First Attempt at Front Cover Designs

Above are my first attempts at designing a front cover to go onto both my photo books, one for Leeds and one for London. The top one is more of an experiment with the possibility of creating a fill for some text from one of my photographs but my idea never really went past that.

The next two are a bit more of a bold concept and I guess quite in your face. I personally quite like the use of text over images but the text has to be well placed and work with the image. I am not by any means saying that this is the case with my designs but they are a first attempt and could be worked on further when I take more photographs.

The third design is a bit more of a traditional take and yet still keeping to a very simplistic design. I don't want to overcomplicate any of these front covers so I am trying to keep everything very basic and simple as well as making it look very professional as this is the last ting I will do on my degree.

The name is another sticking point as I have provisionally gone with NEW BRITISH PATRIOTISM as a means of describing the effect and movement towards a new patriotism's that encompasses the multiculturalism of Britain today. It also acts as a play on words with organisations like the BNP, but this does make me worry that it may come across as racist. On the flip side I guess the photographic content should help to steer the book away from these connotations and hopefully everyone will understand the message behind the project. With that said the name is not set in stone so could still be changed.

Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic - Tate Liverpool

I recently went to the Tate Liverpool to visit the Afro Modern exhibition, which explores 'impact of different black cultures from around the Atlantic on art from the early twentieth-century to today.' It follows on from themes raised in my dissertation especially because the exhibition was inspired by the work of Paul Gilroy, who featured heavily in my dissertation.

I was really interested in the photography they had at the exhibition, I especially wanted to see the work of Pirkle Jones, Charles Moore and Gordon Parks. They all produced photography throughout the civil uprising and Black power movement in America during the 1960s/70s.

Evan Hecox: Artistic Process for Incase

Really cool vid about Evan Hecox and his approach to a project for Incase. It is really interesting to get an idea and insight into other artists working methods and to see how they go about a project from start to finish.

Jesse Brew: Graphic Design

I stumbled across this graphic designer called Jesse Brew through one of the many fixed gear bike blogs that I look at daily and they had this image of his up:



And it dawned on me that I am going to have to come up with some sort of design for the front cover/covers and after the lack of success I had with my last foray into book cover design where by I try to screen print it and something went wrong with the screen so loads of paint went through that I didn't plan on. Luckily it worked with the concept of the book so it didn't look too bad. This time round I am thinking about either digitally printing it onto some sort of fabric/material or using some sort of disperse paper technique using a heat press. I think that both of these options will be quicker and easier for me. Back to the poster I really like using a photograph to produce the fill for the text and I think if I can find the right image to go behind then it could work really well as a front cover.

On a different note Jesse Brew's screen printing work is really good and is bike related so of course I am going to like it. I also really like the Alaska montages might give something like that a go after NYC. Basically I just dig this guys creative style like most of his work and photography bits as well.

Nick Waplington: The Wedding

Nick Waplington's project 'The Wedding' is a follow on or continuation of his project 'The Living Room' where by he documented the daily life of a working class, Nottingham family in the late 80s through to the 90s. I think that both projects are very heartwarming and convey a lot of the emotions that are shared between a family and I think that it is amazing that the family gave him so much access and freedom to conduct his photography. This may have just grown over a period of time as he became more of a family friend but I think that the photographs produced are intriguing and engaging and people can really relate to their subject matter. 'The Wedding' is interesting to me because it documents a mixed race relationship and marriage and I think that this is very positive to see a it ultimately portrays a good message of a happy family.

John MacLean: Neighbourhood

With this project John MacLean gave himself the limitation of only shooting in the area around where he lived in Tooting Bec, south-west London. All of the photographs were taken between 1st March 2008 and 24th May 2009. This idea really appeals to me because I often like to go out with no preconceived idea of what I am going to take photographs of, instead just take a walk around an area and see what takes your eye. In most cases you get a lot of rubbish but then you uncover a diamond in the rough and that one image can make it all worth while. I think that this project was posed as more of a challenge for john as he wanted to see what he could get photography wise out of his local area when he has applied his own limitations. I think there are some really nice images in the project but I mainly related to this project because of the philosophy behind it and the photographers approach, and it is one that really appeals to me.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen: Byker Revisited

Photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen lived in Byker originally in the 1970s and documented many of the fellow residents around her and decided to go back and re-photograph the same area and the people that live there. Her first book looked at the working class community that lived in Byker and in many ways gave them a voice in their struggle with being rehoused. The revisited project looks at the new more multicultural community that now resides in Byker and she asks the residents to try and imagine themselves in one image, which she then photographs. I think that this is a really good idea for a photography project and it shows that times have greatly changed in the thirty years between the two books and the racial diversity has become a lot broader and varied, in my opinion for the better.

Original Byker project photographs from the 1970s:







Byker Revisited photographs:

How We Are: Photographing Britain

How We Are was an exhibition from 2007 at the Tate Britain, curated by Val Williams and Susan Bright. It looked at the journey of British photography from back in the day to contemporary work. The photographs were taken all over the country and by all sorts of people and I wish it was still going on as it relates really well to my project.

I particularly like this image by Horace Ove a Trinidadian photographer and filmmaker called 'Walking Proud' and is another racially motivated image that is very powerful.



I need to get my hands on the exhibition catalogue so that I can get a better idea of what other photographers interpretations of Britain are like. Oh and the photograph on the front cover is of a very cool dude, amazing photograph.

Paul Graham: A Shimmer Of Possibility

Paul Grahams photographic project 'A Shimmer Of Possibility', which takes the form of 12 individual, each of which documents a photographic short story of everyday life in today's America, really caught my eye mainly down to the way that the books look as a collection.







The 12 books are all identical in size but they all vary in length as some only contain a single photograph. They are mainly series of images based on something that has interest Paul Graham whether it be someone eating their lunch, having a cigarette or cutting the grass. I find this idea interesting because one of my favorite things to do when photographing is to not go out with any preconceived ideas of exactly what you want to shoot. By this I mean have a vague idea but don't try to be too specific and just let your eye wonder and see what attracts your attention. I find this sense of freedom helps creativley and when you do get a good shot it makes it all the more worthwhile.

There is also the way the books have been put together that I really like. I love the simple design and giving each book a different colour really works in my opinion and makes them work really well as a collection of books. If I end up creating a series of books (I think 12 could be a bit ambitious) it will be very important to think of them not just as stand alone books but as a collection as well. Below are some of the images from the various books.

Don McCullin: In England

Don McCulling is an amazing internationally known photojournalist who has spent a large part of his career focusing on the 'underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and the impoverished.'

In England was an exhibition as well as a book of Don McCullin's work taken from a body of work that spans over half a century whereby he looked at all sorts of different aspects of Britain as a country and the people who inhabit it.

There are a couple of images in particular of his that really stand out for me and particularly in terms of this project. the first is this image of a white woman holding a swastika at a National Socialist rally in 1962 while a policeman looks down on her.



The second image is of two children standing in front of a piece of anti nazi graffiti on a wall, taken when he was documenting the estates of Bradford in the 1970s



The two images deal with different sides of the argument on race issues that were rife in the 1960's and 70's but are equally powerful as images/photographs, and they both go to show what a great photographer Don McCullin is. He managed to capture the emotions that both sets of people so well, as the feeling of contempt and hate being displayed by the woman at the socialist rally is so apparent to see. I think that McCullin really managed to capture Britain at that time and the attitudes people had towards race and the varying discussions that arise as a result. He applied this skill to all of the subjects he photographed and I have really enjoyed looking at his work and taking in what Britain was like long before I was ever around.

Research BEGINS!

As I stated before I am going to start my intial research off by looking at other photographers who have looked at documenting issues of race, identity etc as well as photographers who have looked to document the country or certain aspects of the country.

I will also be looking at photobooks themselves for inspiration as to how I can go about collating my photographs.

Initial Questions Raised?

After thinking a bit more about my project idea I started to come up with a few questions and thoughts that could be taken and explored further into photography projects.

When I first came to Leeds to do my degree it soon struck me how different I felt the makeup of the city was. In London I was used to seeing different faces from many different races on a daily basis and this wasn't the case in Leeds. This isn't me trying to critisise Leeds as a city or say that it isn't multicultural because I feel that me being a student at a smaller art college (when compared to the two other unis) contributed to this. It may also be contradictory to try and compare Leeds to a city the size of London, which is one of the most culturally diverse in the whole world let alone just the country. However this is an experience that impacted on me a lot when I first arrived so I feel it could be interesting and important on a personal level to look at my experiences of multiculturalism in both cities.

Some of the questions that could arise from this range from how does London feel now that I have lived in Leeds for nearly 3 years and vice versa?

Do I now feel that I am more aware of multiculturalism now that I have moved away from London?

How much do my experiences differ in each city?

How important is living in a multicultural city to me?

These are the sort of questions I want to try and answer through the course of this project and through photographing the cities and people around me create an interesting body of work on the subject.

FMP Project Idea

After a period of consideration as to what to do for this FMP and I guess more specifically what central theme I wanted to work around, I have settled on a subject. It has stemmed out of considering that I could carry on looking at the subject of my dissertation, which touched on themes of cultural identity, racism, race in general and multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism is something in particular that I have found myself thinking a great deal about, firstly due to the contrast I personally feel between the two cities that I currently reside in, Leeds and London. There is also the contributing factor that I want to become a secondary school teacher in an inner city school so hopefully I will be teaching children from a whole variety of different ethnic backgrounds. Finally I am going to New York City for a week in the middle of Easter and I feel that it is a city much like London that has so much to offer in terms of diversity and it is too good an opportunity to document some of this and tie it into my project.

I want to document the subject of multiculturalism through photography and I know that I want to take the photographs I produce and make them into handmade books, which could form part of a series depending on what themes and subjects within multiculturalism that I decide to focus on.

This means I have to research both photographers who have tackled not only the theme of multiculturalism but race issues in general and I think it will be interesting to look in both a historical and contemporary context. Secondly I will need to look at how photographers put their photographs together in book form and look at the best way I could go about this.

Inspiration BEGINS! Foals New Music Video

This is the new video for the Foals song Spanish Sahara and I am posting it up because i like both the song and the video. The shots in the video of the sea with all of the broken ice look amazing and I think I could watch that all day and it would make a very good screensaver for a computer.

I really want to do some more moving image work and I am not quite sure what form this will take yet but I could do some personal work to accompany a piece of music, so I guess a music video or piece of audio visuals. I think I would like to do something a bit more abstract that I have done previously and dare I say it a bit more experimental.

FMP Blog Started

This is the new blog for my FMP project and I have made the change back to blogger after a horrible experimentation with tumblr, never again.

I have found it very difficult to get going on this project because as soon as the dissertation was over I got an interview for Goldsmiths so I had to get a portfolio sorted for that. Since the interview I have found it difficult to find any ideas for projects. I know that I want to do creative projects using a variety of different mediums, such as moving image, photography and graphic design. What I am struggling with is finding a theme or subject that links these different areas of practice together to form an overarching project. I think at the moment I am going to look for projects briefs that interest me and as long as I am getting enjoyment from it then that is enough and hopefully something will fall into place. This could be the wrong thing to do but I feel if I wait any longer for a central idea it will be too late and I won't have started any work.