Book Layout notes

This post is merely a placeholder for my layout grid notes for the two books I am preparing.  This will allow me to reference them if there are any future amendments to make:

• Each page is designed on a 28cm x 21cm landscape layout.
• Each image has been designed and cropped to a 4×3 ratio.
• Each image is set within a 4cm  left and right margin, and a 3cm  top and bottom margin.
• Each book page is to be bound with a flat layout therefore no account has currently been made for gutters etc, but this may need to be reviewed at publishing stage.
• The small shop images are 4.2cm high
• Each text box is centred on the page within a box with a 5cm top and bottom margin, and a 7cm left and right margin.
• The title within any main text is Arial Bold 12 font; the main body text is Arial 9 font with a 14 point leading.
• The cover image has a 7cm right and left border, with a Arial Bold 24pt font.

A final montage

Its been a little while since I last posted but as I have come closer to the end of this module I have found myself more absorbed in working on the final outcome of this body of work than needing to keep an update on progress here, particularly as most things have been progressive rather than big issues to show and share here.  However, there is one thing that I have been working on that is new and something I want to include at the end of my book; which is a Kennardphillipps inspired montage.

This idea came about following a Scotland study visit to an exhibition ‘Here Comes Everybody’ by kennardphillipps (a collaborative practice of Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps), held at the Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh between 31 July and 25 October 2015.  One of the key messages I took from this visit was to not be scared about drawing attention to the political element within your work and, as they do, have a go at ‘playing’ with montages of images to help project that message.

I was inspired to have a go at this and after some thought began to play around with a montage of the images found within my work Land Values, to project my thoughts on what this means to me and the underlying message of this work.  I decided early on that I didn’t want this to become a polished Photoshoped montage where all the elements seamlessly merged together as though it was a single panoramic image, and thus wanted to it to be clear that this was a collection of images placed together to create a new message.  Each element is therefore relatively crudely cut out and placed within the image.  I have put some effort into refining this but also held back in being too precise.  I had thought about printing each image out and then cutting and gluing them together but felt that this was a bit too cumbersome.

The interesting aspect of creating a montage is the further significance that each element is given through the act of selecting it and placing it within the montage.  There becomes a metaphor associated with each individual element as well as how and where it has been placed within the image.  Even though I now appreciate that the viewer will bring their own interpretation on this, some of the features and connections I have tried to bring to it include the associations with the dominant fence which is an object to keep things in or out, the No Ball Games No Cycling sign being on the opposite side to the bike and football; the contrast between modernist pylons dominating the skyline on the left and today’s skyline filled with wind turbines on the right; the seats which allow you to sit and view the scenery pasted on to a coffee hut; and the idealistic parkland where people can relax but which is surrounded by the temptation of fast food shops, cafes and restaurants.  These are just a few of the thoughts I have had when creating this, which I hope and anticipate will create many more; whilst acknowledging that this is a fairly light and playful message about our relationship with land.

The final outcome is something that I have now decided to include at the end of the book as a four page layout spread to become a final surprise element .  I haven’t had chance to get any feedback on an audience’s perspective on this therefore I intend to include it within my final Assignment 5 submission but may then review further at the next stage.

For now, here are the set of images that make up the montage:

And this is how it is intended to look across a four page spread:

 

Phew! – after another Scotland Study Group review

In one of my last posts I expressed my nervousness at deciding to make some big changes to my project at this late stage in its development. I was also worried that I had probably wasted an assignment review when I submitted a relatively minor update between assignments 3 & 4 just to show progress, and thus only had one final review left before final submission. Because of this I decided to take advantage of another Scotland study day to show my work to others to get their reaction before then sending it to my tutor.

The good news is that, even though I only had a short time to present my work this time around, the general feedback was positive and seen as a major step forward in the project. I explained to the group how I now planned the work to be presented across two books but which are joined at one end so that they could / should be reviewed across a four page spread.

While it is difficult to show the full effect on this blog, the following are a set of four images which are expected to be viewed across four pages:

 

The layout is going to look a bit more like this (if you can imagine it being a four page spread):

I have also tried to create a balance between the work being read across all four pages and also for each book to work on its own rights, which has needed a careful selection of images to try to get this to work.

I also wondered whether I needed to be clear that the four pages should be read together but then decided that it would be more interesting for the viewer to make that decision, potentially pairing images in a more random order than I intended.

Going back to the study group showing, it was interesting for me to pick up where things didn’t quite work when I was trying to quickly explain things to the group, and there were also a couple of minor points I picked up from their feedback, both of which I will consider when pulling this into a final set.

The next step will be to prepare a final mock-up of the two books, probably using Blurb or some other photobook company. At this stage, I want to have books that open flat, so if Blurb don’t do that then I will need to look at the other options – for now this feature is more important than the actual print quality. I do not intend to create anything other than a ‘mock-up’ version of the final product at the end of this module, and thus intend to leave final decisions on print quality and book binding options until the final module.

And so, overall I am quite pleased with the progress I have made with this work and will now progress towards producing something for the final assignment submission. I have also just moved house (and City) yet again, which has taken me away from my studies, but I now hope to spend the next 4-6 weeks finishing things off just before my two year deadline for this module.

BoW: the final push

I want to use this post to record what I have been up to with my project over the last few (several) weeks and how it is developing.

Having shown my work at several review sessions recently, and subsequent to my last Assignment 4 submission; including the Barnsley residential and 2 Scotland study group sessions, I concluded that this work needed an extra push before deciding that it is finished. This is in itself a bit of a risk as I only have Assignment 5 to go which is when I should really be putting the finishing touches to it rather than creating quite a new presentation to it. If I make a mess then I will have little opportunity within the OCA structure to recover it again. Having said that, I think that it is an important process I need to go through before relying on my own judgement of its completeness.

While the three critique events have been really useful to gain feedback, reactions and advice, I haven’t taken all of it literally. I have taken bits and pieces from all the feedback but the main message and consensus was that I needed to do a bit more to engage the viewer with the work. I have therefore been doing a lot of thinking about the work, perhaps more so than actually doing the changes, but I think that I am now at a stage where I have a good idea of where this is going and what the eventual outcome will be.

As a teaser, these are some of the decisions and changes I am working on:

• The title of the work will most definitely be ‘Land Values’. I have played around with alternatives but have now realised how important this is to the focus of the work and how it binds the different elements together.
• The two halves of this project will now be split into two books which are further bound down one edge to create a single product which creates a four page spread book layout. Two pages will relate to Thornhill and two pages to Glasgow; but with the book working best when all four pages are viewed together.
• I have shifted away from the plan to have juxtaposed photos from Thornhill and Glasgow being composed along similar structural elements i.e. similar position of strong horizontals or verticals, etc. This has allowed greater freedom to ‘play’ with the dialogue between the two sets of images.
• There is going to be a greater use of text interplayed with the images which will use research on the term ‘value’, as well as introducing a more political edge to some of the commentary on society’s differing values for land. This should make the work a little less vague, which has its advantages and disadvantages, but I have been inspired a little by the work of ‘Kennardphillipps’, and thus feel more comfortable in introducing a slightly more political edge to the work.
• In relation to aesthetics, the work will retain its ordinary and banal selection of images which is important in its slightly ironic presentation of these places, but there is likely to be a more edgy and run down feel to the Thornhill images and a more upbeat presentation of the Glasgow photographs – but don’t want to go over the top with this though.

That’s about it really, except I now need to do less thinking and begin to pull this work towards its conclusion.

Photo book format idea

I wanted to share this link which is a Youtube video of a book layout I am really interested in.

It is very similar in concept to how I have been think about creating the book for my work.  If you can’t see the video, the concept is that the book folds out into three sections with the middle page being created from the overlap of pages either from the right or the left.  It is a very clever concept which seems to create an interesting experience for the viewer.

My idea was for the book to fold out into four pages and thus become, in effect, two books joined together and which should be enjoyed together.  I hadn’t even thought of only having three pages open and overlapping the pages in the book – not sure if I will use that specific technique but what I did notice was how the binding of the book allowed the pages to open flat which is exactly how I want my book to work so that there is then no issue over curved pages folding back over themselves etc.

This is just a placeholder for an idea at the moment but is something that I will keep in the back of my mind.

p.s. I picked up the link to this video from Beyond Words who are selling the book on their website:  http://www.beyondwords.co.uk/p/2387/moises

 

Scotland Study Group

I was fortunate enough the other week to have another opportunity to present and discuss my Body of Work at the Scotland Study Group day.  Its a shame that these events don’t attract a larger group as, for those who do attend, we all seem to get a great amount from it in terms of the development of our thoughts and work.  I don’t think that we should underestimate the benefit we can all get from reviewing our work with a professional photographer and tutor Wendy McMurdo.

With this review I wanted to present some of my further thoughts since the Barnsley residential.  I had decided since that critique that I needed to go through a final deconstruction process of my work to get to a stage that I might be happy to draw the line on and suggest its completion.  The main driver to this is that I have continued to have a sense that it needed something more but was unsure of what or how.  I have also picked this up as the general theme of advice from others.  In the review I presented different ideas for the title of the work, ways in which I might tighten up the collective colour and tone of images within each set as a way of making clearer which set they belong to, a tightening of the compositional alignment of some of the pairings of images so that this aspect can be seen a little more clearly, and also alternative pairings of images.  All of which is difficult to explain here without going into more detail with examples but I expect to do this in other posts as I progress with the work.

The interesting feature from what I presented is that it triggered thoughts from those I presented to which I hadn’t expected and we then went through a thorough discussion on some of the things I might think about for developing the work further.  The general conclusion I came away with is that I would need to go through quite a bit of extra work if I wanted to wanted to take this project to the next level in its development.  I was challenged about my reluctance to do this, with the question posed of “what do I have to lose?  My obvious answer to this was that I might make a mess of what I already have and in a practical sense I only have one further assignment review to go and thus little further opportunity to change and amend afterwards.

I have decided that it is worth doing this to see where this takes me and then I can review against the project as it is now.  I can then decide how to present for final assessment.  The implications of this is that my next and final assignment for Body of Work is likely to be delayed somewhat, particularly if it means going back to Thornhill to take more photographs

Barnsley Residential & Work Critique

Its been a week since the Barnsley Residential predominantly for Level 3 photography students which was a great success and really well organised by John and Penny.  The big event I think for most students was the opportunity to have their work critiqued, probably for the first time.  For some it was an early showing of some ideas that they are developing whereas for others such as myself it was a last opportunity to get an audience reaction to a nearly complete body of work.

I was fortunate (I think) to be the first to have their work critiqued by the group, and more favourably for me also by photographer John Davies who stayed behind after his presentation to join in with the critique session.  There were many offers of advice fed back as I was presenting the work which was a challenge to absorb it all at the same time as trying my best to explain its different aspects.  Jesse suggested at the end of the weekend that students should think about recording such sessions which, with hindsight, is something that I should have done as I did come away a little confused with some conflicting offerings given.  On the following Monday, Sharon posted a really helpful note to a link on how to resolve the advice offered from such critique sessions, which was generally to be confident enough in your own work to decide which advice could be helpful in progressing your work and which you might decide to ignore as a difference of opinion or doesn’t fit with the concept of your work which you may have only had 10 minutes to explain, in this instance, 18 months of developing the work.

I did write down some notes soon after the session so that I could capture the advice that particularly struck a note with me and give it some further thought.  This is what I want to muse about here:

There was a discussion emanating from the group about the different layers with which this work could be read.  The title of the work is ‘Land Values’, my presentation of the work was about the idea of a childhood paradise under threat, and the pairing of the images in the book suggested, as John Davies picked up, a sense of the autobiographical.  I confirmed that this was both a challenge and a feature of this work as I am pleased that it can be read in different ways whilst not wanting it to be too confused for the viewer.  Jesse suggested that I think about introducing the word ‘Paradise’ into the title.  I had just shifted the title back to ‘Land Values’ as it relates to my overall concept but I see where this comment is coming from and intend to give it more thought.  I also think that if I change the title then I will need to revisit the final artist’s statement which I include at the end of the book.

The key advice I seemed to be getting from John Davies, and some others, is that I need to strengthen the aesthetic connection between the images.  He picked up that some of the childhood locations where of more ‘messy’ places and that I should perhaps make more of that to bind the set together, with the Glasgow images then being a little brighter and optimistic set.  He also suggested, I believe, that some of the pairings didn’t work as well as others, particularly in the second half of the series.  This is also something that other students were suggesting, even though everyone seemed to have different sets that they liked and didn’t like and thus is something that I can never fully resolve.  I explained that the second half of the series is where I have been struggling with the most and thus is something that I now intend to go back to.  From this I have decided to give the whole series a final, more critical edit both aesthetically as well as the pairings of images.

A specific question that I asked the group was their thoughts about my use of words as labels under each image.  I explained how after my last assignment it was suggested that I was too limiting in the use of words to entice the viewer towards my concept and to explain how the images work as pairs rather than individual images.  The inclusion of labels was thus an experiment but something I always have reservations about as it can very easily spoil the work.  The clear advice back, particularly from Jesse, was that these labels about what paradise was don’t add anything to the interpretation of the work and thus should probably be removed.  I was pleased to gain this clear feedback.

On the other hand, I do  recall a point made that it was unclear what I was trying to say with some pairs of images but I explained that this was the intention to be vague rather than illustrative and that it is through a sense of the whole series that there images can be interpreted.  I therefore don’t intend to dwell too much on this.

One further comment made was by Jesse who wondered whether I might consider creating two sets of books rather than directly pairing them in an individual book.  I am not sure if I fully understood his point on this but it did trigger some further ideas on my part.  The pairing of the images is important to how this body of work comes together, even though it isn’t critical that this is how they are read.  I am having a thought of something that would effectively be two books but joined together so that the images can still be reviewed together.  Difficult to explain here but it has certainly given my something to think about.

Overall, a really good, effective and very useful session which gave me answers to some things and ideas for others – including how to go about what will probably be my final edit on this work before I progress to the next stage.

Thanks all for your constructive feedback

 

More Words, Words, Words

Following on from my latest assignment feedback I have decided that I need to give some more thought to the use of words alongside my photographs for the body of work, with the expectation of using text as a strategy towards engaging with the viewer without directing them too much.

The first step is to re-consider the title of my work.  My blog has always been called ‘Land Values’ as this has been the main focus of my deliberations, suggesting that we need to better understand our value for land if we are to take action towards its conservation.  At the last assignment I changed the title to ‘Lost Opportunities’, with the explanation of my thoughts behind this included in my review of the feedback from this assignment.  The obvious step forward is actually to revert back to the title ‘Land Values’ which would link my work back to one of its core focusses and to the direction of my Contextual Studies essay.

The next thing to consider is the advice I was given that the book proposal would probably need more text to entice the viewer into grasping my point of view and the importance of how the images work together rather than individual banal photographs of two places.  Having given this some thought I have decided to include an introductory paragraph for each set of photographs which gives some information but without being fully explanatory.  This will then be supported with a more detailed explanation of my thoughts and intentions at the end of the book – as I did with my last assignment.

The introductory text for the images on the left hand side is:

Memories of 1976, and a time and place where I was seemingly free to play without worry of the influences or threats from adulthood or society. 
This childhood paradise is where my value for land was formed.

The introductory text for the images on the right hand side is:

Reflections on today, wondering whether a shift in time, place and society can still present opportunities for a childhood paradise to be formed. 
This place is where my relationship with and value for land continues.

Both these texts will sit side by side before any photographs are shown.

A further thought I have had is to include some text at the side of each image which would relate to why I think that the place I grew up in was a childhood paradise even though visually it would be difficult to appreciate this, and also indicate why the place in Glasgow is an unknown possibility for a similar paradise to be formed.  Here are a few examples of what I am thinking of:

Paradise was …
lurking in the bushes

Paradise was …
finding a place to hide

The concern I have with this, which I have expressed before, is my reluctance to include labels with photographs.  What I do like with these examples is how they can subvert the meaning of why this might be a childhood paradise, but on the other hand, with some of them I am not saying much more than what the images say themselves.  I have decided however that the best way forward is probably have a go with all of the above solutions and create a mock-up book to see how this feels.

A pdf of this book is attached below which gives a sense of what I am trying to do here but I will leave my review of this outcome until later.

LandValuesdraft1

Words, Words, Words

I have been giving a lot of thought recently to the impact of words on a body of photographic work, such as the one I am developing at the moment.

When I went to see Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Shot at Dawn exhibition at The Stills, the impact of words was quite significant to the interpretation of the work.  The large scale photographs of relatively ordinary fields, a school, trees, a church, etc., were accompanied with a list of names.  Connecting that to the title of the work ‘Shot at Dawn’ and you begin to make a connection.  With your interest pinged and a little more research, the understanding of the works becomes clear that these locations are places were soldiers were shot for desertion.  Then suddenly your appreciation for the works rises to another level.

Also, at the exhibition ‘Conflict Time Photography’ held at the Tate Modern in London, there was so much work on show that it was only by reading the accompanying words that one gained a better appreciation of the work.  This was probably also of particular importance for this type of work as most of it was focused on remembrance of a time passed which had erased most of the evidence of the conflict that had previously occurred.

With my body of work, I have quickly concluded that I will not be adding labels to any of the photographs.  I rarely find that this works and is a bit too directional.  The ambiguity of my series is what I think makes it work; which can even confuse me at times as I see different layers of understanding within it, and which is something I want to retain within.  This leaves me with two further opportunities to support my work with words; these are the title of the body of work and an accompanying written piece – such as the artist’s statement.

As the work incorporates pairs of images from which the audience is able to compare and contrast, I wanted a title that encompassed how these pairs of images related to each other.  When I first started this body of work I wrapped a lot of my investigations around a working title of ‘Land Values’, and while I think that there is still an intrinsic element of this within the work, I now believe that it has shifted away from this direction.  I do also believe that I have a much better understanding now of what I am trying to say with this work, which has definitely benefited from the research I have been doing particularly around my Contextual Studies report.

In light of this, the Council estate aspect is about looking back at what as a society we might have lost from the past and questioning whether we might long for its return.  For the Glasgow estate it is about reflecting on the future and the opportunities that might be possible as I begin to engage with this place.  This is why I am relatively happy with the title ‘Lost Opportunities’, however, the further interesting aspect of this is the way that by joining these words together it creates a further meaning – Lost Opportunities could also suggest regret, which is possibly something I am asking within the work but not necessarily intending as a direct statement.

With this title relatively firm in my mind the next question for me is the introduction of a short written piece.  As there is an academic purpose to this work I think it suitable to incorporate this as an artist’s statement.  I have had several goes at this over the last few months and there are several blogs associated with my different attempts.  I was generally happy with the last attempt, however, having followed a useful discussion on this topic on the OCA website I decided that I needed to give it another refresh.  I was little concerned that I had shifted it too far towards a general audience’s understanding of it and that it needed a little more academic vigour.  The revised version is included below, which will form part of my Assignment 4 submission of the body of work.  Before I include it though I also want to mention that I am still wondering where to place it within my Body of Work.  On the fairly firm assumption that I will be producing a book, I am undecided whether I should put the text at the front or at the back of the book.  I am liking the idea of allowing my audience to view the images first and getting them to think about it before reading about my intentions.

So here is my revised artist’s statement:

Lost Opportunities investigates how changes of time, place, and society can change a person’s relationship with, and appreciation for, both land and the place it forms.  It does so by looking back at a Council estate in West Yorkshire where I grew up, and then compares this with the present area I have just moved to in Glasgow.

Images of the Council estate recall ordinary places that have a significance to me, whilst also depicting what I now reimagine as a childhood paradise where I was seemingly free to engage with the land and place oblivious of the threat to this utopia from adulthood and societal influences.  The imaginary idealisation of this time identifies with Neo-Romantic principles which regards the past as an integral part of our heritage and national identity and thus something we must preserve, or maybe long for its return.

In Glasgow I wandered around this new place to seek out the heritage I have now adopted, to reflect on its potential of becoming significant to me in the future, and to question whether the idealised notion of a childhood paradise could still be created in this place today.  This shift in time, place and society forms a narrative about change, to ask whether it is a threat to the way things were, or the beginning of new opportunities.

Artist Statement – Update

Well, I feel as though I have spent an age working on the three paragraphs I have written for my artist’s statement.  The last post on this got me so far, but I still didn’t think that it truly described by work.  I have been surprised, however, at how difficult it has been to write this when the body of work is so well advanced.  It is almost as though the work has had a mind of itself and I have been playing catch up trying to describe it.  The positive aspect of this struggle has been that I feel that the work is quite multi-layered and open to different interpretations therefore the statement had to point towards my intentions without leading the viewer too much.

I had also got it in to my mind not to use the word ‘I’ as I was worried that this would push the work back towards a Modernist approach which isn’t what I wanted to achieve.  However, I have now come to realise that this is ok as long as I am using this personal perspective to reflect a common concern rather than my own agenda.

Another feature that has helped me to develop this statement, but which has also meant that it has taken me quite sometime, is that I have tried to closely connect this statement with the theme of my major essay for Contextual Studies.  I felt it important that I fully understood the focus of my body of work so that I could use this as the focus of my essay too.  I am glad to say that this artist statement has helped to create the structure of my major essay as well as the introductory text to it.

The other point to raise is that while I was in the doldrums over this, it was through an e-mail conversation with a fellow student that rejuvenated my efforts to get me to this stage – thanks Stan is the phrase I need to say.

I am therefore now pleased to announce that I am quite happy with this statement and I feel that it really works with the images.  It certainly helps me when I go through the photographs so I am hopeful that it would be just as supportive for others.  I sense that the key words are at the end “It leaves open the question of whether this change is good or a threat to the way things were.”

For now, I intend to leave this statement open for a while.  I will come back to it later but hopefully I will still feel quite happy with it then as I do just now:

Lost Opportunities

This body of work investigates how changes of time, place and society can affect a person’s relationship with the land and place it forms.  It does so by comparing a Council estate in West Yorkshire where I grew up, with a more cosmopolitan area of Glasgow where I have just moved to.

Looking back at the Council estate, I recall ordinary places that became significant due to my engagement with them, and then reimagine a childhood paradise where I was free to engage with the land oblivious of the threat to this utopia from adulthood and society.  In Glasgow, I sought out similar opportunities for engaging with both the land and place to understand their potential of becoming significant to me and whether the notion of a childhood paradise could still exist today. 

The intention is to use personal experience to reflect on the ways in which society’s relationship with land and place has changed over time, and to consider the reasons for this.  It leaves open the question of whether this change is good or a threat to the way things were.