Earlier I wrote a piece exploring my understanding of a photobook and how I wanted to start P4 with these principles in mind. The post can be found here and Gossage’s principles are as follows;

1. Should contain great work
2. That work should then function as a concise world within the book itself
3. The design of the book should complement what’s being dealt with
4. The book should deal with content that sustains an ongoing interest.

I was curious to see if I would agree with these qualities after I had produced my final photobook and in most ways I do.

1. Great work, while seemly subjective also makes sense for the scope of the photobook. Unlike a photo journal I believed that each photo has carry the same impact and weight as the last. Otherwise it will stick out like a sore thumb. Unlike a journal you are not telling a story from beginning to end, each photo should be able to communicate with one another, from anywhere in the book and a weak photo subtracts from this. In the future I hope to take even more photos when creating a photobook, because while piecing together the book at times it felt like I wanted more variety in a shot, for example a medium inside of a close up. Though I had taken a lot of photos, I didn’t allow myself to focus on a certain pose and try different angles, zoom and light something I will have to work on in the future if I really want the best shot of the “great work.”

2. It really was important that I kept everything returning back to that dark eerie theme. The consult with Bella was practically useful in this as she pointed out photos in my book that didn’t fit within the world. Example this image was flagged as being almost sexy; and therefore through a spanner in the the overall theme and feeling of the book.

I found that it having the extra set of eyes, really helped as I would not have picked up on this myself. I will work to continue to show others my work in the future giving them as little information as possible to what I’m trying to achieve so I can see what fits within the sequence and what doesn’t. This is something I wish I had be able to do with my first photo journal (PB3) as time management had not given me the chance to show off the work to unbiased parties looking to give constructive criticism of my work.

Another instance this occurred was when deciding on a title for the photobook as that also worked to add to the world. Brain suggested getting out a thesaurus and really try to find something that tied the whole book together. I had discussed how in pervious posts that the name was going to work to unite the book, even more so then the design or the sequencing and again, feedback was the key to finding the title Seize. To further help me in the future I’ll look to brainstorm ideas on paper, as I had only really played with words in my head. It wasn’t until i sat down and starting writing out the words I was able to find the right word.

3. 

Design played a huge roll in the piecing together of my photobook, it lost all it’s intensity and mood when I set the images on a white background rather than black. The idea that the design should complement the images was the quality I knew would matter from the start and something as simple as a fill colour change affected the overall mood. I will continue to design around my photos in the future. As for layout, this was something that just came from trail and error. Looking at the images getting them set how I wanted then asking for feedback. This again is really just a time practice and I will make sure to continue to leave enough time to play with my images in terms of layout.

4. This fourth quality was something I struggled with the most, as I wasn’t sure it would sustain a interest or if anyone would want to keep looking at my photobook. While I do think this is the case, your photobook should hold the viewers interest. I also think it’s not something you can always get on your first try. All you can do to overcome this, is produce your best work, as you can’t control how people will react to it. I picked a mood that I wanted to share with others through my photobook and if through my final feedback I am not successful I will take the critique and work to produce something better next time. As I feel all subject matters have interest it’s how you execute it that counts the most.

Overall I feel as if I tried to keep these qualities in the back of my mind when creating my photobook and wouldn’t have created a piece of work I was happy with, had I not keep seeking feedback based on each of these points.