Photo Book Final Evaluation

Photo book project final evaluation

Having completed the first part of the course, Exploring Experimental Photography, I had decided to challenge myself and try something a little different, move away from my comfort zone, for the second part of the course.

To this end, my chosen experimental photography theme for my photo book was going to be painting with light.

The main reason for my choice of subject was that although I love long exposure photography, but this was normally conducted during the daylight hours. I normally photograph landscapes or seascapes which tended to be daylight subjects, so taking photographs during the night was again a different dimension to the normal photography I practice.

That’s not to say I have never tried painting with light, but rather I have never tried it for a prolonged period, or try to improve my technique, so I felt that this would push my knowledge and experience and help me improve.

It also meant that I would then be able to challenge myself and to place myself in different arenas such as the studio and outside in the night time.

Furthermore, the fact that I had to produce a book containing my images meant that I not only had to plan the book format but also plan what images I had to produce. This was to ensure that when the photo book was completed, not only did is serve as a submission piece for the final part of the course, but something that I could show other people and it become a point of discussion.

Quality of images and content were therefore extremely important on several fronts. I wanted to be proud of what I had produced, as I had never produced a book before.

Unlike printing and mounting images, which I do quite regularly when I take a photograph that I like, producing a photo book needs quite some consideration.

Understanding the best layout for the images that I have taken was important, but researching other photo books by famous photographers would also help me understand what the best layout would be.

Probably one of the most famous photo books that I reviewed was “The Americans” by Robert Frank and the layout of the book was simple but effective.

The layout, displaying a single image per double page was clean and simple, but it also meant that you looked at one image at a time. This helps you digest what you are viewing, rather than several images on a single page, which doesn’t help yours eyes rest and take in what you see.

This I believe was extremely important for my book, as the chosen subject was light painting and I wanted the viewer to study each photograph as a single entity and provoke questions such as how did you do that? What did you use to do that? Etc.

When you produce a single image for printing, it’s simply just that, a single image. When you produce a panel of printed images, there are different considerations, such as continuity of subject, colour (are they all uniform), do you have bookend pieces to force the eye from row to row? These are all different considerations to that of producing a book.

The typeface you use when completing the text for the book needs to have some relationship to the theme of the book or a particular image, this helps provide the continuity.

The physical size of the book also needs to be considered, to large and people won’t want to hold it, to small and you won’t be able to present the images effectively.

There are many facets to the photo book project, which, like a jigsaw puzzle have to be placed in the correct order and orientation to compete the final picture.

I have thoroughly enjoyed producing the photo book as I have now become the proud owner of a published piece of work, with my name on the front cover……..

Had I not enrolled on this course, I wouldn’t have even considered producing a photo book. I am now considering producing a second photo book containing some of my better daylight, long exposure landscape and Seascape photography.

 Hopefully, individuals will get the same amount of pleasure viewing my photo book, as I had producing it.