Jellehavermans:photobook

Photobook analysis'

Information Petra Collins: Coming of Age Written by Petra Collins, Contribution by Marilyn Minter and Alessandro Michele, Introduction by Laurie Simmons

Publish Date: October 31, 2017 Format: Hardcover Category: Photography - Individual Photographers – Monographs Publisher: Rizzoli Trim Size: 8 x 10 Pages: 208 US Price: $45.00 CDN Price: $60.00 ISBN: 978-0-8478-6103-3

Petra Collins is a Canadian photographer and creative from Toronto. Marilyn Minter is an American artist and writer living and working in New York. Karley Sciortino is the author of Vogue’s Breathless column, host of the Vice Slutever show, and founder of Slutever.com. Jamia Wilson is a writer, commentator, and feminist activist. Barbie Ferreira and Diana Veras are American models.

1.The book as an object (size, materials used, binding, etc) This hardcover book is professionally bound and looks and feels expensive; although the price is relatively low (probably because of large prints?) The cover, back and spine of the book are covered in a very fine fabric. The book is fairly small, but not thin. It has 200 pages. If you browse through the book you’ll notice different printing styles are used. Some pages are printed on matt paper and others on glossy paper.

2. Content and context: What is it about? Why was it made? Who made it? Does the book express an interesting vision on book design (maybe the photographers and designers made other books). The book is a 10 year retrospect of the work of Petra Collins. It features images she made from her youth – now. Furthermore, there are a few interviews and letters inside the book that give extra insight into her work and personal motivations. Petra Collins curated a book before this one (called Babe), but this is the first book completely consisting of her own work. On the website of Petra Collins, the book is referred to as a biography and monograph. And I feel that it is both at the same time. The content is all about girlhood and growing into adulthood as a female, but the texts and interviews give depth and meaning to the pictures by telling you more about the personal life and experiences of the photographer.

3.Purpose: For whom was the book made (what audience, what edition)? I guess the book was made to attract a broad, young audience in bookstores and museum shops. It is a fairly accessible book; because most pictures are fairly attractive to the eye; saturated and pastel colours and lots of pretty girls. Most pictures have a fashion kind of quality to them. I would say this book’s target audience is young people (18 – 35) with an affinity for fashion, feminism and the female gaze.

4. Relation content and form: title (why, what does it say?), presentation of photographs on the page, montage and narrative, image-text relations, typography etc.). he title is a reference to (troublesome) youth of Petra Collins herself. The book contains series which are all about being a young female, and showing what it is to explore life as one. She mainly shoots hazy pictures which have a real traditional feminine or ‘girly’ vibe to them. She uses a lot of bright colours that create a flashy atmosphere. I think the main colour orange is used because it goes along really well with the pictures; because of the high saturation and it’s striking quality.

The narrative is chronologic. It starts with her earlier, experimental work, and finishes with commercial work she made for magazines. An interesting choice is to print the commercial work on glossy paper instead of normal matte paper. It gives the end of the book a flashy and magazine-like feel.

The texts (a few interviews with Petra Collins and