My Photobook
Ray's a Laugh
The only writing in this book is on the front and back covers, but I think the blurb written by Richard Billingham himself describes the book's nature perfectly and I totally agree with Robert Frank's review to left of it. The cover image is capturing, which is why I chose to look at it in the first place. The strong red seems to surround Ray's blurred peach coloured face as he laughs. I Also like the disproportionate typeface in white, contrasting to the rest of the colour. This book was made in 2000 and perfectly captures his dysfunctional family, living in poverty in a block of flats when Billingham comes to photograph them. His mother; a collector of pets and odd toys and puzzles, his younger brother Jason; an undirected young man who has been drawn to recreational drug use, and his father; the main subject of the book, a chronic alcoholic who "mostly drinks homebrew".
A lot of his images are taken mid action, meaning that Billingham has captured bad things as they happen. Like some of the images above: a tennis ball about to hit Ray's face in the top left image, Ray flinching in the bottom middle photo with a cat in the air and Ray about to fall face first into to floor in the top right. With Ray being constantly fuelled with alcohol, it seems as though Billingham's mother enjoys fighting with or throwing things at Ray, as does jason, shown in the tennis ball image. The book, being so gritty, has a variety of visual breaks throughout. These in crude having a single portrait format photographs on one side of the page, and a blank white on the other. Another one is Billingham's nature photographs from the area and the final breaks are made with full bleed images, that technically are bad/ unsuccsesful photographs, but when considering shape and colour, they are beautiful.
Living Room
The Americans
The Americans, by Robert Frank was first published in 1958 and is a collection of 83 photographs uncovering a nation plagued by racism and a rapidly expanding culture of consumption. On the contrary, Robert Frank has done a brilliant job in portraying America in this time. Through documenting such scenes and objects, Frank has re defined some of the most iconic imagery of which we now associate with this time period in the USA. For example, the bottom right photo of the set underneath. This classic photograph of a diner- with a row of dark haired young men, and a waitress in her work clothes, is exactly what people today try and re create in music videos. My favourite image of the whole set is the bottom middle one. I love
Jones Beach
mimi plumb
lewis baltz,
Beats Streuli
http://www.beatstreuli.com/
Bets streuli is a Germam photographer most well know for
disposables set 1
disposables set 2
Evaluation
My initial ideas for my photobook involved me paying to have one made, with my own photos composed by myself. I wanted to achieve a very high quality and professional feel and I thought this would be the easiest way to achieve what I was looking for.