Jeddah Diary

I’m getting closer to having to produce a mock print of my photobook, so I’m looking for inspiration on layouts and binding methods at the moment. I think I have mentioned before that I don’t want the layout and the binding to overshadow the images or the narrative of the photobook, but at the same time I would like to have some sort of feature to the book. But first, it is important to think about using layout, and sticking to a set number of layouts so that the book isn’t too disjointed.

One photographer that has a simple yet effective layout is Olivia Arthur, in her photobook Jeddah Diary. What I like about this is it is a straightforward book (no gatefolds or sewn in flaps, etc) and the simplicity really allows the viewer to focus on the images and text. It reads a little like a scrapbook or a journal. I also like the combination of typed text and handwritten text, but the typed text features much more heavily to maintain uniformity.

Here are some of the images from the book. The images are either square or rectangular in shape, but they only appear in two ratios. I think that including a lot of negative white space around the images also aids in the effectiveness of this book.

(1) Arthur, A 2012, Jeddah Diary, photographic series, viewed 14 May 2020, <https://oliviaarthur.com/Jeddah-Diary>