Considering Publications

One activity that has been suggested to us for this module is to create a photobook. Having read about some ideas behind photobook creation, I decided to follow Jan Colberg’s advice (from Understanding Photobooks, 2017) and consider 3 main aspects of the process: concept, audience, form. I decided to start with audience as I felt it would help to make my concept more concrete.

 

AUDIENCE

This is always one of the hardest elements for me to vocalise, but I thought about who I wanted to view the work as a book and came up with a few ideas. The book is aimed at two main sectors – people who might not come to a gallery exhibition, and people who enjoy having art in their home. In order to make the book appropriate for people who have not seen the exhibition (either an online version or a physical exhibition) it needs to be a truthful version of the photographic body of work. As Colberg suggests, “A photobook ideally presents a fully realised version of a photographic body of work in the form of a very specific object. As such, the experience of looking at the book, whether in one or repeated sittings, conveys as much as possible (hopefully everything) the photographer aimed at including in her or his pictures.” (Colberg 2017, p.42) Though it will necessarily be different from the exhibition version it still needs to adhere to the main qualities/ideas of the work, namely that home is a place created through a combination of space, objects and light and shadows, and that images of these things can be evocative of a feeling of home.

I want the audience to own the book and keep it in their own home, which incorporates the second group this book is aimed at – those who enjoy having art in their homes. Books being viewed in the audience member’s home accomplishes two things – the images of my home will have a different dimension when viewed in someone else’s home, and secondly people may be invited to view their own home differently or in a new way immediately if viewing these images there. There is an importantly distinction to be made here – viewers are not being invited to compare their homes to that in the book, rather to see them in a new way, from new angles and with different attention being paid to light and shadows.

 

CONCEPT

If someone is unlikely to come to an exhibition they are unlikely to buy a large fine art book. They would be better served with something more approximating that with which they are already familiar, such as a day to day photobook or photo album or a simple memory scrapbook. This would also be a good way to present the images in relation to the above idea that the images should be viewed in the book in another home. This can also appeal to the second audience who enjoy having art in their homes. If they already have fine art photo books then having a smaller more intimate book would expand their collection.

My own example of a smaller photobook providing variety for a collection is with the book Brutal London by Simon Phipps. It is about the size of a small A5 notebook, with a hardback cover and thick paper, slightly rough at the edges. The matt paper allows you to turn the pages without worrying about leaving smudges with your fingers, and the rough edges are reminiscent of the roughness of concrete (the main building material in the buildings being shown). You could look at anywhere; on the sofa, in bed, on the tube, on a bus. The book asks to be a used object, without too much concern for maintaining a perfect condition.

Really, it is a book version of the brutalist structures it presents, it is a bit heavy with its thick hardback cover, and initially the grey may be a little daunting or unappealing, but it asks to be examined further and used in whatever way you see fit, though the final choices of design are not for you to make.

Contrast this with my Annie Liebowitz Portraits 2005-2016 book. The book is huge (it doesn’t fit in the shelf all my other photobooks live on). It has a plastic cover to protect it from damage, which highlights that it needs to be kept in pristine condition. The pages are glossy and have to be turned carefully, even reverently. The book is heavy and though it can be kept open on a lap is better served being on a table. In short, viewing the book is an occasion, an event, much like going to a gallery would be.

A final point to make about the two books is price. I picked the Brutalist book up for a very reasonable price (under £10) because I was interested in the topic. I looked through it on the tube ride home and have looked at it many times since, often picking it up to look at one or two particular images only. There are some images I do not spend as much time on, and some I linger over.

The Annie Liebowitz book by contrast was a Christmas present, was expensive, and I enjoyed it by sitting down on a sofa, opening the heavy book on my lap, and looking through it methodically for a few hours. There is an unconscious desire to get the most you can out of the book as it cost so much, leading to an almost militant need to give each image my full attention and a ‘good’ amount of viewing time.

I enjoy both of these photobooks but in different ways, and I feel my collection is all the better for having variety like this in it.

Relating all this back to my own photobook, I would like it to be more like the Brutal London book in terms of being a usable object, easily moveable and not so demanding of reverence. Colberg suggests that reaching a large audience requires a book to be “accessible” (ibid. p.47), and this is what I am aiming for. I want the images to be the same size and aspect ratio as the original images (no film was used in making these images, they were made directly onto direct positive paper). The book should feel like it holds memories and emotions, almost like a personal album but still clearly a photobook as the concept does not involve hiding the true nature of the book. To this end I will follow Brutal London in having thick matt pages, with my prototype having printed images stuck in using photo corners (more on this in form).

It is important in my concept that the photobook is a book in its own right, and not only a collection of images from an exhibition printed and bound. Creating a book that contributes to the project is important, therefore. As Colberg says, “The main focus of a photobook should always be to carry the work inside, to bring its viewer an experience that conveys the artist’s intentions with the body of the work in question.” (ibid. p.43) It carries the work inside but importantly should be instrumental in the way the viewer experiences that work.

 

FORM

Basic form

Once I finished considering my audience and developing a concept I realised I had a lot of the form already determined:

• A book large enough to accommodate the images in their true size and aspect ratio (4×3 inch and 6.5×4 inch)
• A book small enough that it is portable and can be read anywhere (so roughly A5 size).
• Thick paper, matt, to give the book weight, make turning pages easier than glossy paper, and to give the feeling of a scrapbook or memory archive.
• Simple cover, just one colour and with the title and my name.
• No text throughout, only on the first page. Let the images speak for themselves and allow people space to experience them for themselves without additional input.
• Include dedication ‘For Claire’ because it is and it begins the ride of feeling emotionally attached.

Editing and ordering

Colberg discusses the importance of storytelling within a book if a story is being told, and how the editing of images and ordering of them is incredibly important as far as this is concerned. I feel that my project currently doesn’t tell and linear narrative story, but rather exudes emotions of a place and may tell small mini narratives within each image. Thus, I do not need to be concerned with telling a story as such, as “If there is none [a story or narrative] or if the general story is very broad, then there is no need to worry about having on in the book.” (ibid. p.48) Instead I decided to focus on using the 4 or 5 larger pinhole images to break up the smaller medium format images and to guide the reader around the home. In the end I chose to have 4 chapters, each with a pinhole image at the start and with 3-5 medium format images. I chose not to identify the chapters as such and leave it to the subconscious to potential note this. Each pinhole shows the door or window into a room, but the other images did not work perfectly in terms of being parts of those rooms, so I broke them up into themed groups that went best with each pinhole. The result is that though each chapter is not a separate room in reality, it works like that in the book. This is how the exhibition will also be ordered, with the pinholes providing breaks/movement into new ‘rooms’.

Text

I decided against using a lot of text as I would like the images to speak for themselves. My last project had each image accompanied with a lot of text and I felt the text began to become more important than the images. I want there to be space for the images to breathe this time, and for there to me multiple interpretations and ideas taken from them. Colberg states that whether photography has a language is in doubt and that it may not be possible to “express in photographs what can be expressed with words (and vice versa).” (ibid. p.52) So we cannot express that which a photograph does in words, meaning any text I include would be additional and would aim to support or supplement the images. However, I do not feel the images need this and I believe trying to include text would make me think too much in an attempt to attain perfection. My tutor has noted that this work is far better when done instinctively rather than with detailed consideration.

Inserting images

I have decided, rather than sticking the physical images I’ve printed onto the paper I have sourced, to use photo corners to place the images in the book. At first this was a practicality, allowing me to remove the images and keep working with their ordering and editing for my WIP assignment (these are the only hard copies I currently have). But I also now find it interesting that it allows the viewer to remove the images, switch them around, and even put them up around their home. This makes the books much harder to produce, and they would probably need to be hand-made, meaning a small run. This runs somewhat counter to my original audience ideas, but as this is just the prototype it could change for wider production.

I have also chosen to only have one image on each spread in order to focus the reader on one image at a time.

Time

One of Colberg’s rules for making photobooks is “Rule #14: Allow the process of making a book to take time.” (ibid. p.90) I have done this by hand making the prototype (also allowing me to truly consider the book as an object). I bought paper, folded it, used the same paper to cut out and stick together photo corners, stuck the corners onto the paper, created a cover, made holes in the spine, threaded though string to bind the book, and hand-wrote the title and my name. The final book is a true object in its own right and is now a part of the project, not simply another print-out of its images.

Alternative

I have made an alternative prototype after considering whether a traditional book format encapsulated the idea of home in the best way. This prototype (a small version without images placed in, a real version would be larger) would be a fold-out selection of pages that eventually fold out to be reminiscent of a house floor plan. I think this works well to aide the suggestions of home, and is different and more interesting than a book format, but it does not allow for the ease of reading that I wanted as part of my concept, and would be much harder to make, increasing the budget and potentially lowering the run.

 

CONCLUSION

I am content that the book dummy I have created is a strong addition to the project. It supports the images well, is tactile, is accessible, and it could appeal to both collectors and those with little photobook experience.

FINAL PHOTOBOOK DUMMY:

ALTERNATIVE PROTOTYPE:

References

Colberg, J. (2017). Understanding photobooks. New York: Routledge.