My Visual Logbook

I always find it interesting that every image is just a new take on another, and today when Matt saw the images I had looked at from Agnes Lloyd Platt's collaboration with Glasshouse Salon, he told me to look into Elad Lassry.
Elad Lassry is an artist who works with a variety of media, creating or rediscovering images from a variety of sources and redeploying them in a variety of ways. He describes his work as something which is 'suspended between a sculpture and an image.'

"The artist achieves this through a play of virtual and actual space. The image in each picture proposes a virtual space, while the frame, which is not a supplement to the image but an extension of it, carves out an actual space for the object to occupy." - http://whitecube.com/artists/elad_lassry/

This image was made by Elad Lassry in 2010, whereas the image below it was shot by Agnes Lloyd Platt last year. It always fascinates me when I learn how images got their inspiration, for example the iconic Demi Moore cover which has been 'ripped off' on many occasions.

Sirkka- Liisa Konttinen is a Finnish photographer who has worked in England since the 1960's.
From 1969 Konttinen lived in Byker, Newcastle, where she spent over a decade documenting the area and its residents in the face of redevelopment.
(All I can think of is Ant and Dec in Byker Grove which was based on the same area of Newcastle, despite not being filmed there and about 20 years later.)


What fascinated me was that Konttinen revisited the streets of Byker in 2003 and again documented the residents in their homes; but this time in a  different manner. The time was much different and it was much less acceptable to walk the streets with a camera, photographing anyone and especially children, without permission. She got to know the residents better and asked them to pose in a way in which they wished to be portrayed, and presented to the world, in a way that shows who they are best. The composition of the images is much more considered as they are posed, and staged; the images have a feel similar to the work of Tina Barney, but less awkward and unnerving to view as there is no tension between the subjects pictured.

Today I made my hardback book cover. I took inspiration from the book which my friend on illustration course made, and referred to a step by step guide I found here.







I then glued the two pieces of cardboard and the spine down onto my backing paper, I chose to use black water colour paper as it felt more personal than a bright shiny card. Also choosing to keep this plain and having my lining as more of a cover kept my book minimal looking from the outside.



Finally I pushed the spine of my book outwards to create two little indents which is the signature of a hardback book.
I am really pleased with the outcome of my book, as a first attempt I think it went really well and doesn't look too unprofessional.
If I were to make my book again there are some small aspects which I would try to change, such as where the cardboard is still slightly visible behind the backing paper the three of the four corners, caused by me cutting to far away from the edge. I plan to try and fill in these gaps with either black maker pen or add some paper on top to try and improve this. Also where I have been using glue and black paper the black has stuck to my fingers and I had unintentionally marked an inside page slightly, but I hope to be able to clean this.

During my one to one with Richard we spoke about whether my photographs for my narrative were staged or not, and what it means for them to be staged or authentic.

The definition of authentic is something which is real and genuine, not copied or false.

Within my twelve images included in my narrative photobook, three were completely staged and styled, as I wanted to be able to control the location as it wasn't somewhere me and my friends would happen to find ourselves on a day to day basis on two out of the three occasions, and I also wanted to style my subject to suit the location.
The two images below I styled and staged for my narrative:

'photographs might capture something “unattainable to the naked eye,”and reproducibility “can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself” resulting in the depreciation of the quality of an original’s presence.'

Walter Benjamin's take on the authenticity of photographs is definitely the oldest publishing I have looked into, but his opinions are still very relevant.

David Bate in his book Photography: The Key Concepts touches upon realism and the position of the photographer

The realism of an image corresponds to a preconception of reality; As viewers, we base our interpretations of an image on what we know already and apply this to what we see in a photograph. An example of this would be when images were released of the 9/11 tragedy, no one could really believe what they were seeing as they had never seen anything like it before. In this sense, my images are far from 'unbelievable' and have every potential of being 'authentic'.

"Photographers often need to think of themselves as having a special point of view, a privileged position, in order to function, and viewers feel they share in that privilege." This is relevant to my work in terms of Solomon Godeau's inside/outside argument, and my position as a photographer. I wanted to show a privileged insiders viewpoint which others wouldn't necessarily be exposed to, and photographing from this perspective gives viewers of my images that intimate feel also, as though they could be there.

Today I printed my mock book. It was far more stressful than I had first anticipated, however I am very glad that I didn't give up and persisted and got there in the end.
My first problem was that my first printed booklet was that I didn't have my indesign file packaged with my images which I included in my file, which meant they weren't linked, and printed in very poor resolution. Luckily, the file also printed wrongly; some images were upside down and Sarah refunded me. I went home to get all my image files so I could fill the missing links.






After spending five hours trying to print my booklet out I am very happy that it finally came out okay and that I can make the hardback cover for it which I am really looking forward to.

When making my photobook I had to make lots of creative decisions involving sequencing, type, captions and layout:

I chose to hand write any type in my book as it has a more personal feel to it, it took me many attempts to get my writing in a way and size which I was happy with.

     

I plan to make a hardback book, with a plain outside cover, and the inside cover which is necessary to  keep the book together, will be a collage in the style of Mario Sorrenti's Draw Blood for Proof.

I chose to collage together digitally rather than on a wall and photograph it the way Sorrenti did as I had done a similar thing for my photography Alevel, collaging old pieces of family memorabilia and it leaves me more scope for experimentation and resizing everything with ease.
I included images which I didn't chose to include in my main photobook but still really loved and felt attached to.  Also personal memorabilia from my trips to Milan and Barcelona where I took images which are included in the photobook, and time spent with friends and family.
This collage adds an extra personal touch to my photobook which I really like and find it really reflects what I wanted my book to be; something personal to me, and that I can look back on in the future.

My Final Outcomes