I am using prints to experiment with paper weight and finish. In my previous mock outcome I used paper that was too thin along with other mistakes that I will fix and experiment with in my final outcome folder. These four prints above are all 170 gsm and silk 

Overall I think the prints were a good way to experiment with my images and see which ones id like to use in a book. In the future, I will use a less expensive way to print out all of my working images as I will print them out in bulk and a lot smaller. The purpose of using Mixam to print out these four images was to see what paper weight and type id like to use in my book. Reflecting on this, the 170 gsm was perfect for the pages of a book so when I zend mine off to print ill use the closest option to this. Furthermore, the silk was the best option for my photos as it doesn't make the dark parts reflect the light too much but also makes it look professional. 

I liked the idea of using a well-known phrase/saying for the title. I had seen it used originally in some of Martin Parr's books, for example 'signs of the times', 'the last resort', 'from A to B', 'the cost of living' and 'small world'. I thought the way he used the phrases encompassed the satire he uses throughout the book so I wanted to apply this top my own title. I thought of some common sayings and used the ones that I could see relating to my work, for example the elephant in the room could refer to the image I took in Wolverhampton of the lady with the elephant onesie on and holding the charity box. The elephant in the room I thought could reflect all of my images as most of them are the things we don't really talk about in society, for example the images of the homeless people. The title 'we're only human' could also refer to my project as when applied to my book it takes quite a sarcastic meaning. The title 'down to earth' to me said a lot about the books content. Lastly, 'fly on the wall' refers to an unknown observer of a particular situation. This title is a metaphor for me as a photographer creating the book, what it is about and how I made it. My idea from the beginning was to observe what happens on the street and document it by taking photos, so therefore this title would be the most fitting.

I used powerpoint to experiment with different layouts for a front cover, using some of the titles I thought of before. At first I tried different places for the title to go, and whether I wanted it underlined or in capitals, etc. Then I used the elephant in the room title with the image of the woman in the elephant onesie, and tried this with a few different layouts. Out of these I liked using the full image, similarly to my previous mock outcome book. However, to then see the image out have to turn it horizontally, so I tried more but this time with the image landscape. This didn't work either because although it worked well with the image it left too much white space that I didn't like, as I want the whole book to be quite full, absorbing and chaotic like Xoubanova's book. After this I decided that the image and title just weren't working with the book so I started experimenting with the title 'fly on the wall' instead. At first I used 3 images that I thought might work and narrowed it down to the image with the woman smoking because I think it went with the title.

Using Adobe photoshop, I used different fonts to see which one would go with the cover the best, and decided on the one marked in green because it looked professional and just the right size. I turned it horizontally as I did previously because it worked well with my chosen image, and although I was worried that you wouldn't be able to easily read it I found that facing the right, it was easy to read.  

To start thinking about the layout of my images in a book I first needed to sequence them. As I am quite a visual person, I decided to print out all of the working images so far in my project in A5 and lay them out on the floor. From there, I decided how I wanted to sequence them, and started by matching similar colours together. All the images in number 2 of the screenshot above are the images I took out because they had a similar colour theme. I also wanted to sequence my images based on theme, for example in number 3 I took out all the images featuring people on their mobile phones. In step 4 I grouped all of the images focusing on homelessness and linked these to step 3 with the last 2 images of this step including birds and phones, and the first two images on step 4 including birds and homelessness. These are the little details I want to use to link my book together as I am imitating the way Xoubanova uses tiny details to link his book 'Graffiti' together. In step 5, I took all the images with political connotations and grouped them together, however I didn't like the first layout so I changed it to the layout in the second picture (the highlighted bit was the part I changed). This is how I started organising the layout of the book, grouping certain images together and pairing images that link together.

Once I had grouped sections of images together I then combined them, attempting to link each group to the next. The screenshot above shows the order in which I placed the images, a new row representing a new page. I originally did this with the printed out images physically, but I replicated it digitally to show the links I made. I thought I would open the book up with some social issues such as the graffiti of 'communism' and 'anti-socialism' because it might set the scene for what the book is mainly going to be about: our culture and the connotations of it.

I paired the two images of the same police man together because I wanted the viewer to see the officer in both conditions of seemingly 'telling someone off' and then talking to a child. Then, on the next row I used similar colour schemes to link the pages together with the orange, then with red on the next row. 

After this I grouped all of my images with themes focusing on the pandemic and ordered them with the two women social distancing while talking first, then with the social distancing sign, then linking onto the next page with another similar social distancing sign but with a couple close together. Then I used to negative test I found on the street and on the next page the women with the mask and the protest stickers.

The next eqquence I made was the mannequin legs and body parts to display the underwear combined with the lady looking at the mannequins in the shop window. This image then links on to the next two as they both feature older women in a mobility scooter and are linked together by the blue colour themes in each one.

My next group is all my images that feature people on their phones, I tried to keep the blue hue going, which is why I put those images at the start of this group so it could link to the previous one. I started with a few random photos of people on their phones, then moved it on to singular people using their phones and then to couples on the street not talking to each other because they are using their phones.

I finished the phone section with the two images of people taking photos of a seagull, then started the new section of homelessness with birds also. The third to last page and the last page I originally paired both images of people eating with each other and the same with the two homeless people, however I changed this as I thought it would send more of a message if I paired the people eating with the homeless people. I also paired the images of the group of men giving the homeless guy their match ticket together so that the viewer could understand what was happening.

This is my first experiment as to how to include 3 images on one page, as when planning and grouping my images together I used 2-3 image per page. The first looked overcrowded so I used the second instead.

This book is quite neat, following nearly the same layout throughout. I think this was important to do first just to start off and to use the sequencing, however I don't like how repetitive and organised it all looks. I like the idea of Xoubanova's book reflecting the medium he is photographing (graffiti), so as the street is often chaotic and bustling in my next layout I wanted to try and create the same atmosphere.

For this layout, I decided to apply more of Xoubanova's techniques to make the book look more messy and chaotic.

I used how Xoubanova layered two images together because he was trying to tell the viewer something, or visibly show the connection between the two images without the viewer having to work it out for themselves. For the first I used two images that were in the sequence I made as they went well together, and I liked the contrast of the lady who had her whole identity hidden behind a mask and sunglasses, etc compared to the anti-vaccine and COVID stickers. Then, I went a bit off of my original sequence order because I though that these two images worked well with this kind of layout. With the magazine that says 'how much does it cost to save the planet' and the lady in the elephant onesie with a charity box I thought the viewer could draw some interesting conclusions from the layering.

As I liked Xoubanova's work with the layering of images so much, I included this one in my final layout. I couldn't decide which corner to put the image in but eventually I used the layout on the top right. 

Furthermore, I played around with the layouts of all the pages that I had previously put together, however I only included a few different ones here to show my experimentation as there were too many. For the most part I knew which images I wanted on each page and paired together, this was just me figuring out how to make the book less boring and repetitive in the way the layout is set out. I took most of my inspiration from Xoubanova's book trying to use different angles, etc for the photos to go on.

I spent a lot more time on this layout than any other that I've done in the final or mock outcomes, using Xoubanova's style as a guide throughout. This is the final layout, although I added the first 2 and last 2 pages in after, alongside the front cover as I explain below.

As the book 'Home From Home' has the written piece exaplaining what the book was about at the end, I wanted to something similar to this rather than just a book full of photos with no context. However, this part was tricky as I also wanted to keep my work opinion-free similarly to Martin Parr and not force a meaning for all the images onto the viewer. I considered writing something for the end of the book like Chris did so that the viewer wouldn't see it until the end and be able to still draw their own opinions from the images, however I still thought that by doing this I would be explaining too much of my book. After considering this, I thought that putting the textbook definitions of the two things the book is about somewhere in the book would allow a tiny bit of context without using any opinions still. Therefore, the viewer will be able to know what the book is about while also still having an open mind and being slightly clueless as to what consists of the images.

I originally envisioned this as a back cover, as like a blurb. This changed when I was uploading my book onto Mixam and I realised that the first page would be blank as I used all my pages as a double-page spread, which would mean either that I would have to have one page as the inner front cover-printed in 350gsm rather than the 170 that the rest of the book is in or that there would be a blank page at the beginning. As a result of this, I put the definitions at the beginning of the book, separating them onto 2 pages. I like how this turned out as now the viewers also have to read the definitions before looking at the images. 

Lastly, something I really liked about using these was the irony in them. For example: " distinguished from animals by superior mental development" seemed very satirical. It fits in with the irony of the rest of the book.

I didn't include anything else on this page, for example another of my working images because the rest of my book is so chaotic, and I like the simplicity of this first double-page contrasting to the rest of the book.

After coming to the conclusion that the definitions page was going to be on the inner front cover and first page, I looked at creating a back cover. I wanted something that would be the same as the front in either colour or image, so after looking again at my primary research on photobooks, the book called 'Horror Vacui' (shown below) stood out to me again as it did when I was making the front cover as it used the same image but half on the front, and half on the back. Therefore, I also used the same image as the one I used on the front, however just the other half of it. I think this worked really well as a back cover, although I ended up not using the text on the back in my final back cover and putting the text on the inner back cover, with my name and the date/ years the photographs were taken.

The adjustments I made to the front cover were due to that when I printed a test-print of the book out, the white text seemed very harsh on the image. It didn't look integrated in, or like it was supposed to be there so I went onto photoshop and changed the opacity of the text, as you can see above. In the final version, I went with the 40% opacity because it was the same colour as the brick and the others were too faint as I don't think you'd be able to see it properly in print.

Above is a few of Martin Parr's book covers, from where I got a lot of inspiration for example to use the same image on the front cover as on the back, like in the last resort and the image with simple text on the front as shown in 'from A to B' and 'Signs of the Times'.

Above are screenshots of the book preview I got when I ordered my book from Mixam. Seeing it in the format of a book really helped me vision what did and didn't work well before I ordered it, with pages especially. This is because a large fault when designing my book on indesign was that I didn't account for the inner front and back covers, which led to me splitting the definitions page into two pages, as well as including my name, date and the title of the book on the inner back cover. For both of these I used the same font as on the front cover.

As I talked about in my proposal, I wanted to create an Instagram account to post my photos on. My main outcome is the book above but I think it is still important to consider your audience, and in today's society a good way to show your images is via social media. I have posted singular working images and more recently photos I have taken of my book.

I'm happy that I created this account as it was something I said I wanted to do in my proposal, so using my images in this way worked well.