do before I complete the project, but I hope that the second draft of the photo book will be the final version.

Following my tutor’s feedback from the 5^th (penultimate) assignment and my own review of the project work to date I made some minor revisions to the text, splitting one section of text into two in order to incorporate one additional montage. I then reviewed each of my images in turn, looking both for technical faults or problems as well as for ways in which I could introduce greater emotion and/or clarity into the montages. Following the review I made minor changes to most of the images, major changes to a few images and also replaced one image with a new one (although I retained the same basic idea in this last case). I produced one new image, to incorporate with a section of ‘split’ text (see above). The square format and 50% desaturated ‘style’ for the images was retained for the book – I have the option of using full colour if the printed images look too ‘washed out’. I did consider using monochrome for the images, but although this works well in many cases there are problems with a few of the montages.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what images to use for the front and back covers. For a long time I planned to use a new montage (one that did not directly relate to any of the images inside the book). However, I could not come up with a montage or single image that successfully summarised the content of the photo book. Eventually, having looked at many published photo book covers in shops, on the internet and in “The Photobook: a History Volume 3”, I decided to place a pared down version of one of the early images in the book on the front cover (Image 1) and a portion of another image on the back cover. Both images reflect ‘memories’ and the documentary nature of the project. The covers are, of course, subject to later change.

Image 1

I changed the title of the book on several occasions, but in the end reverted to “I Am Not There”. This is the title of the poem which I have included towards the end of the book, but also relates to the guilt, foreboding and other emotions that I experienced when I was not with my mother or even when I was with her but was unable to give her appropriate emotional support.

I have used ‘Blurb’ before to publish photo books and know how to handle their ‘Bookwright’ software, so it was relatively easy to produce the book template by combining the text and images. I asked for a soft cover book. I will seek advice and consider other photo book producers before producing the final version for assessment. This book will most likely have a hard cover.

Having completed the draft photo book I do not intend to ‘rest on my laurels’. I will produce large square prints of all the images used in the book (for studying fine detail and also possibly for submission for assessment). I still intend to produce a multimedia file, including video, potentially for assessment and am always looking for new ideas for montages in order to add to or replace those that I have already produced. However, replacement of images at this late stage of the project will only be done with good reason. I have one tutorial and one assignment left before assessment and I intend to use these to iron out any remaining faults and problems with the format and design of the images and photo book.

Progress Update 6 February 2017

Following my previous progress update in November 2016 I have been extremely busy, producing a new draft of my photo book after my tutor’s ‘edit’ of the 37 images submitted for my 4^th assignment had reduced them to just 9.5 (don’t ask about the half!). After a lot of hard work and research and a tiny bit of inspiration I submitted the new draft, complete this time with just 25 images, to my tutor on ‘deadline day’ (26 January 2017) as my submission for course Assignment 5. Thankfully this time the text and images met with general approval and, for the first time in 15 months, I feel that the end of the project is in sight! Of course there is still much work to do and there is also still time for me to introduce fresh ideas, replace some of the less successful images and maybe introduce one or two additional ones, but time is now on my side as I still intend to submit for assessment in September 2017. The following bullets provide a brief chronological overview of how the project has progressed between receiving my tutor’s report for Assignment 4 and submitting my work for Assignment 5:

·         I modified and rearranged the text, returning to a roughly chronological account of my relationship with my mother during her final years, adding a new section of text and then splitting the text into 20 sections, to be accompanied by 20 images.

·         I modified and harmonised the ‘9.5’ images remaining from the Assignment 4 work, to produce 10 images that I associated with 10 passages of text. These images, originally produced in a mixture of ‘landscape’ and ‘portrait’ formats, were (with some difficulty) all converted into square format images and produced in colour, 50% desaturated and mono- versions. One further image from Assignment 4 was retained, but radically altered.

·         I produced 9 new images, harmonising them with those already produced, in order to give me the required set of 20 images for the photo book. This work, which was spread over an intense period of 5 weeks on either side of Christmas, was the most difficult part of the project and involved, amongst other things, looking through my entire collection of mounted slides from 1993 onwards, picking out, projecting and photographing a handful that were of relevance to the project. All the photographic work was carried out in and around my house. I will discuss some of the influences during the production of the new images in a separate post.

·         I produced a new ‘emotions’ graph/image in (2:1) landscape format, to be incorporated across two pages of the photo book.

·         I wrote two passages of text and produced two new accompanying images on the general subject of clinical depression, to be incorporated into the photo book at a point roughly half way through the book.

·         I combined text and images in a Word document to produce a crude draft of the photo book for submission for Assignment 5.

Future Plans

Following a recent tutorial discussion with my tutor and the receipt of his Assignment 5 report I have formulated the following plan of action for the coming months:

1.       Look through every one of the 25 images, making modifications where necessary. The modifications will range from making minor ‘tweaks’ to building up the image from scratch again (all the images are composites) and in a couple of cases I will probably replace the image. My tutor has suggested changes to a few images and I am not happy with one or two others. Nevertheless, this work should not prove to be too arduous.

2.       Continue to experiment and absorb influences in order to look for ‘better’ replacement images and perhaps some new ones, which could be incorporated into the photo book by splitting some of the text.

3.       Produce a suitable cover image(s).

4.       Make minor modifications to the text, look at fonts and font sizes etc. Spend time looking at photo books in order to decide what I want to have for my final submission.

5.       I plan to have completed (1) – (4) by the end of March 2017. I will then use what I have in order to produce a ‘first iteration’ photo book, using a conventional supplier such as ‘Blurb’, in April 2017. I will also get prints of all my images.

6.       What happens next remains to be decided. I have until 1 July to submit the work for my 6^th and final assignment, and I anticipate (hopefully just) one further iteration of the book before I submit for assessment. Time frames may change, but at least I now feel confident that I can complete the course work in good time.

Progress Update 16 November 2016

Having absorbed the lessons following the Skype conversation with my tutor, his tutor report and some follow up contact with him after my submission for Assignment 4 I am now moving on with my project work.

I have been left with ten photo-montage images which, once they have been harmonised to reflect consistent aesthetics, colour, composition and blending effects, will be included in the final project submission. I need to produce another 10-15 images to incorporate into a final photo book. Before I start producing new images and modifying the ones that remain I need to decide on a format that will be suitable for incorporating these into a photo book. Having recently purchased (at great expense!) and studied ‘The Photobook: A History Volume III’ (Parr and Badger) I am minded to use a square format for the images, even though this will involve a fair amount of additional work on the ten images that await ‘harmonisation’. The images would then be ‘bled’ to the edges of the page in the photo book. Most of the retained images have been produced in ‘A4 landscape’ mode and I haven’t ruled out using landscape format (perhaps 10x8) yet, but must make a decision soon.

Although the vast majority of photo books contain little or no text, the written word is crucial in my story and I still plan to format the book to contain text on each left hand page and one image, which relates to the text, on each right hand page. This is the format used by Adrian Clarke in “Gary’s Friends”, a book that has become a significant influence as I have been developing the project. However, I have now abandoned the idea of splitting the book into chapters and have returned to documenting the story of my relationship with my mother over her final eleven years in roughly chronological order. The text has been significantly modified and re-ordered. Many images reflecting particular events in our relationship have been abandoned and the text has been modified accordingly. However, some events (such as mum’s falling out with her sister in law and also the celebrations of her 80^th birthday) are critical to the story. Here the text has been retained and I will need to take a new approach to finding images that represent these events but can be harmonised with the remaining images. I still intend to incorporate at least two passages of text relating to the illness of clinical depression (with accompanying representative images) into the photo book, although I haven’t written the text or decided where to put it.

One issue yet to be resolved regards a graphical representation of typical ‘ups and downs’ that mum and I might have experienced during one of my visits to her home. This was regarded by my tutor as a “keystone image” but it cannot be harmonised to fit in with any of the other images in the book. I regularly change my mind regarding what to do with this graph: my current thinking is to re-work it in (2:1) landscape format and spread it out over the centrefold of the photo book, assuming that the book is produced in square format.

Following a significant period of soul searching and planning, I now need to move the project forward. The most difficult challenge, to produce new images that are consistent with the ones remaining following my tutor’s Assignment 4 edit, will take up most of my time although I also need to spend time harmonising those images that I already have and ensuring that the new ones can be produced in the same format. Following the completion of some more blog articles, the tidying up of the text and making a decision about the shape and formatting of the images, all my study time will be devoted to these areas for the weeks leading up to and shortly after Christmas 2016.

Progress Update 6 October 2016 and Reflections, with reference to the BBC 2 Documentary 'A World Without Downs Syndrome' (Sally Phillips), Aired on 5 October (9.00pm)

Well, I’ve just started the second and final year of the Photography 3: Advanced course and events have taken a turn for the worse. I had felt reasonably happy with my submission for the 4^th course assignment, having produced a very early draft ‘mock up’ of a photo book incorporating 33 images to accompany text on a ‘one image per double page spread’ basis. Roughly a quarter of these images were new, whilst the remainder had been modified, to a greater lesser extent, or replaced following comments from my tutor after Assignments 2 and 3. I had divided the book up into four chapters and accompanied each chapter heading with a new, very different looking square image (giving me a set of four). I was happy with these new images, each of which related to the content of the appropriate chapter. Full commentary on the submission, my reasons for making changes and the degree of flexibility that was retained was sent as part of the submission.

A few days later I spoke to my tutor on ‘Skype’ (and these discussions are invaluable for me – thanks to him for setting them up) and it was clear that there were problems. He discussed the images mostly in general terms, also picking out one or two specific examples, and listed ‘nine and a half’ as being presentable. Only one of the new images that I had produced was included in the list, so it appeared that my work during the summer months had been of little value. We didn’t discuss why images had been excluded by him nor, in most cases, whether there was anything salvageable from them. That will come later. In the mean time I am left to ponder what I can do with 9.5 images and a load of text that will turn this into a portfolio worthy of submission for assessment.

So why am I struggling with this project and what can I do about it? The first question is difficult to answer, but after some thought I have come up with two main reasons. The answer to the second question is, as Dylan put it, “blowing in the wind”.

Reasons for Struggling Part 1

I am attempting to present my photographic work in a radically different way, blending archival photographs from the time when my mother was alive with either other archival images or (in the vast majority of cases) with images taken by me specifically for the project. The goal was to produce a photo book dealing with my mother’s battle against depression in her later years and how it affected me. My tutor has been very helpful in giving me references to (photographic) artists who blend two or more current images together and also artists who have produced portfolios of work relating to their mothers, fathers and/or other family members or acquaintances who may have been suffering from disabilities. I have been active in finding many other references in these areas. However, I am unaware of any photographer who has combined a restricted number of not very good archival family photographs with current images to try to tell a moving family story. I can’t ask my mother to pose now (in January 2017 it will be ten years since she died), I can’t photograph inside her house (long since sold) or in the garden. I do have a handful of photographs of the bare rooms of the house following clearance (and I have used these in a couple of images). In other words I have very limited resources to put together my montages and this has led to some repetition, particularly in the portraits of my mother that I have used.

Reasons for Struggling Part 2

In the montages I have tried in some cases to depict images that reference events that are described in the accompanying text. Some of the results are, by my own admission, crude and/or naïve. Worse still – and here we have the crux of the problem – they may not add anything at all to the text. The text may promote empathy in the reader, whilst the images leave them cold. If this is the case I might end up having to remove a lot of the images from the book, leaving a lot of text with a handful of images – hardly assessment material for a project in photographic art.

Which of the various art forms moves me the most? Which stirs up the greatest emotions? I have to put music (certain types) at the top of the list, followed perhaps by the spoken word, films (which often have a music sound track) and the written word. Photography comes at the bottom of the list! Not only that, but I am discovering that it is easier for me to arouse empathy and emotion through the written word than through my photography (I’m not a musician, although I do occasionally write poetry). It is no wonder, then, that a lot of my montage images are failing to elicit a positive response.

This issue was brought home to me when I watched the documentary ‘A World without Downs Syndrome’, presented by Sally Phillips, a scriptwriter with an 11 year old child with Downs Syndrome. Phillips argued passionately for all mothers to have the right to choose whether to bring children with Downs Syndrome into the world, having been fully informed about the issues involved at the eight week stage now that recently developed non-invasive technology can be used with a high degree of certainty to detect Downs’ babies at that point. Furthermore, she stressed how sad and isolated people with Downs Syndrome would feel if all ‘Downs pregnancies’ were in future terminated. As part of the documentary she visited Iceland, where currently 100% of Downs pregnancies are (with parental approval) being terminated. She spoke with an Icelandic photographer who had produced a project portfolio of over 30 images of the very few Icelandic people having Downs Syndrome. I thought back to so many exhibitions that I have visited where people from minorities, migrants and people with disabilities have had their portraits taken, the portraits then being displayed in order to make political and/or socio-economic statements. Am I moved by these portraits? Very rarely. Does the accompanying text move me? More often. It is true that the images may ignite peoples’ interest in who these people are and common bond they have. However, the hard-hitting message is in the text or, in the case of Sally Phillips’ case, the spoken word and moving image. Even though I did not feel the desire to take sides in the debate I was moved by this programme in a way that would not have been possible if I had walked into a studio and seen 30+ photographs of Icelandic Downs’ Syndrome people.

What Way Forward?

So, I have identified what I feel are the key reasons for why my project may go ‘off the rails’. Basically, I have chosen a unique but extremely challenging photographic method of describing my mother’s battle with depression and its effect on me and the resultant images have not, in many cases, worked. In addition the prose that accompanies the images is likely to raise significantly more empathy in the viewer than many of images themselves – thus downgrading the images to more of a supporting role. In a photographic project the images should be at the forefront!

I will obviously need to discuss the way forward with my tutor. One possibility might be to remove some images entirely and replace others with montages that do not directly relate to events described in the accompanying text, perhaps focussing on more general issues relating to depression. This would require a lot more work and would mean throwing out much hard work and effort, but might be possible within the time constraints of the project. However, my tutor’s initial reaction to the new square ‘chapter heading’ images, which start to look at this area, was not encouraging.

I promised myself that I would produce a photo book as a personal memorial to my mother and that promise still stands, whether or not it is done within or outside the confines of this course. I am also determined to finish this course within the two years that I have to complete it, submit for assessment and earn a degree.  After that it will definitely be time to move on!

Progress Update 30 August 2016

Some progress on my major project has been made since the last update in June, despite a variety of interruptions for holidays, etc. I have looked through the 27 image ‘sketches’ that I submitted for Assignment 2. Five have been rejected and 21 have been revised, whilst one awaits a major revision. Revising the sketches has ranged from making one or two minor alterations to a complete overhaul of the sketch and has been based on tutor comments, as well as my own feelings about the subject matter and how it relates to the accompanying text. I have produced three new sketches and have plans to produce five more before I submit for Assignment 4 at the end of September. For consistency I have produced all the revised sketches in colour and each consists of a blend of two or more images, one or more being contemporary and one or more archival (from the time when my mother was alive).

Following feedback from my tutor and our discussion relating to the second and third assignments I have decided to concentrate on producing a photo book as the major output from my project work, although I still intend to produce prints, as well as a multimedia or video presentation, for assessment. My thoughts about what style and format to use for the book varies from week to week, but my current plans are as follows:

• ·    The book will probably contain 40-50 images, including (doubtless following further revisions and replacements) the 30 or so that I will have produced as sketches by the end of September.
• 
  
• ·         All the images will accompany a page of text, although there will be more images than pages of text.
• 
  
• ·         I will split the book up into four or five ‘chapters’.
• 
  
• ·    I am considering dealing with the subject of clinical depression as a separate chapter, and producing a set of images to accompany the text. This is problematical, as I have never knowingly suffered from clinical depression, but I would like to give this a try. I already have ideas for a number of image sketches, which would likely be a blend of two or more contemporary images.
• 
  
• ·       I intend to format the book with text on the left hand page, followed by an odd number (1, 3, 5…) of images, each occupying a separate page. I am going to have to re-order some passages of text and images in order to place them in the relevant chapter and will also write some new text to accompany the new images. I will do this before submission for Assignment 4 and will produce a ‘mock-up’ book, with text accompanying images, for the assignment. This book will be incomplete, with more text and images to be added later. If the format doesn’t look right it should be easy to change, say to a ‘single chapter’ book, with text accompanying each image, or to a totally different format. The book is sure to evolve as the project reaches its final stages and my tutor has even suggested that I could split it into more than one book, although I think that I will need many more images than planned for this to be a sensible option.

Project-related research continues apace and I have studied in some detail the work of Cindy Sherman, Jim Mortram and Adrian Clarke since the last update in June (see this blog for further details). Adrian Clarke’s book ‘Gary’s Friends’ was particularly relevant, both in terms of linking images with text to produce an emotional response and in terms of formatting a photo book with accompanying text. I’m looking at the work of Sophie Calle at present and have lots of other artists (many suggested by my tutor!) still to investigate.

Project Update 24 June 2016

A lot has been happening since my last update at the end of March. I worked hard to produce a total of 27 photographic ‘sketches’ for the project about my mother and my relationship with her during the final years of her life, as she struggled to cope with Clinical Depression. Most of the sketches were produced to accompany one of the 20 pieces of text that I had written in advance for a proposed photo book. Each sketch consisted of two or more images, blended together in various ways using ‘Photoshop Elements’ and, in the main, they consisted of juxtaposing old digitised family photographs with images produced since I started working on the project. In addition to the consistency introduced by blending each of the images they were all produced at A4 size (‘landscape’ or ‘portrait’). In other regards the sketches varied significantly in terms of subject matter, complexity and style. I got off to a slow start, with much experimentation and idea generation (ideas came most often when I was visiting exhibitions and/or looking at the work of other photographers). I speeded up as the submission date (mid-May) for my second assignment approached and ended up producing roughly one sketch per day during the final fortnight.

A ‘Skype’ tutorial followed (thanks, Les, I find these tutorials really useful), in which we discussed each of the submitted sketches. In general we agreed on the relative strengths of the individual images, although predictably there was some disparity in our views. Bearing in mind that these were just sketches (although some took several hours to produce), the majority were considered to ‘work’ or ‘nearly work’ or 'sort of work', with a couple considered by Les to be ’touchstone’ images (i.e. important in the context of the project). Ironically, the ones that took longest to produce were considered to be the least effective – perhaps simplicity is best! Interestingly, my tutor recognised the influences of artists whose work I had never seen in some of the images – I’m not sure whether this was a good or bad observation! I was warned against using branding in the images.

A few weeks later there was another ‘Skype’ tutorial (Assignment 3!) in which we discussed the text accompanying the images and how it fitted with the images. It was clear by this stage that my tutor had come to the conclusion that the text was an important part of the project, both by acting as a key to the significance of each of the images and as a means of expressing my feelings and emotions during the last few years of mum’s life. Perhaps the images don’t convey my feelings strongly enough; perhaps I find it much easier to express my emotions through my writing.

As a consequence it was proposed that I produce (a) photo book(s), using the text that I had provided (with minor changes), together with (say) 36-72 images. For my next (September) assignment I have been tasked with looking at the work and (in particular) any photo books produced by photographers dealing with similar subjects (I was given a long list of names), re-working my submitted sketches (I reckon that I can use 21 of these, although they require varying amounts of editing) and continuing to experiment and come up with ideas for further sketches / images. I’ve just started this work, although at the moment I haven’t got out of second gear. Hopefully a visit to Yorkshire next week will stimulate my creativity! 

Progress Update 31 March 2016

Following encouraging feedback from my tutor in response to my submission for Assignment 1 and a positive “skype” tutorial with him I am continuing to concentrate entirely on the project about my mother and my relationship with her during the final years of her life, as she struggled to cope with Clinical Depression. For the assignment I had produced a small number of photographic “sketches”, relating to events or periods in her life. Each of these consisted of two or more images, blended together using “Photoshop Elements”, in order to produce photo-montages. Images were either archival, including some taken whilst my mother was alive (she died in 2007), or created specifically for the project.

Moving forwards I am following my tutor’s suggestion of creating around 24 experimental sketches of this type based on events, trips taken, moods and feelings of both parties during the last years of my mother’s life. I’m also carrying out research, mainly in the areas of (1) the photographic exploration of family relationships and (2) trying to understand the minds of people who have the great misfortune to be suffering from Clinical Depression.

I have produced 12 sketches to date (31 March), which include re-workings of some of the sketches that I presented for my first assignment. The sketches are fairly crude (a subject which I must address in the future: see below) and simply represent ideas that I can explore in greater detail at a later stage. Most of the sketches refer to a page of text that I wrote in advance for a proposed photo book, in which 20 pieces of text were to be accompanied by 20 “montage” images. However, one or two sketches don’t fit in readily with any of the text (also see below). Looking through what I’ve done so far (and I’m planning to produce at least two new sketches per week, leading up to the submission of my second assignment in May) it is fair to say that whereas some sketches work for me, both as an integrated piece of work and as a representation of a message, others work on one front but not both and some don’t work at all! Rather than spend more time on the failures I’m going to press on, exploring ideas for new sketches and perhaps trying a new approach for the events, etc. represented by the failures at a later date. As an example of one of the more successful images (in my opinion) see the Image below.

Image

For years I shopped at the Co-op in Knaresborough for Mum’s weekly provisions. At first she came with me, but as she became more frail and developed agoraphobia (a common symptom of Clinical Depression) I went on my own, with a shopping list. Although she hardly had a balanced diet I tried hard to get her healthy food. However we both had a liking for the rather unhealthy “Mr Kipling” Cherry Bakewell tarts and I invariably slipped a packet of these into my basket or trolley. In November 2015, when I returned to Knaresborough to take photographs of/in the Co-op for this image, I discovered that it was due to close for good the following day! I duly came back to photograph the empty shelves on the final morning. The shelves add a poignant feeling to this composite of five separate images.

Based on the last couple of months’ work and looking ahead beyond the production of the current sketches, I have come up with a few general thoughts and conclusions regarding this project. These are summarised below:

• ·      Assuming that I don’t radically change direction when producing “final” images I must improve both the software that I am using to produce the composites and my application of the software. My current PC is on its “last legs”. I intend to buy a new, significantly more powerful PC in the next few weeks and will probably have to “bite the bullet” and take out a monthly subscription to the full “Photoshop” package (I currently use “Photoshop Elements 8”), install it, learn how to use it and perhaps go on a training course in order to get the full benefits from the software and produce professional looking composites.

• ·       Rather than using the proposed photo book text to guide and inform the production of composite images I now believe that the images will be informing the text. In addition to producing images that relate to specific events or types of event that occurred in the past I am intending to produce images that illustrate feelings and emotions, which will not fit in with any current page of text. Whilst the text in the photo book gave me a good start for my image production it is now the images that will drive the direction of the project.

• ·       I am planning another, two day, visit to the area where my mother lived, in order to take photographs for use in the composite images. However, much of the photography that remains to be done is of a more general nature and can be carried out locally to me or in my house.

• ·         Creativity is still a major problem for me. I find that I am most creative when feeding off the ideas of others at exhibitions or reading books by or about photographers. When I am at home, dealing with the drudgery of daily life, it is very hard to come up with new ideas for my project work – but I keep on trying.