Bookbinding

After long considerations, I have decided to make a book. As it was a kind of a last minute decision, I went straight to the book binding room where I found R. Nash. An absolutely amazing person, gave me some valuable tips, and said, that it is still possible to realize my idea of printing a book. All I had to do is to buy an appropriate paper and stitching materials. Richard suggested me the Shepherds in London, however, I managed to save a journey, ans found some great paper and other needed materials in a local art shop.

As soon as I got back home, I watched all possible tutorials on working with Adobe InDesign, and downloaded a free trial version to experiment working with it. Did not seem to be very difficult, so I felt quite confident with it. Prepared my text and images and, and came back to him next week.

Spend a day adjusting settings and file, converted into a PDF and printed my book! I found it as a great and addictive experience, with a real intention to create some more in the near future. I actually expected the binding to take the huge amount of time, however, I was surprised  a it only took me about ten minutes, and voila, there is my first book !

Received Images Back !

Due to my blog been crashed for a few days I've been working in word to keep up to date.

So I received images back from my grandparents in Lithuania ! They have been absolutely amazing, and I am very happy with what they have written. Both of then described the day photograph was taken, and so I revealed something I did not know. It is absolutely exciting, and I am so happy with this project so far.



They have also sent me a hand written letter, which perhaps was the first one in my life. Feels amazing.



A proof !



The next step is to think, what am I doing with the images !

Choosing Text

I have experimented with text a lot, and finally I have chosen something I like, and something that is much more related to what I am doing.

My digital version of the narrative will create a fragmented narrative structure. The text underneath the photograph will be something my grandparents used to tell me, something I used to tell them, or something I think about them now.

Some of the examples.


This is something my grandma used to tell me all the time.




YOUR EYELASHES ARE REALLY LONG


Something I used to tell her

HOLD MY HAND UNTIL I FALL ASLEEP


Something I used to tell my grandad

CAN I COME WITH YOU

 

These short statements are to be combined together with particular images. 

Soundtrack

I had an idea of having a soundtrack on top of my slideshow. I thought it would be a good idea to accompany with some nostalgic piece of music such as piano. I searched online but I did not see to find anything I liked, I also did not want to make it too recognizable so people would not make unintended associations.

But, I have a neighbor musician who plays piano and violin. I spoke to him and he was more than happy to help me with my project by recording me a piece of music. I have spent some time listening through his music, when finally shortlisted and chosen the one I like, I was going to be recorded within a week.

However, after a tutorial, we have agreed that perhaps soundtrack is not needed as it might just become 'too much'. The images in addition to the text is enough for me to tell the story I want, and any additional sound might become a huge distraction.

Done as decided, but I'm still having my neighbors CD !

John Stezaker

And I found, John Stezaker, one of the first English conceptual artists, who reacted against the idea of pop art. Stezaker preceded avant-garde, Dada, cubism and surrealism as a response to the world of 'photo mechanically produced mass culture'.


His work is surrealistic, combining crop and collage together. Stezakers' source of materials is mainly postcards, film stills, images from photographically illustrated books. His technique is to find, select, crop and put together.













I found some of his work extremely interesting and brave in a sense. brave crop, powerful images and messages. 



Looking at his work I found that there is still loads to explore, but what I am concentrating on is the crop of my families images. I wouldn't dare to combine my grandads' face to somebody else, it would be like deletion of ones identity, and combination of two people, and possibly personalities. I found Stezakers' choice of cropping even harsher than mine. However, I'm sure I could do the same of something even more extreme when working with strangers' images. It would be so much easier. Therefore I work with the images of people who are too important to me to put them together with somebody else.

I thought that perhaps I could collage together my grandad and my grandma, together as one person, as they are in a sense, after over 50 years of life together. That would kind of represent the 'grandparents' as one. Although, what I intend to do with my project at the moment, is to separate one image into several pieces, creating individual images of each body part and highlighting its importance together with the text that I worked on a while, and I believe I'm about at the point where I wanted myself to be.

Back to Image Crop

Looking back at my choice of cropping images; I researched more into the idea of cropping itself. As mentioned before, my crop appeared to be harsher that John Hilliards' and I couldn't really find the reason. A quick reminder, my images are cropped over the body and face, where I mentioned I couldn't write over it, but I could crop. What is the reason behind?

Images sent to Lithuania !

So as promised, the photographs were sent to my grandparents in Lithuania. I printed 3 copies of each photograph (myself and my grandad and myself and my grandma) A4, just in case they would like to express their creativity further.

I spoke to them a few days ago, and they just feel slightly confused of what should they do. It's hard to explain what this is about, as I told they they can do whatever they want with those images. They can write all over it, they can write in certain bits, in straight line, or different shapes, and they can write about whatever they want. I didn't want to give them any directions, so it would be their choice of anything they do, full of their spirit.

Considering that it will be written in Lithuanian rather than English, it will probably appeal just me, as others wouldn't be able to understand. I thought about have a translation somewhere near to the images, or a title, so people could understand what this is about. Therefore, I don't think it is a big problem, as it is art, and it's about the feel of it as much.

A little Harsh?

Something interesting is going on. I can not write over the images of my grandparents, but I can crop them. How do I explain this? Having conversation with my tutor today, I found that it is harsh indeed, and it is far nothing like John Hilliard, he has never done anything like that, it is brutal. I crop over the face, body, why would I do that? I'm trying to come up with an answer, and I think it's because it allows me to concentrate on the detail. On my grandmas' hand, or my grandads' eye, I can get close to it, see it better, feel it better. But why does it still look so harsh...?

Amazing Ideas

Today, I had another great conversation with a tutor and other students. As always ideas were shared and advices given. Looking back to my project I have many great ideas to be developed and realized.

The first, digital version, a cropped image of myself will be fulfilled with sliced images of myself and my grandparents. I hope to have a slideshow of around 15 cropped images combined with the text. It will perhaps become a fragmented narrative, having the text coming from my feelings to my grandparents as mentioned before. I have experimented some in my sketchbook, looking at John Hilliard I decided to use the same image for different meanings, which has become successful I believe. In addition to the text an image becomes an individual, and is read differently each time. As an observation I found that it is usually used in scandalous media, to create a sensation.

I have considered different options for the printed version. My first thoughts were to reveal these cropped images of my digital version, printed large, combined together with a linear text next to it. I imagined it to be printed A3-A2 with the text on the side, both on the wall. However, I had a concern, about poor quality old images being enlarged that much, as it might become pix-elated. Therefore, after having a discussion with my peers, we have decided that actually it is not that important, and differently than expected it might add to it. Of course images are old, so why hide it?

As mentioned before, I was fine writing over an image of myself, however, I could not physically do that with the images of my grandparents. It's an unexplained fear that has raised, and I'm still finding a reason. Perhaps I just love them too much.  Therefore I had great suggestions, and what I will do next is that I will have my grandparents writing over those images. It is not that easy as it looks, as I would need to post them across the Europe all the way to Lithuania. In addition, it will of course be written in Lithuanian, so it might not appeal all possible audiences. But I don't see the problem, it will have the spirit, and this is what will make it beautiful. I am excited with my next task, and I am sending it tomorrow.

John Hilliard

John Hilliard, English conceptual artist, who has started his career creating sculptures, later found himself photographing his sculptures a lot and moved to the world of photography. Not concentrating too much on the biography I will rather look into the artists' work that has inspired me to carry on with the image cropping. Images below sows Hilliards' Cause of Death project from 1974. He experimented with the ways of cropping the same image and how can this completely change the meaning. 'Crushed, Drowned, Burned and Fell' are the only anchors directing the viewer to the intended meaning. This is often seen in the media, magazines and newspapers, paparazzi taken and cropped images, a few words in addition and boom, sensation!

Cause of Death, 1974

Considering John Hilliards' practice, I am experimenting similarly using the same image with a different crop. So far I looked at cropping an image into 5-6 different pieces, each becoming an individual, differently to Hilliards' practice in Cause of Death where he includes the same object in each image. I intend to experiment this particular way of cropping as well, but my current interest is to add the text next to the same image and see how it changes the meaning.

Cropping Cropping Cropping

So, I have been busy working on my sketchbook. I decided to concentrate on cropping my images, and working specifically with those three of myself, me and a grandad and me and a grandma. I found that there is so much to be done with a single image. You crop it and immediately each piece becomes an individual image with its own meaning, own atmosphere own connotations. Having six pieces of the same image I added the text, and I experimented more and more, in order to find, how can a text change something what is changed already.

I had some great feedback and comments during the review session, and one of the was to look at John Hilliards' work as he did lots of image cropping too. Each decision has got to be conscious, and it is in my consciousness, I just need to work to get it out on the surface. So next - John Hilliard.

Adobe Illustrator + Paint + Adobe Lightroom = Voila!

Using Adobe Illustrator  I've sliced the photograph into 6 pieces, then using Paint I added a text and finally I created a slide show using Adobe Lightroom. I am sure there is an easier way to do this, but it seemed to work best for me.  So this is what happened.

 

 

So I loved it even more.

 

The photographs are not in order, just to confuse you :) But again, its not just individual images telling different stories now, it's actually the text that compliments or contradicts the meaning, and it's all about how you read it, what you associate it with, what are your values.

 

Therefore, my plan is to work on the text a little bit more. 

Slideshow

Experimenting more with the photograph of myself. I decided to cut it up into pieces, and this is what happened.

 

 

I absolutely loved how it looks. Each slice has become an individual image with its own story. But it needed a text.

Large Format

Instead of writing over the photographs, I would love to scan them into the computer and print large format. Perhaps A2 or even A1. I would have a text underneath each photograph, which will improve with time. As discussed with Ellen Nolan, perhaps I should try and simply write down my feelings about my grandparents. The text will come itself. And I am sure it will happen.

The only problem is, that the photographs are really old, and a large format would definitely make them look pixelated and create a poor quality.  Will probably work on improving it as much as possible. However, I think that the aesthetics of an image would create positive aspects, fulfilling my narrative.

My Grandparents

As mentioned earlier, there are the old photographs of myself and my grandparents. One with a granddad and one with a grandma. Kind of the same series as the one where I am on my own. At the beginning I did not know how to engage them to this project, I looked at it, I had it in my picture, I scanned it to my computer but I could not put a hand on it. I could not change them. In any way. I could not cut them up into pieces or write over, I just could not possibly do that. It nearly felt so wrong when I wanted to do something with them, I haven't got the words to express the feeling. Even it if is just a copy, it doesn't matter, I could not do it.

So during the tutorial, I tried to find the reason. Because there has to be one. Every single detail has to have the meaning.




And the meaning was, that actually, my grandparents mean so much to me that I can not change, I don't want to change anything that is seen in these photographs.

Writing over the face

I found, that writing over the face is not as easy as it looks. Experimenting with the photographs of myself, writing over it, I kept trying to avoid my eyes, its almost really hard to write on top of them, like it would block the vision. I am still trying to find more reasons for it, it has become like a self analysis. It is also different when writing by hand and digitally. It feels differently and as much it looks differently. It is easy to do whatever with a digital version, perhaps because of knowing you can restore it, however for some reason even writing over a tenth copy of a photograph by hand, it becomes extremely hard. Looking at Shirin Neshats's work, I will try to explore different shapes of writing, again, on the face of my little self.

Shirin Neshrat. ' Unveiling Series', 1993.

Had a tutorial with Ellen Nolan, and as usual, she gave me great examples of the work I could look into. I had my idea, however she helped me to develop it further. She has suggested me to work on the text and perhaps use my grandparents photographs too, which I will upload as well. But later about that.

Following from the idea of writing over a photograph, she has suggested me to look at Iranian artists' work who did something similar. Here are some of her works.



Being Muslim,  it obviously changes the connotations. Looking at this image, the viewer immediately associates the photograph with the religion and suddenly there is the meaning. To me, not understanding the actual text, I would imagine the writing to be about how this woman is forced into her religion. How she has to wear certain clothes and there is so much more underneath it. Maybe she doesn't have the word in her family, maybe she is 'just' a woman, in a religious Muslims' views. I am not criticizing anything.

Writing over a photograph

Experimenting

I noticed that my blog mainly contains the research, and my experiments usually take place in my sketchbook. Not to forget that I need a digital version too, I wrote a short story that I would love to combine with photography. At first I thought I could write a story using my calligraphy set and photograph it. So I did, however I'm not sure weather it is visually pleasuring enough. So I tried to write over a photograph. But first, here is the text. I used a digital calligraphic font.

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She lived in the most beautiful place on earth. Every morning she used to wake up just to catch the sunrise, look after her rainbow coloured flowers, run after the unset and get back home. One day she grew up. One day she met a man.

 

Sophie Calle - Take Care of Yourself

Take Care of Yourself by Sophie Calle 

is an amazing book that has inspired me a lot. It encouraged me to perhaps open up a bit and talk about myself. It does not have to be hidden. I admire Sophie Calles' ability to be so open, and spread the world such a personal experience.

I love an idea of the collaboration, especially the type of collaboration, the connection of all these women sharing their feelings when reading this letter of a goodbye. All women are so different, in their profession, personality, look, sense of humor, sensitivity, each of them provides such a different response. It becomes a kind of interpretation of a letter, and every singe of it is right, there is no wrong understanding, especially when you don't know the writer.

This is the narrative. The narrative in Sophie's and her ex's relationship, narrative in the letter, and narrative as a connection of all those women. It forms an amazing story in another way.

I also thought that the story I want to tell about myself, doesn't have to be true. Rather, it has got to be interesting itself, so me, the writer, and a reader would be satisfied.

Very first tutorial and a workshop

My first tutorial was a great group sharing of ideas. I got a clearer vision of an actual outline, which leads to a much clearer idea. We as a group discussed various topics, which appeared to be extremely helpful. I always value others opinion, I find that comments and criticism usually becomes a key to the success.

As mentioned before, I would like my digital version to have photographs together with text, and my printed version will probably become a photographed hand written text. As a fan of writing, I will try using my calligraphy set and write using a feather, nibs and

ink. I was also encouraged to do so by a

calligrapgy

tutor. It just really looks so beautiful.

Today, I was introduced to creating slideshows in Adobe Lightroom workshop, and it seemed like a great way of presenting photographs. So perhaps the old photographs of myself mentioned in an earlier post will be scanned and used as a digital version of this project! :)

Writing blog is useful

I found, it is very useful to actually write this blog. It helps me construct my ideas, and every time I write I feel more confident about what am I doing here. I have been thinking about many themes, but this morning I came up with something exciting, and I would like to try it.

I like story telling. I like romanticizing. All it usually takes to me is - write a first sentence, and my thoughts flow as a river. Yesterday I thought I should try and do something Raymond Queneau did in his 'Exercises in Style' - write the same text in different styles. Of course, I didn't rewrite it 99 times, however I did 5 and I'm proud of it! I told a story about a little girl, her love to flowers, sunrises and sunsets, and I left it open ended saying 'one day she grew up, one day she met a man...' I leaves this kind of excitement and freedom of imagination to the reader. I also started very conventionally 'once upon a time'. Then I rewrote the text as a poem, diary, mathematical etc. And it is entertaining, I am interested myself, to see what will happen next to that little girl.

So from these first attempts, it develops further. I keep reminding to myself that it actually is a photography project and I can not get totally immersed into writing. Then I saw the photographs of myself, really old ones, 20 years old, black and white hanging on my wall. And I thought, I should use them! There she is a little girl in that photograph, wanting to tell a story.

IDEAS IDEAS IDEAS

So my head is full of ideas, and I really need to write them down, as I usually come up with a great idea in a place where I have no chance to write it down, then it just goes and I can not sleep at night trying to remember it...

Anyways, I've been reading different books, researching and analyzing other peoples' works , talking to my friends, presenting my ideas, trying to find something better than good. I thought of simple things, such as photographing for instance my friends eye randomly when on different activity. I would expect to see red eyes in the evening, sleepy in the morning, tired when reading, enlarged pupil when excited and so on and on and on. But then I thought, who will be interested in it? Maybe it's just me?

I found myself thinking too much about what will others think. I believe it is important of making something appealing audiences, however I understand it is not as important for this project. It is all about experimenting, and I might actually try to do that!

Kate and Wills Up the Aisle: A Right Royal Fairy Tale by Alison Jackson

I just read another book - Kate and Wills Up the Aisle: A Right Royal Fairy Tale by Alison Jackson. 

A really funny and entertaining storytelling about a royal family, that always seemed to me as an unreachable, unknown and hidden. However it appears to be a public figure, and everyone is able to 'go' into a Buckingham Palace, analyse their life and make it reachable to anyone. I don't think it is respectable in any way, therefore that is what happens to any public figure.

Anyway, back to a story telling; It is a made up story, with fake photographs, none of the real royal family members were involved into the making of the book, no permission, nor that it was needed. The writer took a 'once upon a time' story telling style, which is childish but entertaining  at the same time. She begins telling a story about Carole (Kates' mum), how poor the family was, how the mother worked so hard so Kate could attend a good school, a good university and this is where she meets Will - The Prince. Yes! It is amazing, how unexpected and lucky can a simple person become. 

The book contains plenty of images and less of a text, however it does the job, and 'tells the story'. I thought of taking an example and try something like that, I am still considering if that is OK to copy a style and do your work out of it, but I guess this is how the experimenting works!

I really think about tiny simple things at the moment, like making a love story of two paper cups, I believe it would work well if it is made well. :)

Raymond Queneau - Exercises in Style

During the tutors talk, I became inspired by a couple of artists who work with narrative. One of them is a poet, novelist, editor

Raymond Queneau (1903-79) whose book Exercises in Style I read today. 

The book retells a same story 99 times employing a variety of styles, which I found really interesting. What a talent to do this, what a great idea! The story itself is not any special, it is actually very casual and simple; A crowded bus, narrator observes one rude man, when a seat becomes vacated a man takes it, later in another part of town the same man is seen again with his friend. Raymond Queneau represents very unexpected ways of HOW can a story be told, for example:

LOGICAL ANALYSIS

Bus.
Platform.
Bus platform. That's the place.
Midday.
About.
About midday. That's the time.
Pasengers.
Quarrel.
A passangers' quarell. That's the action.
Young man.
Hat. Long thin neck.......

or

COMEDY

ACT ONE

Scene 1

On the back platform on an S bus, one day, round about twelve noon. 

THE CONDUCTOR: Fares pliz. (Some passengers hand him their fares.)

ACT TWO...

And so it continues, form the style of Notation, to Synthesis, Couplets, Sonnets etc. Each style provides a different mood, atmosphere, meaning even understanding. I believe it is educational and entertaining at the same time, which appeals wide audiences. I thought I could try to do something similar, I love writing and it may be a great beginning for my project!

First thoughts

I am currently working on my Photography NARRATIVE project- the title itself says a lot. This is a project where I need to tell a story, create two significantly different narratives in different mediums.

My very first thoughts developed while listening to an old Lithuanian song about a nut, the one that grows on a tree. The lyrics are all about this little growing beautiful nut, it's actually a man singing TO a nut about its beauty, the man is encouraging this nut grow slower, the man tells the nut how beautiful it is, he talks about the beauty he as never seen, he mostly wants to freeze a moment of this nut growing and admire forever. Unfortunately the STORY of a nut should keep developing, it can not stop, and there are so many ways to tell that story... Thanks for inspiration!
So to follow on the same track; I am a lover of a nature, I love watching, photographing, filming - birds, flowers, rain, water, forests etc. I think that nature is amazing in any possible way. So I thought, if you can really tell a story about anything then that's great! I might tell a story about a fallen leaf, or a paper cup, or a nail grow, and I will try to do that.
So far, I think I will combine photography and the text, but how, where and what, I'm not sure. Will keep working on it.