Concertina Photobook Experimentation
After making getting my first photobook design printed in a traditional format, now I want to explore handmade photobooks and specifically concertina photobooks which I also explored in my previous project. I think this style of photobook which shows images in a succession could be a good way of displaying real-time and is similar to the diptych style of presenting my images. The row of images naturally suggests a narrative and invites me to show a passage of time between the first and last image however creating a succinct display of real-time where all the images are interconnected may be difficult as I don't want to create narrative time. I would like to create multiple concertina book designs where I use different types of images and explore real-time and also further explore this idea of the decisive moment as I began to with my grid of images of a budding flower. I think this format could also work with the quadriptych style found in Sophy Rickett's work that I used images of a branch to explore. I would need to take more images for this as the branch images weren't very successful and so will take these on my next shoot.
This was the first concertina photobook that I made and my intention was to show real-time and the idea that the scene at the start is different to the end one and in the time it's taken for this slight change to occur the decisive moment of the flower has gone as the focus changes and by the last budding flower image, the image has gone. I wanted to create a chronological narrative going from left to right and feel the concertina book style lends itself to showing a sequence and why I experimented with this as a potential outcome. I think this does show real-time as the images are quite similar and keep the attention and scope of the images to quite a closed environment and forces the viewer to focus on the smaller things and here the changes between the images and this focus on change helps show real-time and spot the differences between the first and last image and draws more attention to the subtle changes. This is what made the work I looked at that showed real-time so successful, like Robert Adams work and Eve Sonneman which drew attention to the subtle changes however this was more effective as there were more pages and took greater advantage of this shift in attention towards the subtle differences. In a future concertina book, I may want to experiment with using more images and pages to make greater use of this and showcase ore of my successful images as only using 6 images is a bit restrictive.
I wanted to use a greater variety of images with this photobook as I had shown very similar images in my first book. I wanted to create a narrative with these images and show the passage of time however I feel this was unsuccessful as some of the images do link with each other but as a whole, they don't work as one. I like the diptych on the far right as the last two images create the apparition of being one photograph and a full scene with their combination and are in the style of Sophy Rickett's diptychs. The light and dark contrast between the darker reeds image before the last two images create a narrative of the night becoming day which the owl image also adds to as I found the reeds image and owl image to work well together when experimenting with diptychs. The first two images in the book feel a bit lost here as they don't collaborate well with the rest of it and are a bit lost. However, the repetition of water as a subject matter at the end does create some synergy between the start and finish but the second image doesn't fit that well. Despite this, the subject matter of the first image showing reeds is too different to the last image and so this isn't perfect and feel the first two images stand out too much and just don't work where they currently are in the sequence. Along with this, the obscured nature of the first image and the small size may mean the viewer may not know it’s of water and so this link with the later images may not even be correctly achieved. I think this book starts to show a successful succession of images however it needs refinement to be successful and show the idea of real-time across the whole body of work. I also experimented with using a white piece of card to create the clasp to hold the book together however I feel this stands out too much and the marks and imperfects on the white stand out much greater but was worth experimenting with.
This was the third book that I made and continued with the idea of using the two images to show one scene as I did at the end of the previous book but here made the separation between them the whole book by bookending each image at either end of the sequence. I wanted to imply that in the time between surveying the span of the water or taking the images all these moments in the middle have happened and show the constant moments and things that are happening and draws the viewer in once again to the small details. I feel this is moderately successful however the images in the middle are a bit lost and don't have any connection with each other or complement each other in any way. I feel only the 4th image creates a sense of real-time as the erratic water movement around it is captured and the subject matter of water could fit within the context of the scene that I’ve tried to create with the first and last image. The owl image also doesn’t work as it implied it’s dark and this doesn’t fir the rest of the images or keep continuity with the other images or the greater scene implied. I like this design and the images at either end of the book as with the right images in the centre this could be a successful concept at showing real-time and may develop this design and create a more successful version of this to see if it could be a viable final outcome. I also cut the size of the paper to be narrower as I felt the larger book felt a bit flimsy and this narrower design is much better I feel and there’s less distracting white space above the images and makes it a more compact and better product. I also cut the clasp that holds the book together slightly different as it's more of a point as opposed to a straight rectangular edge and I feel this looks a bit better and slots into the slit better.
I once again went for the smaller and narrower design which I quite like and for the last book I merely combined the images that best showed real-time. I think this is moderately successful as it implies real-time and the images all work on their own and there is no repetition between them showing different styles like the overexposed initial image and blurred image of the leaf. There is some link with them as the first three appear to be water-related and the last three all consist of woodland imagery. I think this is successful and shows multiple moments of pure real-time and the images are all quite simple and observatory and I think this book is a reflection on nature and why I like it. I also feel this is successful due to the central images working well as none of the images stand out too much or intruding on another and the transition from water images to branches and grass is quite good as the two middle images are similar and join the subjects well and allow for the book to flow well. I think so far this is the most successful concertina book that I've made and could work as a good final outcome for this piece of work however using this reflection I will make one or two more books using this feedback to see if I can refine the designs and get a better concertina book. I could for example take these images and group them with the design I used at the start and end of the third book.
As just mentioned, I will use this reflection to improve my concertina book designs as these were my initial designs and am interested in making this a potential final outcome for my work. So far these first attempts are good but feel if I continue with the best elements of each book design and combine some. I believe I can get quite a successful concertina book that shows real-time effectively as this format lends itself to showing this as the row of images automatically hints at a sequence and narrative from left to right and why this format can be so successful and effective for this project. One downfall of working with this format is that the images must all be square, especially when using this template and so this can compromise some of the compositions of the images and limit the ones that work well in a concertina book and is a benefit of printing my images in a standard printed photobook. I also mentioned in my plan I’d experiment with creating a quadriptych and may make one of these however when experimenting with designs in InDesign I didn’t quite have the images to create this effectively but may still make a book showing this to experiment with it anyway as it could work quite well. I also would like to experiment with trying front covers on these concertina books as this could enhance them as well.
Here I wanted to make an attempt at a final outcome and potentially have this as one of my outcomes at the end of my project and wanted to make it longer than six photos which were previously a bit restrictive so I expanded its size which is successful. I once again went for the narrower cut of the paper as felt the more compact size was better for this product and feels less clumsy. Building off my previous attempts I think this is a successful book and illustrates real-time well and shows lots of different little moments in nature while still keeping continuity between the images through their sequencing. I also tried to create somewhat of a cyclical structure with the scene at the start being finished at the end and feels like a diptych that’s been stretched out and that all these moments in the book have happened between looking from the left to right or at least between this space between the reeds all of these small events have occurred. This is amplified as the images are quite zoomed in and macro-like so you’re focused on the little details which was what I aimed to do with this project. I also feel these images flow quite well as it begins with a water image but then some of the reeds and follows this style and subject matter and then bridges back to water and none of the transitions between the images are too jarring and they connect well and this is essential to the narrative of the book and allows you to look at it from left to right as a narrative instead of a random unorganised selection of my images. This is important to achieve in a photo book as it’s the benefits of putting images in this format and feel the images work well with each other and overall the book is engaging to look at and uses a variety of different styles of images. The different aesthetics of the images avoids monotony and each of the images shows real-time, as does the entire book, and the images work well on their own and in the sequence which effectively concludes with the branches on the right of the final image sort of making a frame when coupled with the first image’s reeds and bookends the book nicely. However, in criticism of the book, I could’ve printed it on better quality of paper as this is only basic A4 printing paper and is quite thin and flimsy but this isn’t a great concern and if I printed this on more professional printing paper perhaps it wouldn’t fold as well which is essential to this style of book. I feel I’ve made the most of the concertina photobook format and will certainly use this as one of my final outcomes for this project as this was very successful and shows my work well.
I also attempted to make a concertina book of similar images that showed a branch here for example but it is only three images long as I ran out of images and the other quadriptych attempts I had didn't have enough successful images. This works for the first two images as the branch seamlessly connects between the gaps however after this the final branch doesn't connect and seems a bit out of place. The first two images show how with more time and focus towards this aim it could work in this format however I'm not at a stage where I am taking more images but focusing on an outcome. This was a good idea and feel it could've been successful however I don't have the available images and I'm not sure how the first two or as a whole would show real-time but feel it was worth briefly exploring this idea to see if it could be a viable style to use in my outcomes.
Looking at concertina photobooks was successful and has yielded some successful results and a good final outcome concertina book that I'm happy with and suits the style of my project and I'm glad I explored this method of displaying my work and will use the sequencing practice I've learnt from this when designing a printed photobook.
