Final Decisions

I have decided on the final layout on my photo book. Instead of displaying them in a grid I will be displaying my photographs one per page. This will draw more focus to the individual images and further towards the signage. I experimented with using more than one image per page in a grid format but I found this too distracting and is not how I envisioned my final product. Admittedly, in my previous post I explained how the images were much stronger in numbers, but during my experimentation in layout I found that the single images were more powerful. I still liked the grid layout so I will keep this for my title cover.

Plan for Next Shoot and Photobook

Next I would like to photograph inside some of the shops I have already shot from the outside. I think this would be an interesting accompaniment for my outside shots. I will need to find an interesting way to display this if I were to include this in my end of year photo book.

Possible layouts?

I would like to display my 'outside shots' in a grid as I believe they are much stronger in larger numbers.



















A Photographer who has used grids in their work is Eadweard Muybridge. In his series of photographs 'Animal Locomotion'. Time lapse-style images of human and animal motion are organised in grid format. These correct presentation of images like these are necessary for their success.

I will need to experiment with the layout and organisation of my photographs when constructing my photo book.

Martin Parr

A photographer which has interested me visually is Martin Parr. I have always had an interest in Parr's work and in his somewhat satire photographs of life. 

His series Mar Del Plata reminds me in a way of my work this term. I really like his humorous take on life showing a strange sort of beauty in what we would say be usual standards, 'ugly' photographs.     

I'd like to emulate this feeling in my work

                                            

Small Businesses

I have now included family/small independent businesses in my project. This has increased the amount of images in this set and has allowed me to explore these shop fronts further. What I find the most interesting about these images is the similarity and repetition. I love how almost every building is the same shape and size and framed in a similar way but the signage is so vastly different. There is a feeling of hard work and determination about these images; these businesses will most likely be family run or independent so they will not have financial, managerial or marketing backing unlike huge companies today. I want to be able to capture this in my images.

Alan Dein’s East End Shopfronts of 1988

A fantastic set of work I came across was Alan Dein's East End Shopfronts of 1988. With over 100 photographs in his collection, Dein states his work records the last moments of the Jewish community in his local area.

"The eighties were a terrible time for removing everything, comparable to what the Victorians had done a century earlier. But I have always loved peeling paint, paint that has been weathered and worn seafront textures, and this was just at the last moment before these buildings were going to be redeveloped, so I photographed the shopfronts because this landscape was not going to last.”

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/05/17/alan-deins-east-end-shopfronts-of-1988/

I find this very interesting. I feel a similar way to Dein where he says how he has "loved peeling paint...and worn seafront textures". I have always had an interest in the tumbledown and unusual shop fronts too. My upbringing in an arts/graphic design household has lead me to always appreciate good design and identify poor design.

I'd like to convey this later in my project.

First shoot

My first shoot has been interesting. I found it very enjoyable photographing fast food/takeaway restaurants in my area. I found myself more and more drawn towards the signage and/or lack of. This is an area of interest to me and which I will continue to think about.

Ed Ruscha: Twentysix Gasoline Stations

Ed Ruscha's 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations' seemed like a great place to start on this project. I have always liked Ruscha's work, in particular his graphic art 'Standard'

Ruscha's work 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations' incorporates the ideas of typology which is where I would like to take this project.

http://www.americansuburbx.com/