This is the first photobook I want to look into because it is one of the most famous in the world. I picked this one because of the simplicity of the design, as this appeals to me because of how there is nothing for the viewer to look at apart from the image, so in a sense they are almost being demanded to listen to the photographers message. 

Photobook 1:

This is my first layout for a photobook, using the simplicity of Robert Frank's layout as an inspiration. I used two images per double page, because I didn't want it to look overcrowded as whenever I am able to look at more than one image at once in a photobook the effect of some of them wear off. The design of making one image fill the page and one within the bleed lines makes the design less boring because I don't want it all to be the same. 

To evaluate on this design, what I said before about the design being not being boring I think is contradicted by the repetitiveness of it. It is the exact same on all the pages which if I printed it out would just be boring. I decided not to print it out and see it as a trial outcome because the images looked thrown together and wouldn't work. 

Another classic photobook, this one interested me because of how full the images were, leaving no white spaces at all. I think this style really allows the viewer to fall into the image, which is a nice effect. Most of the images consist of images from his long career, including sections from his photobook 'Life is Good' and his work from New York. Klein selected the images himself because they demonstrate a consistency of style and technique, collapsing decades of work into a single photobook.

I prefer this style to the previous one because there is only one image per page. I think this allows the image to really take effect onto the viewer and doesn't clutter the page. Despite this, I like the effect of the white space on the previous style so I will look at a photobook with a single image on each double page, but with more white spaces next.

This is the printed version of the mock photobook above. I printed it out on my college's computers so the quality isn't very good, but it didn't need to be because this was only a practice version to see if the layout worked well with the images. I'm glad I decided to do a practice one with this layout because it helped me to realise how even though I liked how big the layout allowed the images to be, I don't like where the middle of the page cuts through the image. I personally don't think that this looks very professional, and it doesn't work with my images and the type of images I want to keep making because even if it was printed professionally it misses details of the image and separates it in a way I don't like. I didn't include a front cover for this book as I'm not sure what I want it to look like, so I will do some research on photobook covers next.

This technique is called 'Fukuro Toji' (stab binding) is one of the many ways of binding photo books together. It gives the book a very personal touch which I like the effect of. To do this, I created a template on Adobe Photoshop, which allowed me to see where to cut. I then printed out the photos on some normal A4 paper: there being 2 photos on each side. After that, I cut using a scalpel and a cutting mat on the guide lines I had made and ordered the images in the sequence I wanted. Then, I cut out some coloured card to shape just bigger than the image sizes, then sandwiched them all together in my desired order. Using another tool, I poked holes into the paper (using bulldog clips to steady it) so that I could sew though each sheet. After I did this I sewed the pages together using white threat to contract the colour card and make it look a bit more professional. To reflect on this method of outcomes, I think it worked well with my images as it looked good landscape and showed off my images the way I prefer. As it was just an experimentation, the edges are a bit rough and the sizing of the images not exact, and the guidelines I put in are slightly visible so overall it looks less professional then I would have liked but I can always experiment more with this method and fix all these mistakes if I do another one. I chose the order because it felt aesthetically pleasing to me as I was doing it, but I feel more planning is necessary here to perfect this style of outcome as I need to put more deeper thought into it.

This print was made using oyster paper in A3. I really like how this turned out as I think the size of the image really allows the viewer to get absorbed into the image. I'm glad I chose this image because the way the man is looking into the camera creates a chilling experience for the viewer. So far, this print is my favourite outcome, as I like it better than the photobooks I have made previously.

I wanted to create a poster using one of my images of a homeless person on the streets to give my image a purpose. I used Canva to look at ideas for posters, and found further inspiration from the Salvation Army as shown below. 

The reason I chose Salvation Army to use as inspiration for my poster is because they do a lot to help homeless people, and I saw them on TV advertised and recently a poster came through my door which make me think about my own images and how I wanted to use them in outputs. I don't know much about Salvation Army but after using it as inspiration for my own poster I will do some more in depth research into the charity. I hadn't thought about using my images as posters to raise awareness of a cause or to help particular groups of people, but seeing the Salvation Army poster made me think a lot about it. If my initial experimentation of using this method of creating outputs is successful, I will explore it in further detail. These kind of posters are also appropriate for my target audience, as I have wanted my images to be seen by everyone and make them think about them since the start of my project.

What I like the most about this poster is the image I chose. I think it goes well with the chose audience and would perhaps persuade someone to donate. Despite this, graphically the poster is quite badly designed as I didn't use a template for this one I just added the text: it doesn't look very professional. The image itself is also a bit wonky which shows up a lot more when using it as a poster as the writing contrasts to the pillar the man is sitting underneath. As you can see, the writing is straight but the leading lines of the image are a bit off, so I think this image would not best be used as a poster. Furthermore, if I did make this into a poster the fact that Kurt Geiger is in the image would be copyright and therefore it is not appropriate to be used in this way, like advertising. What I had in mind when taking the image was to show consumer culture and the impact this has on people on the streets in todays society, so the ironic and juxtaposing themes do not fit with that of a poster output. If I were to go down the route of using my images for a cause such as helping the homeless, I think I would first have to build verstehen with the person I am photographing, which is not in the style of the photographers I have researched and referenced in my work such as Parr and Meyerowitz.

My second thought when envisaging outcomes was social media, as this was what I had in mind at the start of my project in my proposal. The best way to get your images and messages through the images heard and seen in these years is obviously through social media, so it made sense to explore outcomes in this way. The images above are designed to be a local news cover for an article about stopping homelessness and educating people on it. Again in the first image the Kurt Geiger could be plagiarism, which is not ideal. However, the second image I think works well with the idea of news. You can see how she looks quite sad which think would draw the viewer onto reading the article or at least empathising with her. Another detail I noticed about the image that I didn't when I first took it is the man sitting in the cafe eating his food in the warm, a contest to the lady on the street surrounded by cardboard boxes for comfort. I'm glad I used this as an output as I didn't see this before and I think it works well with the outcome.

These two outcomes have the same idea in mind as the last two, however they are just a different experiment with the layout/design. Because the shape of the image is a rectangle on this one the second image goes better, as the man is looking directly at you. Although, it still has the same problem as last time with the plagiarism, so if I were to use this as an outcome I might edit it out in photoshop. This however is not what my preferred way of working is as I used the Kurt Geiger on purpose to contrast the homeless man as stated before, so I think it just depends on what outcome I decide on as to how I need to edit or not edit my images.

I used these two images together as they were both of people on their mobile phones and the colour schemes worked together. Using these two images in an output helped me understand diptitches a bit more and also improved my knowledge of how important it is to think about what images work well together and why you should think about this. In the photobooks above, I didn't think about what images were best together and what order to put them in I just randomly designed it, so creating this outcome has resulted in me thinking more deeply about this idea. I think these images could be posters or advertisements, either way it works well in getting the message across. I want my images to make the viewer think about their own lives and these outcomes could make them think about how much they use their mobile phone and perhaps whether they are as addicted or absorbed into them as these people seemed to be.

Mixam is a website that allows you to create your own outcomes and they will print and create them. They do photobooks, leaflets, posters etc so I looked at their website to see if I could experiment with any. I found that they do a 'try before you buy' of a mini-photobook/booklet for free with only a carriage charge: which is a great way to explore more outcomes to see which fits my purpose the best.

This was the order I chose to put my working images so far in, although I had to change it slightly when putting them into the Mixam template.

These are screenshots from a preview of the booklet I made on Mixam. I wanted my images to take up the whole page similar to William Klein's 'ABC' and the ones on Out of Place books. This is because all my most successful photobooks so far including the Japanese binding book all had images that took up most of the page. Although this time, I made the photobook in A4 size and had the images take up the whole A4 page horizontally. This is because of the experiment in the style of ABC by Klein I didn't like the way the page cut up the image, so I compromised and experimented with a landscape stye book instead so I could still have my images quite large on the page. I tried to pair them with thought behind it as I paired the seagull images together, the social issues/debates images together, the people on their mobile phones, and the homeless people images. I also went in order of the more extreme images to come last in the book, so that the images with less depth and more innocent meaning behind them come first to allow the viewer not be be put off when they first open it, and also to leave them with a lot of thoughts towards the end when they close the book. I have not used a proper front cover for this trial, I used one of my images similarly to a photobook in Out of Place books because I think it gives the viewer more inclination to pick up the book because one of the images might catch their eye. However, I have not experimented with front covers/titles at all in this photobook so I would like to do that before I create my next one. Furthermore, I would also like to play with the idea of using text in my work as I haven't experimented with that either and I think it could bring some real meaning and both to my work.

Overall, I really like how this book turned out. I think for an experimentation it came out quite well and gave me an idea about what my images could look like in a professional photobook. To gauge peoples reactions to the photobook I gave them to my family to look at, and I was pleased overall. My sister also did A level photography, so I asked her advice on how to improve this photobook ready for if I make another, improved version................

With the images themselves I got the reaction that I was aiming for, with a few laughs with the satire I tried to incorporate into my work similarly to Parr. They also were quite shocked at a few of the images, commenting on how different the perspective of the photos are to what they see on the street. A flaw I found with this photobook is how you have to keeping turning the whole thing 180 degrees when viewing each image, which one the one hand makes the viewer look at each image separately, however it also is very fiddly and not ideal for a professional photobook. Watching my family view each image showed how annoying the layout was, as it made it very hard to view.

Most of the images I chose work well together because they all are a documentation of individuals in society. The motif of people is consistent throughout the book, although some (for example the front cover) doesn't really contain a person as the subject and is more about the aesthetics rather than having a deeper meaning. I used more images as a front and a back cover because I wanted to experiment with using my photographs to draw the viewer into the book, which is why I chose the front cover more for the aesthetics. In the future I won't use my own images as a front and a back cover unless I include text as well, because I feel like it doesn't tell you anything about the book and it doesn't look very professional. 

In terms of the images working together and in the context of a book I am quite happy and will definitely continue with this into a final outcome. All of my working images from shoot 3 onwards work well together as they all have the same subject matter, although I think more pairing and sequencing of the images is necessary to make the images work well together on pages, not just as a whole book. In the context of a book is where, at this point in my project, I think my images work best. I think this is because all of the photographers I took so much inspiration from at the start of my project such as Martin Parr and Joel Meyerowitz used photobooks as their main outcome, alongside exhibitions, however for the most part it was a book that they made. I really enjoyed viewing their books as this is what originally made me so excited to complete this project as I admired their books so much, I wanted to create my own, so from the start of the project having viewed Parr and Meyerowitz' books I have been photographing with the idea of making a photobook in mind.