Final Book Design

Below are screen shots of my final book design.

I am very pleased with my final outcome ans have learnt an enormous amount about how to design a book as well as practising my portraiture. A very enjoyable module at Salford University!

Avedon Book Inspiration

I liked the boarder that Avedons book had around the edge of each photographs, I think that it  creates a frame which encases the photograph and glorifies it. I thought that it would be beneficial to copy this idea and use this for my book layout. 

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus book "An Aperture Monograph" was the main influence for my book layout. I liked the minimal look and how the photographs were laid out on only the right hand side. i did put my own 'twist' into the layout by choosing not that have nay text on the left page of each spread, partly because I didn't find it worth while adding any irrelevant information.

The above photograph shows the layout of Arbus book which interested me in the first place. The uniform fashion will help to back up my idea that each person is unique but still part of the same race, human.

Other Artists/ Photographers Who Influenced Me

Helen Levitt


The main thing that I like about Levitts work is how natural all of her photographs are, as you would expect with a documentary photographer. Her presence seems to be 'in the right pleace at the right time' and with this she captures some truly beautiful photographs.

Charles Fregar

Charles Fréger is a French photographer born in 1975.  He tirelessly continues his “Portraits Photographiques et Uniformes” project, including a catalog of pictures of  legionnaires, water polo players, English school girls, Finnish synchronised ice skaters, ex-communist scouts from Budapest, majorettes, Japanese sumo wrestlers, beauty contestants in Singapore, young Vietnamese Buddhists, Roman Corazzieri, Vatican Swiss guards, Spanish penitents, Northern Irish Orange men, and Pekinese opera singers. His portraits, although poetic, are far from psychological. There’s nothing picturesque about them either.  He photographs his subjects like an entomologist pins his insects. There’s also a touch of sociology and ethnology with his inexhaustible inventories of the most extraordinarily diverse social groups, many of which are slowly becoming extinct.  These archives of social bodies, in a state of mutation, these families of mankind, if you like, are documented on a human scale, and free of embarrassing sentimentality; they form the inventory of this 34-year-old French photographer.

His photographs have a pantingly like look about them, as though the people look almost fake. Due to his choice of subjects, some social groups that are declining these days, I think that the pantingly feel about the photographs backs up that one day the groups will be a thing of the past/ imaginary.

Technique

In order to make each model react in a certain way, I had to manipulate them through talking to them as well as the natural power that one has when taking someones photograph. I tried not to talk to the models, using Richard Avedons technique of making the model feel alone. This leaves the model feeling isolated and can cause awkward poses which would be beneficial for my project.

Due to the nature of the photographs and the fact that I was asking members of the public, I had to introduce myself and give each person an idea of what the photographs were for. I tried to keep this introduction short in order to minimise the impact on their pose.

Poster

I decided to try and get models to photograph through designing a poster and displaying it on notice boards around the university. Several people got back to me about the photographs and I believe it was a great idea. Below is a photograph which shows how the poster looked.

Final Photographs

Possible Book Title

- Between
- Natural
- Uncertain
- Matter Of Course

Book Layout

I decided to include a dictionary definition and phonetic breakdown of my chosen book title to give the reader an insight of the content of the book. This is an idea that I had which enables me to include a 'blurb' like section but in a different way, I think this decision was a worthwhile one.

17/5/12

I wanted to try and take my photographs outside in oder to get a more natural looking photograph so I set up a white back drop against a well sheltered wall with natural lighting. The weather made me postpone the shoot due to the backdrop being constantly blown by the wind. I then decided to take the shoot to a studio where I knew the conditions would be sufficient. I also knew that I would no longer be able to use natural lighting in my photographs due to the way the studio was set up, I had to change this element of my project.

A few days after I set up the shoot in the studio and asked members of the public/ students of the university of Salford to use as my models. I confronted the people with a friend of mine who was helping me conduct the shoot. The responses from most of the people we asked was positive and they let me take their photograph however some people were not as comfortable at getting their photograph taken. 

Experimenting With Lighting

Before I started to take the bulk of the photographs, I wanted to experiment with different types of lighting in order to see which would be the best for this assignment. I started by looking and experimenting with artificial lighting, using a beauty dish on the head of a standard flash lighting set up. I also had another flash set up to illuminate the rest of the models body. I have included a edited photograph below. I am happy with the way that it has turned out however I am still interested in using outdoor lighting for a more natural looking photograph. For my next shoot, I am planning to set up a back drop outside, taking advantage of the natural light available. I have found a place that is ideal for my shoot which incorporates a sheltered area that has an even light from the sun, next to a building. This area is also ideal for getting models for the photographs due to it being near the entrance for a university building.

Test Image

I took a number of initial photographs of a person who was willing to help me. 

Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek

Photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 16 years. 

They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.

Bettina Von Zwehl

For almost a decade I have been researching the human profile and the hierarchic approach to portraiture that was applied during the Italian Renaissance. There is an uncanny quality to viewing a person in profile, related to what remains invisible and untold. This method of representation may have a cold, rigid aspect, with no indication of the subject's true character or emotion. To me it is one of the most powerful ways of representing a person.

I love Von Zwehls work due the time at which she chooses to take the photograph. She doesn't press the shutter button at the same time as most other photographers, instead, she waits until the sitter it in the action of changing their pose. This portrays an everyday movement or action which somehow really works very well as a photograph. I think it is the 'Down to earth' approach that appeals to me.

http://www.bettinavonzwehl.com/main.html 

James Tye

James Tye's set of photographs named 'Still Standing' show portraits of individual boxers which look like they have just been competing in the sport. The name makes me think that these photographs are of the winners on the bouts when the fighter is still standing after beating his opponent. 

In terms of the technical side of the photographs, I have notices that firstly the cropping of each image is around the same area on the body as i will be doing for my shoot, just below the persons hands. Cropping each image in this was gives the viewer enough information to create a vision of what they think the people in the photographs are. 

Shoot

I am currently in the process of gathering the models and equipment needed for a shoot. I am going to be shooting in a studio environment using natural light, due to the natural depth that I think it gives the photographs. 

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon was a fashion/ portrait photographer who was prominent around the 1950-70's.


"Throughout his career Avedon has maintained a unique style all his own. Famous for their minimalism, Avedon portraits are often well lit and in front of white backdrops. When printed, the images regularly contain the dark outline of the film in which the image was framed. Within the minimalism of his empty studio, Avedon’s subjects move freely, and it is this movement which brings a sense of spontaneity to the images. Often containing only a portion of the person being photographed, the images seem intimate in their imperfection. While many photographers are interested in either catching a moment in time or preparing a formal image, Avedon has found a way to do both."

Cropping

A crucial part of this assignment will be how I crop the photographs before I take them, this will help to show the important information which can be seen in the individuals faces.
I went through different photographers who have done similar style photographs to check the aesthetics of them and to see how they were cropped to help me decide. I looked at Richard Avedons and as you can see from the below photographs, he chooses to crop at many different parts of peoples bodies. By this I mean that he doesn't have a uniform crop to his photographs, some show the full length of the person and others are cropped so that you are only looking at the shoulders and head of the person. I think that he chooses where to crop the photograph depending on what useful information the person has which will portray his feelings and ideas to the audience.

I then took a look back at the previous set of photographs that I did to see if I could see any correlation between how I cropped the images. 

Looking at the photographs on a contact sheet helped me to self-reflect how I cropped each photograph when I was thinking about it during the shoots. It is interesting for me to see how I cropped each image and to see the similarities and pattens which are apparent. 

I have come to the general conclusion that I tended to crop each person just below the waist, a little lower that the hands. After realising this, I can see why I chose this particular crop and it helps me to think back to the shoot when I was setting up the shot in my head. It  is very interesting to see my though proces through the photographs. From this, I have decided to use this cropping in this book assignment as much as possible however, if there is some information lower than the waist which I think is interesting, I will change the cropping.

The following images are ones from my previous set of photographs. I have added the onto my blog to outline some of the area that I will work on with this brief.