EDDIE EPHRAUMS
Prior to the workshop I thought it might be helpful to share a few thoughts on photobook making:
THE BENEFIT OF A HANDS-ON PHOTOBOOK WORKSHOP
You can learn so much on a workshop, for example seeing how others respond to a book you’ve made. You can observe their immediate reaction, watching how they handle the book, noticing the way they view the pages, and benefitting from their feedback. You can find out if their reaction to the book was what you intended? If not, why not? You can then make changes to the book and, again, get feedback. Book making is a stage-by-stage, iterative process, and a workshop provides a unique opportunity to work within a feedback loop.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD PHOTOBOOK?
A good book is more than just a set of great images. First, there’s the concept and the way the title can put a unique or intriguing spin on the subject. Then there’s the narrative, the picture content/sequencing and any text. The design and picture layout also inform the book’s message. And not to be forgotten is the physical nature of the book and the way the book performs. How the book feels, sounds and even how it smells also contribute to its overall appreciation – which explains why bookshops are important.
Q: If you have a particular favourite book, what is it that makes the book work for you? How might you integrate its values into your own book?
IT’S A PERSONAL THING
So much of what each of us might like about a favourite book, or what we want to communicate through our own books is unique to each of us. Our individual preferences will be shaped/informed by our life experiences, by the subjects we are interested in photographing and the audience we want to communicate with. It’s even down to cultural differences, especially when it comes to design. In my photobook collection I have books about photobooks on Japan, China, Holland and South America, to name a few.
Q: What is unique about you/your own photography that will help make your book unique?
UNDERSTANDING WHAT MAKES A PHOTOBOOK WORK
I suggest breaking down a photobook into its component parts and analysing each. Imagine how each part informs and affects the whole, and how the look and meaning of the book would be altered if one or more parts were changed. For example, how would the book be affected if the pictures were altered in size, or if they were used full-bleed rather than bordered? What would happen if a different typeface were used, or if the size and weight of the text were altered, or if the text was changed from solid black to dark grey? Changing one or more of these elements might completely change the meaning of the book, and make the difference between a successful – well conceived book – and one that doesn’t tick all the necessary boxes.
Q: Pick a book from your photobook collection that really works for you. Ask yourself why? Now pick one that doesn’t work so well. Again, ask yourself why?
JUST HOW IMPORTANT IS DESIGN?
Design helps to make the message and purpose of the book clear. The way a book is designed also includes the choice of materials. Design communicates how the photographer sees and feels about their work, and expresses how they want the book to appeal to the viewer’s senses – not just to their sense of sight. Design puts a personal stamp on a book. It should aim to be distinctive, but not overstated. Simple is best, especially when starting out. A good tip: use one typeface only, but choose a font that has different weights to alter/add emphasis. e.g. light, book, medium, heavy, extra heavy, in both standard and italic.
Q: If you look at your photobook collection, find the design of a particular book you like. What do you like about the picture layout? And what about the text design? How might you draw inspiration from this for your own book?
IF YOU WERE TO FOLLOW ONE SIMPLE RULE
For every book you make there are many decisions to be made. How can you simplify and help clarify this decision making process? My advice is always to be guided by one simple rule – let the book dictate. Make your decisions on what’s right for the book, rather than trying to satisfy personal ego or being attached to personal favourite images, which on their own might be great, but which might not support the narrative of the book.
Q: what are you attached to about your book project? What might you let go of that would help the book succeed?
SOME SUGGESTED READING
If you’re interested in learning more about photobooks and what makes them work (why wouldn’t you?!), then I would recommend Martin Parr’s and Gerry Badger’s excellent Photobook I, II and III series. Other books about books you might want to look at are The Book of 101 Books, or for a totally different cultural take, have a look at Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ‘70s'.
Caroline Tollyfield’s Common Joy – the finished book. A ‘Collector’s’ version of the 3-hole sewn book is housed in a wraparound card sleeve, with an original Fuji Instax print attached. The images inside the book are enlarged scans from the Instax originals.
Preparation for the workshop
** We are offering a £50 workshop discount if you purchase the Affinity Publisher app we will use prior to the workshop and install it on your laptop. At the time of writing, Affinity publisher is half price and a genuine bargain at £24-00. Our studio iMacs are available to anyone who doesn’t have their own computer.
– do try to have a go with the Affinity Publisher software. You can trial it for free
– once you’ve signed up for the workshop we will email you a couple of Affinity Publisher layouts we’ve prepared specially for the workshop, one is landscape format, the other portrait. You can use these to familiarise yourself with the software
– the sample documents we have produced are A5. This format is ideal for desktop A3 and A3+ printers, also for larger A2 printers such as the Canon 1000 and Epson P800.
– use an existing body of your images to experiment with picture layout, duplicating spreads and trying out different image sizes/picture positioning on each
– include some text, for example write a 150 word introduction about the book, giving it a title, and write some picture captions. Are the captions descriptive or perhaps poetic? How might this affect their position on the page and the typeface you use?
– try a couple of different typefaces. Make one book layout with a sans serif typeface, another with serif. Try a ‘light’ sans serif font for the introduction and a capitalised version for the title. Then try the title with a bold font, but in lower case, and compare. Which do you prefer? What do you sense that makes you prefer one over the other?
Some questions you might like to address prior to the workshop:
If you’re bringing an existing body of images to workshop to make your book, then have a go at answering the following questions:
– what’s the concept for my book? Does it have a title or a working title to help guide the production process?
– which format – portrait or landscape – is best? Why?
– on what am I basing my choice of images? If you’re bringing images to the workshop, then bring an edited and an unedited selection of the same images, so we can explore options.
– which typeface would you prefer for your book? Why? On what are you basing your choice?
Some other questions we will address during the workshop:
– what is the best/easiest way to organise the picture selection running order?
– is it best to have single or multiple images on a spread?
– what’s the difference between working with a design grid and using a pre-existing template?
– are there design rules and rules about typography?
– when/if should these rules be broken?
– what inkjet papers are there for photobook making?
– what book cover materials are there that will go through an inkjet printer?
– what are the different ways of binding your finished book?