The Black House - Colin Jones

The Black House is another really interesting book that deals with the issues of race in and around the time I was looking at in my dissertation (the 1970's - 1980's). This book is a very good documentation of a troubled time in the UK in terms of social issues such as racial integration. 'The Black house' was a halfway house on the Holloway Road in London for young black men who were or had been in trouble with the Police.

This is an extract from an article on the Time Out website that talks about the project in more depth:

'In 1973, Colin Jones (dubbed ‘the George Orwell of British photography’) was commissioned to produce illustrations for a newspaper article about a community project for young black men in Islington. Published by the Sunday Times under the headline ‘On the Edge of the Ghetto’, the story proved explosive and by 1977, when more of Jones’ pictures were exhibited at the Photographers’ Gallery, the media had nick-named the hostel ‘The Black House’.

Though the project was officially called Harambee, the media took advantage of the fact that it was less than a mile away from the so-named lair of black power activist and infamous murderer Michael de Freitas (Michael X), the subject of a high-profile trial in 1972. Jones’ pictures had nothing to do with the site where de Freitas lived, but when news of the hostel broke, the papers resurrected the name.'

More here, very interesting: http://www.timeout.com/london/features/2936/Colin_Jones_and_the_Black_House.html

Black Britain: A Photographic History

Black Britain: A Photographic History is a book of photography compiled by Paul Gilroy who I looked at for my dissertation. It is a very interesting book that documents visually the history of black people living in the UK.

Tom Wood - Bus Odyssey

When I picked up this book i felt like I could immediately relate to it. I really liked the idea behind the photographs as they were all taken in, on and around the bus. The bus is something that everyone uses at some point in their lives and when you think about it is a very weird environment. A lot of the time people are all sitting together but there is very little communication between everyone. This project is described as a look at the 'somewhat banal marginal sides of everyday life.' and that many people on the bus 'embrace each other with the same absent intensity with which the other people on the bus distance themselves from each other'.

I think that this makes for an interesting place to photograph and in essence a challenge. Wood used a Leica camera that had a quieter shutter so that people wouldn't hear his camera as easily. There was also the issue of photographing out the window due to the reflection but in many ways this creates a nice effect as you can see both people outside and inside the bus at the same time.

Martin Parr

Photographs taken from a book looking at an overall selection of Martin Parr's work.









Above photographs are taken from Martin Parr's 'Think of England' book.

I think that Martin Parr was going to be an obvious inspiration for me in this project. We are both dealing with a similar subject matter in England and its people and in many cases taking photographs in very working class areas of working class people in regular day to day activities. There is also a stylistic similarity in terms of the use of bright colour and where possible I have tried to create photographs with a high level of contrast so that they really jump off the page. However I do think there are some major differences between my project and many of his especially that of humour. I have not tried to take funny photographs that are in effect visual puns, which many of Parr's photographs do. This isn't to say that some of my photos do do this but what I think is important is that I didn't intentionally seek to do this and I didn't want my books to have an overarching feeling of humour. I think that before I started actually taking photographs for this project that I had a very Martin Parr image in my head of what sort of photographs I was going to come out with. This didn't really happen when I started to actually go out and meet people and I guess this has been part of the natural progression of the project.

Saul Leiter

Finding Saul Leiters work was a slice of luck because i had never heard of him before. I cannot believe how much I like some of the photographs in this book, which is described inside as an 'unfinished and brilliant scrap book', which 'has the feeling of the instant which flashes across, an instant that Saul Leiter alone can see.'

I think this idea of moments and the fact that they are described as his moments that he has identified and captured in a split second perfectly encapsulates everything that I love about photography. I also really like the idea of them being 'unfinished' as many of the photographs have been hurriedly taken and are blurred or obscured in some way. I can really relate to this idea and methodology as for this project I have met and seen people along the way that I have wanted to photograph but unfortunately the window of opportunity has been so quick.This has resulted in many the blurred photograph but of which I haven't chosen to include in my books but I like this idea of a scrap book that shows a wide range of the photographs taken when out and about. there is also the sense of voyeurism that you get from looking through this book as many of the photographs appear to be taken behind objects that make there way into shot and give the impression that Saul was hiding and didn't want to be seen by his subject. I would say that my project has had elements of this at times because the project shifted when I started to use a zoom lens so that I could photograph people from further away and in some cases without the need to talk to them. It was a case of balancing this within my project as I didn't want all of my photographs to look like this as I believe there is great power in a photograph when you have someone looking right down the lens of the camera and really connecting to the fact that they are having their photo taken by a complete stranger.

I really like the colour photography in the book. There is more black and white but I think that America is a great place to shoot in colour because everywhere is full of advertising and bright signage that lends itself so well to street photography.

Saul Leiter

Further Photographer Research

After a chat with David in one of my tutorials it became clear that I should go back and continue doing some further photographer research to gain an idea where I stand in terms of what sort of photographs I am taking in this project.

This meant going to the Library and spending a good amount of time looking through photographer books to find some examples of photographers who have approached projects in a similar way to myself and help to put my work into some kind of context.

I will also aid another side of my research as to how to best present my images and whether I should do things like put a title under each photograph, border the photographs etc.

Book Design Development

A5 Japanese Binding.



A4 Japanese Binding.



Experimenting with A5 corner Binding.

Above are two examples of the development for the design of the book itself. I personally really like the Japanese binding style, it is very simple yet very effective. I also like the way that it looks with the visible binding as I gives it a very hand made feel because you know that someone bound it by hand. The second example where I attempted to bind it on the corner so that it would open in a fan like motion, just wasn't a practical and easy way to enjoy the book. I think I envisaged it working better in my head, so that idea was quickly dropped. I have been trying to Japanese bind more as I want my level of finish to be a lot higher when it comes to binding my final 2 books. Just after binding three books and a fourth set of covers I feel that I have improved and I am starting to pick up some useful techniques. I am planning to bind the two covers in different colour covers and I still need to try and come up with a good and simple idea for the cover. I want some very simple lettering on the front and then for the first page to be a more colourful and thoughtfully designed cover page.

Peter Granser - Coney Island

Peter Granser's book on Coney Island caught my eye recently when I was having a browse through the library. Firstly because I have recently been to NYC and made a visit to Coney Island as well as taking my own photographs when I was there. I think it is such an exciting place to take photographs because it is such an unusual place. It is now extremely run down and decrepit and full of odd characters, which make for interesting photographical content. There is also something about Coney Island that lends itself really well to colour photographs as it is jam packed with faded paintwork and interesting hand painted signs. Granser's photographs both the buildings and the people in a very charming way that still portrays Coney Island as an interesting place to visit. Below is one of the photographs I took when I was in Coney Island recently.