Photo books are one of the most common and most important features of photography. They are one of the easiest and most accessible ways of seeing photos in physical form rather than just looking at them on a computer screen. They allow people to gain an understanding of photography broader than there own taste from different styles, eras, cultures and countries. They can also be a source of inspiration giving people new ideas about photography and how to approach it . A photo book can also allow you to view images in a different way as the rest of the book can put photos in to context or turn them in to a collective which would make you see them differently to if you just saw the image on its own. They are almost like an exhibition all wrapped up in to one small book which is probably a reason why there are so many photo books. As well as that they allow people to self publish their work a more accessible way of showing off their work than getting a gallery space, a book can also be spread all over the world meaning it could have a way more global influence than a exhibition . They are also one of the most use full tools for people looking to improve as photographers as just looking through and studying more and more photo books will expose you to thousands of images and broaden your view of photography as a whole.
Keld Helmer Petersen
Keld Hemmer Peterson was a Danish photographer, he began photography at 20 and studied at the Chicago institute of design. He took a series of photographs where the white black contrast is so high there are no other colours or shades in the image, and the images come out in black shapes in some cases it doesn't entirely reveal what the image is. He has released two books consisting of these sought of images 'Back to black' and 'black noise'. In the book back to black the way the pages are organised seems to be quite important whether its the amount of space taken up by an image on a certain page or whether an image partly covers across a double page it looks as though a lot of thought has gone in to the composition of each page. The images have quite an industrial feel to them featuring cranes , wires and all sorts of structures, they often have a lot of detail as seen in the images above featuring lots of mostly straight lines over lapping and almost forming mesh in some places.
Joseph Szabo
Joseph Szabo was a teacher and photographer from Long Island made a photo book consisting of 80 black and white photographs of Jones Beach one of the busiest beaches in the world it was suitably titled 'Jones Beach'.Released in 2010 Szabo first started taking the photos in this book in 1972 and finished in 1999. It consists of a wide range of images from portraits to action shots and captures every aspect of the beach and the people on it. The books main focus is to capture images of the people using the beach rather than the beach itself there isn't one image with out a person in, The book documents all sorts of people from all ages,classes and races. "Images of tanned muscle men, catwalk-like displays of beachwear, heavily oiled skin, masses of sprayed hair, and shy adolescents all reveal the dynamics of the beach so close to New York city. Class race, and other potential divisions are temporarily forgotten, and the perfect and the flawed are portrayed with the same respect and tenderness."
Alec Soth
Alec Soth is an American photographer from Minneapolis who is considered as one of the most influential modern documentary photographers. Gathered leaves is the name of his first uk exhibition, He released a photo book titled Gathered leaves consisting of his four most famous photo books (sleeping by the Mississippi.2004, Niagara.2006, Broken manual.2010, Song book.2014) in miniature form accompanied by 29 postcards showing a selection of key images from each of his books all contained in a small box covered in a wall paper type design . His images tend to be portraits but theres also shots of desolate landscapes and open wilderness often taken in the midwest of America taken on a 8x10 large format camera which he says he prefers to more modern compact digital cameras.
Stephen Gill
Stephen Gill is a British experimental, documentary and conceptual artist and photographer, he takes the majority of his photos around east London, he made a photo book called 'buried' . The images were taken in and around Hackney wick the pictures were also buried around Hackney wick at different depths, positions and varying amounts of time and depending on the amount of rain that had fallen. Stephen Gill said that "not knowing what knowing what an image would look like once it was dug up introduced an element of chance which I found appealing". The fact that the image could be completely altered whether it improved upon the original image or made it worse burying the image had the potential to completely ruin it.
Making your own photo book.
If you choose not to have your book made professionally there is a number of options you have to make your own photo book by hand or using your computer as there is a number of websites that can come in useful. For example 'Blurb' is a website you can use to design and make your own photo book. As well as that there is loads of websites and videos on the internet providing step by step instructions on how to create your own photo book.
Blurb is one of the best websites you can use to create your own mini book online giving you lots of options on how you compose your book whether you want to use templates or not as well as the type or style of book you want to make.
Hand made
These are all examples of the amount of resources to instruct you of how to construct a photo book out of card and paper there are examples of videos website and photos all providing step by step guides.
My first hand made photo book
My first attempt at making a hand made photo book was reasonably successful however it could be greatly improved upon. The quality of the photos and how well they match varies the two images above are the best examples of the images working together however some of the other images could definitely be refined and the lighting in some of them could be improved. The neatness and finish of the book could also be done to a better standard with the images being cut out more neatly and all to a uniform size also the folds in the black paper could be done better. The book isn't very big either so it could do with a few more pages in it so the book creates a series of images.
Robert Frank
Robert Frank is an American photographer who was taking photos throughout the middle of the 20th century he released his most famous photo book 'The Americans' was published in May 1958 in France and a year later it was published in America. It is regarded as one of the most influential post war photo books it documented American society through street photography he created a 'portrait of the period' while travelling all over America taking photographs. The images almost document his journey across America, accompanied by an introduction written by Jack Kerouac a well recognised author and a 'pioneer' of the beat generation, a genre of writing focusing on post WW2 American culture a genre thats very similar to the theme of the book. The images are all black and white and also often not perfect with images being grainy or partly out of focus this was unusual for the time where the traditional style of photography required for the images to be perfect.
Rut Blees Luxemburg
Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer currently living in London she has become known for taking images at night often featuring inner city locations. Light is a main focus in most of her images particularly artificial light due to her photos being taken at night. Her images often feel cinematic almost, the images usually look to be taken with longer exposure which allows the street lights to almost glaze the image over. Water seems to be crucial in lots of her images as it allows her to illuminate her images even more through reflection from puddles or wet ground, the reflections from the water also add to the feeling of her images looking glazed over. Her images feature street lights and office blocks over people as the subjects they fall into the category of abstract urban landscapes.
Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham is an English photographer born in the midlands in 1970. In 2003 he took a series of photos in his hometown titled 'black country'. The images were all taken at night using a tripod a light meter and slow shutter speed, this illuminates the night time images in a unique way were the glow from the street lights puts an orangey yellow hue on all of the images. This series of photos proves that the most everyday ordinary subject could be photographed in an interesting way to make a beautiful image. In my opinion the images almost look like they are photographs of model towns rather than real places probably due to the lighting of the images and how they all look very calm and still theres zero movement in any of the images.
Brassai
Brassai was a Hungarian photographer and film maker born in 1899 and moved to Paris in 1924 where he eventually rose to fame. He was interested in the avant-garde artistic community. Brassai published a photobook entitled Paris by night in 1933 a book consisting of 64 images, the photos are all black and white all illuminated by street lights. He photographed all sorts of people on the streets including police, prostitutes and the homeless, as well as images concentrating on light reflecting off pavements and closed up shop fronts. The shadowiness of the images and how they often obscure the subjects faces create an almost mysterious atmosphere .
Evaluation
Some of the I artists researched during this project influenced my final photobook more than others. There were aspects of Robert Franks images that influenced me I liked the way that not all of his images weren't perfect some of them looked like he had rushed them they weren't all perfectly framed right and some weren't completely focused, also the idea of taking photos over a journey he travelled across America taking making images, all of my photos were taken during journeys home at night. Rut Blees Luxemberg is an artist who's work also helped influenced my photographs I was interested in the street lights and reflections that often feature in her images . As well as that Richard Billingham and Brassai's photography added to my interest of night time photography and the urban landscape illuminated by street lights. At one point during the project I became interested in taking photos more specifically inspired by Rut Blees Luxemberg and Billingham I experimented trying to take images of the same sort of thing but with a tripod and a long exposure. But I eventually decided to stick to the idea of taking photos on my journeys home quickly while I was moving. If any of the threshold concepts influenced my work it would be threshold concept 2 'all photography is the capturing of light' as with my images light is the main focus not just the light source also reflections and how different lighting affects an image. At some points during the project I thought about taking more images featuring people in environments completely different to the images I had already taken for example images in places like Deptford market with a film camera however not all of the images came out successfully and I decided I didn't match the previous images at all. Most of the images were taken with my phone and some with a dslr however the images vary in where they are taken from most where taken while I was walking down the street some where taken from busses and cars and others from trains. The fact that some of the images where taken from different forms of transport links to the idea of the images documenting journeys home. Also it allows you to see the street lights and car lights from different angles as well as different lights altogether. Keeping the images focused and framed well was a challenge as cars where often moving in and out of shot and when there were images that were framed perfectly with cars and lights lining up where hard to capture as it only lasted a split second. While designing my book I came across some difficulties in deciding how i wanted it to be, initially i was interested in the idea of making all of my photos black and white like Brassai's paris by night however i decided that they didn't add anything to the images or book overall and also my images were already so dark that it made it almost impossible to work out what they were in black and white. As well as that deciding how to lay out my images and what size to make them was difficult as it had been suggested to have the images a variety of sizes and in different position over the page or pages however in the end i decided to keep them all the same size and position. As I decided this idea of continuity could be compared to the idea of the images all being taken while travelling to the same destination at night. I was pleased with how my final outcome came out, I feel like the images are all compatible together and work even better as a whole in the book than as individual images. The book came out as I had hoped and I feel like it worked because I wanted the images to run in one long continuos flow from start to finish linking to the idea of a journey thats also a reason there are no blank pages between any of the photos. But I feel like not all of the images came out as good quality as I would have wanted and some look a bit blurry probably due to the fact that a lot of my images were taken on my phone however in some ways I think the slight graininess and blur of the images adds to the book. If I were to repeat this process I think that I would try to take some images featuring people as it would add a bit more variety to the book.