Photobook
In Plain Air - Irina Rozovsky
This Photo book is about Brooklyn's Prospect Park, showing how visitors escape from the din of the city. This idea was planted 10 years ago when Rozovsky took a small motor boat around the southern lake where she saw types of people, families, lovers, friends and a multitude of cultures and ethnicities, all sharing that bit of land in that moment. Her colour photography captured the interplay between city and nature, creating a vision of the park as a nurturing public space, where the landscape was a protean backdrop to the societies complexity.
I really like the simplicity of how this photo book is laid out, it gives me the impression that Rozovsky wanted to show how simple and quiet life was inside of the park whereas in the city it would've been busy and complex. All of her images also have a very warming colour scheme, no matter if the weather is sunny or snowy, they all feel comforting and relaxing. I also really like how not only does she capture the lives of many people, but also how she focus on just the natural aspects, for example swans, trees and rocks. This makes me appreciate the fact that all of these are in the middle of a city yet the whole atmosphere of the place is nice and easy. When creating my own photo book, I want to take inspiration from Rozovskys' layout, I really like how each photograph is usually present on their own, which I think gives the photograph a chance to breath, likewise with the calming atmosphere of the park.
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Out of Place Books
To continue my research into photo books, I went onto the website 'Out of Place Books' to see what types of books they had on their website. When looking through their website the photo book 'True Love Still Exists' stood out to me the most, I really liked how bright and bold the front cover was, and how it almost seemed like it was painted on like graffiti.
This photo book was made by Melissa Laree Cunningham was photographed in Dallas, Texas in a sensitive and personal language. She follows the flow of everyday life in Oak Cliff, combining her personal feelings to the details of the world around her. I really like how she uses a mix of black and white photography and colour photography so provoke different emotions at different times, as well as layering her photographs, this tells me that there are layers of meaning within those chosen images. I also really like how her photo book is 3D, it makes me feel like i'm going on a journey throughout her live in Oak cliff, discovering her neighbourhood and what it means to her throughout her photography. When I create my own photo book, I want to take inspiration from her style of photography, especially with her colour photography because I really like how she captures the moment without staging anything.
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Pictures from home
As a group, we were placed into groups of two to present a photo book that, as a pair, we had researched and developed an understanding for. Me and my classmate were given the photo book 'Pictures from home', a photo book documenting Larry Sultans parents' daily lives at home in California. The photo book gives a viewer a small insight to how his parents go about their daily lives, separating their different perspectives into chapters throughout the book. He also began and ended the photo book with a series of found photographs from family memories from far in the past then closer to the present. Throughout the photo book, he also uses a mixture of his own photographs, as well as family images and articles from a time period in one of his parents' perspectives. I also really like how he uses a range of set layouts, placing a photograph across a double page spread but also using several photographs on a double page. When I create my own photobook, I want to take inspiration from his layouts because I really like how simple they are and how he takes pride in his photographs.
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Photoshoot 1
For each photoshoot, we were given a location in Stafford that we could take photographs in, there were 6 different zones that were mapped out and my first zone was 'zone 3'. Within that zone there was some housing with a corner of the new section of Stafford (Riverside) with a large marsh field in the centre. The field was a place I would not have been able to explore as it is mostly water, as well as the main road going through it has no pavements going along side it so it would've been unsafe to go onto. I decided to replan the zone I would visit so the majority of it would be in reach, this is why I decided to move further to the right, going away from the centre of Stafford. There is a lot of housing over there, so I knew that I would be able to take more photographs.
Favourite Photographs
I chose these photographs as my favourite ones because I really liked how they each captured that zone in a different way. When going back through my images to pick out the ones that stood out to me the most, I realised that I really focused on the man made aspects of my walk, even though there was a fair amount of natural landscape when I walk exploring. I also really liked including the sky in my photographs because I felt as if it framed the picture, giving it a backdrop to it could stand out more. The fact that it was a clear sky also really helped because I felt as if it helped to brighten my photographs, which I think in return made the place I was exploring brighter and more lively. However, this was also a challenge as I struggled to keep my photographs at a good exposure, when in a shaded area the contrast between the shadows and highlights was harsh which resulted in many of my photographs being too dark in areas and too bright in other areas.
Sequencing
To conclude this photoshoot, I decided to create two sequences using different images for each. I did this so I could practise closely looking at my photographs to link them together in some way as I would need to do this for my final photobook.
For the first sequence, I first linked the car to the traffic sign, next sequencing the building in the background to the buildings in the third photo. Next, I linked the windows to the window in the fourth photo, finally finishing the short sequence with the diagonals in the final two photos. In the second sequence, I started the sequence with linking the windows, however I finished the sequence with the electric poles in the final two photos.
I like how these sequences turned out because I think the link aren't too obvious which makes a viewer really look at my photographs to understand how I have linked them together. I also really like how for each sequence, I went in a different direction even thought both include very similar photographs from the same photoshoot.
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Photoshoot 2
In this photoshoot, me and my partner were given zone 5, where we decided to stick to the zone and not create our own because there wasn't a large chunk that we would not be able to explore. Within this zone, there was a large section of town park, as well as a main road that runs just on its outskirts as well as a small section of town park. This zone was a lot closer to college, so me and my partner were able to capture more photographs as we had more time. During this photoshoot I was able to get more of a range of photographs, including parts of the river as well as many different types of buildings from different years, old to new.
Favourite Photographs
I chose these photographs as my favourites because I really like how each is telling a different story even though the locations of each are very close to each other. I also really like how I lowered the exposure slightly so the images wouldn't be too bright, I think this creates a moody atmosphere in the photograph which I think gives each image more character. On the day I went on this photoshoot, it was mainly cloudy, which really helped when I was changing my aperture value to reach my preferred exposure, the difference between the shadows and highlights wasn't as harsh, which helped to create a softer effect on my photographs, especially when I was capturing photos of the river, there was a soft glow coming from the clouds instead of a harsh reflection coming directly from the sun.
Sequencing
Finally, I decided to create two more short sequences, where I used different photos in each so I could create two different sequences with two different starting points. Whilst creating these sequences, I found that I again primarily focused on the man made aspects of the zone, however I did capture some natural aspects, that being the River Sow and a patch of grass that runs around St Marys Church near College.
In the first sequence, I started by linking the metal of the trolley to the car, then the windows to the windows in the old cinema. Following on from this, I linked the red of the cinema to a small red box on the wall in the car park, then finally the white bricks to the white writing in the final sequence. For my second sequence, I linked the blue in the car to the trolley, to the black in the background to the black bench, then the intricate details of the bench to the intricate details of the church and finally the green of the churches grass to the grass on the bank of the river.
I really like how these sequences turned out because initially I wouldn't have linked any of these photographs together but by studying them for a longer period of time, I was able to pick them out to link to one another.
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Photoshoot 3
For the third photoshoot, me and my partner were given zone 6, which included a large portion of the River Sow as well as a large area of the main roads within Stafford. As well as this there is a small neighbourhood as well as a large field, which we cannot enter. Even though there is a large section on the middle of the zone that we cannot enter, there was a lot of photographic opportunities as me and my partner went through different landscapes, from main roads to a quiet neighbourhood to the back end of Asda.
Favourite Photographs
I chose these photos as my favourites because I really liked how in this shoot my photographs looked similar, they all felt cohesive. I also really liked how the clouds made it so the glow of the sun wasn't too harsh, which in return made the contrast in my photographs not as harsh as they would've been in direct sunlight. In some of these photographs, I decided to lower my exposure so certain aspects of those images would stand out more, for example the sign in one of my favourite images stood out more because the background was darker due to the lower exposure I had set.
Sequencing
I decided to create these two sequences because I wanted to see how I could link different images together from the same photoshoot. In my first sequence, I initially started by linking the two middle photographs with their bricks, however I realised that another link within the two photographs was the rectangle shapes. Instead, I decided to find more images that would link by signage shapes, however I think I could've improved the order I did them in by also putting them in colour order from the most red to the least red.
For my second sequence I decided to link them first by the poles, then the horizontal feature in the second and third photo, then by green and finally linking the car park to the car in the final photograph. I don't like this sequence as much however because I feel as if it is too random compared to the first sequence, however I do like how the photographs flow together more in the final 3 photos.
Overall, I'm really happy with how both of these sequences turned out because I was able to go down two very different directions with sets of photographs from the same photoshoot. I hope that these sequences will help me in the future when I create my own sequence in my final photobook.
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Photoshoot 4
In the final photoshoot, me and my partner were given the 4th zone, where it primarily included the train station and areas we couldn't explore. However, we mainly focused going around the areas which were closer to the train station, including Newport road and town park. Even though this was a much smaller route than the rest we has already completed, we had a lot of time to walk slowing through that environment, capturing everything from old buildings to the nature within the park.
Favourite Photographs
I chose these photographs as my favourites of this photoshoot because I really liked how they captured everything from the natural to the manmade features of our walk. Even though harsh sunlight had been an issue in previous photoshoots, I think the harsh sunlight in this photoshoot was doing my photos a favour because it helped make certain aspects of different photos stand out more. For example, the orange hi-vis a worker is wearing stands out against the harsh shadows the sun was creating, and the white bridge in another photo stood out more because the majority of the suns light was being directed onto it, drawing a viewer to it then guiding them across the images to look at the rest of the surroundings I captured.
Sequencing
I decided to use these photos in these two sequences because I really liked how in each sequence they flowed with each other in a specific way. In my first sequence, I started by linking the railings together, then the greenery. However, I soon realised that there was always a tree or trees in the photos I chose, so instead I decided to link my final two images using trees, but also by trying to keep the order deliberate. I decided to end in the image of the trees curving with the road because it felt as if it was finishing the whole sequence with a curve whereas the bridge started the sequence with a curve.
For my next sequence, I started out by linking orange with the first two images, then the pole with the next two and then the bright yellow signs with the final two. Even though the links are more random in this sequence, I feel as if the images flow together well because each is at a lower exposure, which I think helps make sure that the sunlight isn't too harsh.
Overall, I am very happy with these final two sequences because I feel as if I was able to create links very well with the photographs I chose, as well as making the two sequences different and not have a similar theme to one another.
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Making Photobooks
Book 1
When I started creating my first photobook, I wasn't initially sure how I would lay it out and what my theme would be. By printing out my photographs and laying them out, I was able to see how my different images worked together. By doing this, I was able to discover that the two images above were connected by their tree line. By placing them onto a page on InDesign, by lining their tree lines up together I was able to create a seamless transition. I decided I wanted to try keep this theme running throughout this photobook.
To continue this theme, I again used my physical prints of some of my photographs to find more connections between each photo. By doing this, I was able to find 3 of my photographs that linked together, first by the dark top section then by the flow of the river in the last two photos. Although I really liked this connection, I don't think it worked very well in this photobook because it felt as if there was too much going on, especially with the gutter that would only appear once the book would be printed, parts of the central photo would be lost. That is when I instead decided to only link the first two photos, enlarging them so where the photos met was in the centre of the book. To try to keep these images connected, I decided to repeat the photo of the man onto another double page spread, with the river continuing on that side. I do really like this idea because I was able to continue using my initial idea however I do also feel like it was too much to repeat an image onto the next page.
Book 2
When I started creating my second photobook, I knew that I didn't want it to be as busy and complex as my first photobook, instead I wanted to make sure that the majority of my photos would stand out on a page(s) by themselves so a viewer could fully appreciate and look at my photo without another distracting it. I decided to use the photo above because I really liked how the trolley on the left side guides a viewer across the page, showing them every detail of the photograph.
On another page, I initially decided to have my photo spreading across the whole page however I then felt like it was too much going on in the page, so then I redecided to give it some breathing room around its edges, likewise with the photo of the trolley above. I really like how this frames the photograph more, however if I were to redo this, I would instead move the photo to the bottom of the page so the houses could have something to sit on and so the sky could feel as if it was expanding up onto the page, I feel like this change would've made the photo feel bigger.
Final Photobook
I decided to print my second photobook because I preferred how its layout was much simpler than the other photobooks layout. I felt as if a viewer would be able to better understand and appreciate each photograph and how I sequenced each photo after one another. When photographing my photobook, I wish I took more images to show different pages and the links I was going for in my sequence, however I am happy with how I was able to photograph the pages I have shown. I also really like the shadow behind the photobook, I feel as if it makes the photobook stand out more against the plain background.
Evaluation
Overall, I think this project was a success because as well as being able to understand how to produce and print photobooks, I was also able to explore different areas of Stafford I otherwise wouldn't have explored. In this project I also think I was able to improve my understanding of different photo books by exploring what others have created and what sites they have been published on. If I were to come back to a project like this in the future, I would spend more time researching different photographers so I would be able to better understand how they produce and layout their photobooks, a well as spending more time exploring a place near to me so I could discover more aspects of that place I otherwise wouldn't have been able to in a shorter time period. I really enjoyed this project because I found it fun and exciting when it came to linking my different photographs together as well as designing my own photobook.
