Evaluation

Evaluation – Directions Within Photographic Communication

Laura Parkinson

The beginning of this brief flowed well for me, I thought of something I wanted to pursue quickly and my passion for it meant I gained my images fairly quickly as I knew what I was looking for. I complied a collection of images of my subjects from lost photo albums on their shelves and made copies of them so as not to ruin the originals. I was originally going to use the originals, but one of my subjects wanted to keep their image in the photo albums, which meant I had to copy them all to keep the continuity.

Photographing my subjects was challenging to say the least. Some of my subjects wanted to know the ins and the outs of the project, and wouldn’t be photographed until they understood. Although this halted my photography, it was nice to be able to explain my ideas to individuals outside of the photography world, so at least some people understood my research. I took massive inspiration from the work of Rineke Dijkstra and her composition from her ‘Hilton Head Island’ set. The stance of the subjects made them look intriguing, so I decided to use this concept in my work.

InDesign took some getting used to in terms of laying out my book and using the interface. I used InDesign a bit during my college studies to make basic books and display my photography work, but producing a book to certain dimensions ready for printing was a learning curve. I thought the layout of my book was well presented and made the photographs the centre of the book. However, in the future, and when I continue this work on a larger scale over the summer period, I wanted to create my own font and photograph the leather I used on the front of my book so that I can call the work my own completely, without having to think about copyright and legalities.

Overall, I think that this module went well, I learnt a lot about producing my own book and ways of presenting my work to a wider audience. I now want to extend this project over the summer, and produce a full project looking at the decline of printed images and how people used to treat them, and get that book printed as my first photography production.

Final PDF Layout

I have taken screen shots of my final PDF layout that I created in InDesign.

Final Images

Text

I have received and written the text that will accompany my book today:

Introduction by Laura Parkinson

“Photo Album” is a photographic study of the changing attitudes towards printed photographic memories and the way in which we treat them. Back when I was a young girl, my parents stored most of my early years of childhood in a tin; the same tin I share with my sister 18 years later, rarely looking at them. However, milestones throughout my life; first steps, first school photograph, etc, were placed in my parents purses or wallets and looked at on a daily basis until they were so engrained on the mind they didn’t notice them. I gathered together a group of people for my photographic study, who all knew each other through being related, being friends or meeting each other on at least one occasion, and asked them to delve deep into their photo albums to produce a photograph of a loved one. This naturally produced a circle, the first person linking to the last.

I have always been fascinated by the idea of digital memories. They can be looked at on a vast scale, but lost so quickly. Digital memories are vunerable, and although people can argue that printed memories are vunerable to the elements of fire, water, air and nature, I feel that printed memories can be treasured and looked after, unlike those that are digital. We carry around archives of memories in our pockets, in the form of phone and laptops, and in an instant, technology can let us down or we can lose that archive. I asked my subjects to carry around their printed photograph for a week in their handbags or wallets, and then I would photographically assess the damage caused. 

Foreword by Samuel Andrew Fenton

Photographs. Even the definition of what a photograph is has changed throughout the years. We used to have to consider whether we wanted glossy or matte, well now it’s JPEG or TIFF. Nobody prints their photographs anymore, choosing instead to store them digitally, and forget about them. What has remained, however, is not what a photograph is, but what what a photograph is of - a memory. A moment in time captured in a still format, preserved forever. It doesn’t matter if they’re stored in a print-based photographic album, or a folder on a desktop called ‘untitled_1’, everybody seems keen to want to keep their photographs in the highest quality possible, whether it be in terms of megapixels, or frayed edges. Does it matter if the preservation is immaculate? I say no. 

A memory in our mind fades, and changes shape, with every passing day, so why should a photographic preservation of such a memory be any different? To think back to our childhood, our favourite teddy wasn’t the bear which smelled of the store it was bought from, with all tags crisply unfolded, it was the tatty ball of fluff, unrecognisable to the onlooker as ever having been shaped like a woodland creature... A photograph carrying a pristine veneer suggests that there has been a certain application of consideration, whereas a tatty photo enforces love, in its simplest form.

And that’s the very concept being explored in this book; the idea that a photographic memory shouldn’t be locked away and kept immaculate, as the point of a photograph is to be looked at, otherwise the eyelid need have been the only shutter to have opened in an act of gathering light. A physical recollection of an event allows for more than merely a thought, or a remembrance, it allows for us to fully embrace a visual representation of a moment from the past. Whether it is of a place we like, or a person we love, we should cherish it, not store it. 

A group of people had been selected to carry a photograph around, of someone they care for, for seven days. The brief was not to wrap the photograph in an impenetrable package, and guard it for dear life, but to simply carry the photograph. Whether it be by folding it up to fit into a wallet, rolling it and popping it in their pocket, or merely leaving it in their bag, it was to be carried naturally, very similar to how our minds carry a memory. After all, that’s what a photograph is, a memory, so it would be almost without purpose to treat it as anything else. To define a memory, I would say that it is a moment in time that has been ingrained on our minds, indefinitely, yet with imperfections. A photograph is a memory, so why need it be any different?

Creation of my Front Cover

My front cover was always going to be the challenge of this project. I find laying out my photographs in a book format easier than creating front covers, as I produced many inner book layouts than front cover formats. However, I wanted to create a traditional leather photograph album, which meant scouring the internet for images of leather, as I had none to take my own of, and did not have the suitable lenses to take photographs with. Therefore, I took two images from the internet to use.

I used this shot of leather that I sourced from Google Images (unprofessional, I know), to use as the scrapbooking material used on the front cover of my photo album. The photo albums we have at home all have a scrapbooking effect, whereby scrap pieces of leather have been used to create a border, where the text has been placed into. I used this colour and texture of leather to recreate this common composition.

I used this leather as the background mainly for the colour that was used. I love the burgundy tone that it has, and it was one of the few photographs that I could find that was of high enough quality to fit onto the scale of my book. I have learnt a valuable lesson here, I could have saved time by taking my own photographs rather than scouring the internet looking for decent images that were usable.

I decided to crack on with designing my layout for my book. I chose the title "Photo Album" after trying to think of a simple but suitable name to title my book. Photo Album seemed like the perfect name because it is the analysis of how we are ignoring our good old photo albums and using modern technology instead, the recreation of the photo album.

I added the text on the front cover, a quote from my foreword that a friend wrote for me saying "a photography is a memory, so why need it be any different", and the words on the spine that read "Photo Album, a photographic study by Laura Parkinson". I decided not to include my name on the front cover as I felt it took away from the natural photo album look that it gave, allowing it to be noticeable for what it is.

To make the front cover look more authentic, I added a drop shadow to the second leather addition, to make it look like it was attached to the page and was in front of the background. It gave it some more depth and made it look believable.

Creation of my Pages

When laying out my pages, I decided to take a more systematic approach and make all my text pages the same and all my photograph pages the same, similar to my photographs and how they have been composed. I presented my introduction which has been written by me, and my foreword which has been written by a fellow photographer using the right hand format tool, so that the text flowed and stopped at the end of the printing line.

I think this works as a overall composure, as it is easy to read and flows well. Although the text is hard to read at first, it becomes easier by using the composition I have used here and the spacing in-between the lines, which I changed from 1pt to 2.5pt.

I composed my photographs on the page in the same way. I created by triptychs in Photoshop and just replaced the photographs so that I knew they would be the same. I then added my subtitle underneath each of the images, which represents the name of the person in the photograph, the date the photograph was taken and where it was taken. These are things that I find in the traditional photo album, the date especially. The viewer then has to decode this, is the text referring to the person who is holding the photograph or the person in it? Did the person holding the photograph, take the photograph?

As you can see, the layout was continued upon each page.

And finally, as you can see here with the final image, the cycle of subjects draws to a close with the last person holding a photograph of me, the first subject. This would be something, I believe, that only a trained eye would see, but it will be good to find out who comments and who doesn't!

Possible Covers for my Book

I have been doing some research into Photo Album covers, and I want to make the front of my book look like an authentic, old fashioned photo album.

First Attempts at my Triptych Formation

I have taken four out of my planned eleven triptychs over the last week, and put them together on Photoshop to gain an idea of how I want to place my images in my book for submission. Here are some screenshots and how I feel about their composition.

Originally, I wanted my photographs to be presented in a portrait book, in the style outlined above. However, when I actually put my photographs together, I didn't think they looked right. My eyes naturally wanted to flow to the right, where there were no photographs to be seen.

I decided then to place my photographs in the same portrait format, but in a landscape triptych. The landscape format worked better than the portrait version, however, I still wasn't happy with the portrait pages. I went onto the Blurb Book Creator Plug In again and looked at the other formats the books offered. There was a landscape version and a square version. I decided to try the square version to see what the outcome would be.

After changing my book format, I decided to stick with the square format, but present my triptych on a white background rectangular frame. The triptych would blend into the background of the book and become unnoticeable. This is my favourite triptych from the set I have produced so far, the composition has just worked, and the decay of the image that he has carried around for a week is what I imagined. I am not going to reshoot this, and have not needed to edit, as the contrast from my new 17-40mm lens is just right.

I am going to have to re-shoot this set, as the younger model was facing the find and therefore, she is struggling to look at the camera and keep her eyes open. I am going to find a more suitable day to re-shoot this triptych, when the sky is clear but when there is less wind to put my subject off. Scheduling a re-shoot should be relatively easy, as I live with the mentioned subject, my sister.

I do not need to re-shoot this triptych either, as I feel that the composition and contrast between the shadows and highlights works perfectly.

I love the way that the subject is holding the photograph, as it is different from the others. I wanted to keep some sort of rigidity within my final triptychs in forms of composition and where I am stood with the camera. However, letting the subject hold the photograph any way they want makes for the small change that makes them interesting.

Images #1

I went outside with my first subject, who is the last subject in my book, to experiment with different styles of taking photographs. 

My subject naturally held the photograph as shown, which is what I wanted from my subjects. I didn't want them to hold the photograph with one hand, as it gave the photograph a wonky edge, and I would like all my photographs to be straight and ordered to fit the purpose of a typology.

I think this photograph works, as the model is holding the photograph the same as the photograph above. It flows well and fits the continuity of the typology. I have taken the inspiration from the low angle from Rineke Dijkstra, and her set Hilton Head Island. It flatters my subjects a lot more than taking a photograph from a high or face value point (see below).

I felt this photograph was a bit darker than the others, and made my subject look dark and mysterious. I wanted my photographs to have an openness to them, making the subject appear approachable. The set is concentrating on the photographs, so I didn't want to draw any thoughts towards the subjects themselves apart from that they are in the previous set, inside the photograph.

I decided to look at what happens if I take a photograph from a normal angle. As I am quite tall (5 foot 9), so most of my subjects looked small and odd. Therefore, taking inspiration from Dijkstra was correct as they made my subjects look better in comparison to the shot above.

Chosen Photographs

I decided that the composition of my final images will be as follows; my chosen photograph of the subject that my person has chosen (i.e. loved one) will be digitally displayed on the left of the triptych, a close up of the person holding the photograph after a week will be displayed in the centre, and a photograph of the person in a full length composition holding the photograph after a week. Anyway, here my chosen photographs of my subjects, in the order they will be presented in my book. All the photographs have a connection, with the last subject holding a photograph of the first subject as their loved on, like a circle of people.