Layout Trials

This weekend I have been playing around with layout, and have been trying to bring everything together in a way that seems cohesive. I have been told in the past that I should not include more than 5 different elements in a photobook, as this can become overwhelming for the viewer and just end up looking messy. I have shot on a bunch of different cameras- some with different sensor ratios, and have also been experimenting with square cropping. Additionally, there are images that have been created by scanning using ‘PDF scanner’ on the iPhone, so I have a huge range of different shapes and sizes of image.

To begin with, I re-formatted the images where I combined string, old images of Shiny and I from Facebook, and sms messages. I made sure that everything was consistent in size and placement, but some of the images were a little bit different in shape. So I decided to keep the width and placement of the base line the same, and this helped give them a sense of cohesion. From there, I used the same baseline to create clean frames for the simple square images I had taken, as well as the landscapes. I also knew that I wanted to include some larger images, but a full page bleed just looked odd, so I created a template with quite a thick white boarder. I liked the way that Keiko Nomura used a lot of white in her book Otari- Pristine Peaks as I think it helped keep a sense of balance and humility through the work- I’m not sure if humility is the right word here… formality perhaps. Below are some examples of images within the key layouts.

When I placed some of my ‘shot from the hip’ images into these frames, they suddenly seemed to work, particularly when cropped. I was also pleased to see that the black and white film scans were very effective when framed with white.

I also had a few screengrabs from FaceTime sessions with Shinya, so I had a play around with them. I initially duplicated the smaller image of me and placed it over the top of the main image for logistical reasons. This was because the larger image of Shinya wasn’t wide enough to fill the frame, and if I stretched it the image of me was cut off. So I re-added it over the top and added some string. I think this is actually quite effective because it emphasises the separation between us, but the red of the string ‘ties’ us together or ‘joins’ us. I don’t have a very good internet connection, so the larger images are a bit pixellated. So I thought, why not enhance that, and used a pixellation filter to enhance the ambiguity of the photo. I actually quite like the result, as I think it plays on an idea I mentioned earlier in this project regarding fading memory, and how sometimes we cant quite remember things from the past in perfect clarity. I am also considering making Shinya’s face slightly pixellated throughout the entire folio. This might be a way to further push that notion, and maybe as the narrative continues, he gets more and more blurry, as my metaphorical ‘memory of him’ fades. This could also nod to the passing of time, which is re-occuring as a theme throughout my book.

Next I will have to print everything out and play with sequencing, because I like to do things in a tactile way (rather than on a screen) where possible.