Final proposal: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Rejected4-benjaminli.png|100px|thumb|left|Left: accepted picture. Right: rejected picture]] In the initial design of the book I placed the rejected and accepted picture each separately on page. Together the form a spread. The rejected picture was placed as big as possible on the right page, while the accepted picture had the size of passport picture and was placed on the left page. By doing so, the attention is on the picture with the mark. Then hopefully people would compare the two pictures. To put more emphasis on the comparison, I believe I have to place each big picture the same size. [[File:Rejected3-benjaminli.png|100px|thumb| | [[File:Rejected4-benjaminli.png|100px|thumb|left|Left: accepted picture. Right: rejected picture]] In the initial design of the book I placed the rejected and accepted picture each separately on page. Together the form a spread. The rejected picture was placed as big as possible on the right page, while the accepted picture had the size of passport picture and was placed on the left page. By doing so, the attention is on the picture with the mark. Then hopefully people would compare the two pictures. To put more emphasis on the comparison, I believe I have to place each big picture the same size. [[File:Rejected3-benjaminli.png|100px|thumb|left|Left: accepted picture. Right: rejected picture]] | ||
Revision as of 17:22, 1 March 2015
Book: Rejected
Serie of found images of yearbook photos. These photos are yearly made of children (and staff) of every school. The photo is a plain portrait where children suppose to look happy.
The serie of photos I found consist not only of happy looking children but also the ones who are rejected. Most of the rejected ones (95%) are marked with a black pen. The mark is sometimes very minimal, in other occasions very aggressively added to the portraits. It is fascinating to see the choice of the photographer, to see which photo is accepted and which one is not.
The portraits are from a time when digital photography was not existing. No feedback information in the form of a little digital screen on the camera or a laptop connected to the camera showing the pictures just made, existed. The photographer had to made a decision in a split second to redo a picture. Only after the film was developed, the photographer could evaluate his choice and see which picture is the better one.
Rejected is a book where I show both the accepted and rejected pictures. The book gives an insight in how yearbook photos look in a non-digital era and the choices the photographer made. I believe that in the digital era nowadays rejected pictures are filtered out (or destroyed) immediately; Rejected doesn't exist in my opinion in the current status of photography.
Rejected tells us something about how you are a not supposed to be, the choice the photographer made and his action afterwards to the portraits (the mark). The mark itself reveals in a certain way the personality of the photographer.
Design & Concerns
The total collection consist of 220 pictures. The challenge of the design of the book is how to keep the book interesting with 220 pictures all roughly looking the same. Are people interesting seeing all these 220 pictures or is a short essay combined with just a few of them enough? Is the topic itself strong enough to fill a book? I find it difficult to answer these questions.
In the initial design of the book I placed the rejected and accepted picture each separately on page. Together the form a spread. The rejected picture was placed as big as possible on the right page, while the accepted picture had the size of passport picture and was placed on the left page. By doing so, the attention is on the picture with the mark. Then hopefully people would compare the two pictures. To put more emphasis on the comparison, I believe I have to place each big picture the same size.
What might ad to the book is to have some people from the field of photography write an essay on the topic of yearbook photos or to do a critical review. People like Hans Aarsman or Erik Kessels could be interesting to ask. Yet, I don't see me making this book in the near future and to approach people for an essay or review means I need to produce the book any time soon. NOTE: I do believe in this book, but to ask third parties to contribute, I need a budget and a clear timeframe for the back. Next to that I believe I need a publisher for this book. It doesn't make sense to just make a self-publiced, small edition. The topic of this book says something about photography in general and is to my opinion applicable worldwide.
Another point of research could be the mark. What does the mark mean? Where does it stand for? Research can be done to its length, width and density. The mark is the handwriting of the photographer and reveals much about his choices in making the pictures and the way of looking at the pictures afterwards. The mark could be an interesting guide to design the book. A good example is Sebastian Schmieg's book 56 Broken Kindle Screens. Besides the beautiful collection of broken screens, the book is also very clever designed; the order of pictures is decided by the amount of white in it. The more you come to the end of the book, the more the pictures appear to be black.
FEEDBACK: (Frits, Andre, David, Nuthuis and classmates)
- Show all the pictures and keep the pair intact.
- Ad essays.
- Mark as guidline. Research on the mark (Andre & David).
- Connect this collection of pictures/the topic of rejected to my own pictures/rejected pictures in general. Broaden/extent it. What makes a picture bad? (Nutshuis; Bem &Blankenvoort).
- Comparison and rhythm (Andre).