DIY magazine is a publication specialising in latest music releases and musicians in general. I have chosen to look at DIY Magazine as part of my story telling project because of the magazines appearance and layout. The magazine was first published in 2002, as an online article it wasn’t till 2011 till the first hardcopy of the Magazine was widely produced. The magazine’s routes developed from the creative directors (Emma Swann and Stephen Ackroyd) love of alternative and indie music. The magazine soon became a success among readers leading the magazine to have over 50,000 reader subscriptions every month.

I chose to research this particular magazine because of its creative layouts and eye-catching appearance. Each page of this publication is always visual interesting, grabbing the readers attention to each page. My attention is particularly drawn to the interviews the magazine conducts. The pages aren’t laid-out in a traditional newspaper style, instead the pages always include; contrasting colours, a range of typography, clean and interesting layouts and engaging interview questions and information about the musician in question. These components are a vital part of why the magazine is so well-known amongst music fans. A key part of why the magazine is so successful is because the publication hires a range of freelance writers and photographers, keeping the magazines appearance fresh and appealing to readers.

I want to take inspiration from this magazine for my own final piece. As I plan to conduct interviews and produce a range a photographs some what similar, to the process a photographer would go through whilst working for a magazine. I plan to take inspiration from this magazine when considering the way I chose to layout my final piece. whether that be as an online resource or as a printed out magazine. I will be taking into consideration the magazines bold and interesting ways of laying out it’s pages and the information produced from interviews. DIY is a great example of the level of work I aspire to create in the future and for this story telling project.

Today we had a guest lecture Ione Gamble. Gamble is the founder of polyester magazine, an online publication as well as a hardcopy zine that is released every few months. Polyester also has a podcast section that accompanies the release of the next publication. Polyester magazine is a publication is a politically charged zine that expresses themes such as; support for the arts, body confidence and self love. Gamble created Polyester during her second year of university. Polyester now has a huge following with over 900,000 readers. Ione studied fashion journalism at university, so it was a natural step to move into the media business. The magazine does not use models on shoot days. The subjects Polyester uses are often scouted on social media. Ione explained that the magazine likes to show realness, and by using someone not from a modelling background makes for a more exciting shoot.

She quotes “people from a non modelling background are so much more excited and chatty on shoot days. They are much more involved in the shooting proses than a model would be. They really let the photograph know what their boundaries are and let us known what they are comfortable with” Gamble’s point about not using model made a lot of sense. The publication likes to promote body confidence in the right way, not necessarily exploiting  the model but allowing them to feel confutable on the shoot, to convey the right message to readers.

The layout however was thing thing that drew me to the magazine the most. Every page looks as though it could be a poster on a bedroom wall. The bright, bold and contrasting colours bring out every detail of the pages. This inattentive design made me really consider the importance of layout and colour schemes. The combination of image, text and illustration, emphasises the appearance on each page. Looking through the zines Ione brought in, made me consider what makes a layout effective. It made me consider what other publications I find appealing and perhaps would take inspiration for my own work. Seeing these zines has made me think about the way I want to layout my work whether that be an online publication or printed magazine.

Claudia Leisinger is a British documentary photographer who has worked all over the world photographing many different types of people. The particular piece of Leisinger’s work I am looking at is her audio visual series, featuring the fish porters of the east end of London. Her audio visual series called ‘The Last Of The Fish Porters’ told the story the men that worked as fish porters, a dying industry that was still kept alive by a few individuals carrying on their fathers and grandfathers work. Leisinger documented the men at work for around a year, right up till that day the men were made redundant. This photo series features audio from the men as they talk about their lives and jobs. The audio is layered over a slideshow of stills taken by Leisinger.

The audio accompanies the photographs of the fish porters really well. It helps tell their story to the audience. The idea of layering audio over still images is a concept I would consider for my own project. The audio includes the voices of the fish porters Leisinger has photographs. By having the person talking over there own photographs gives a life like encounter of the person in the photograph. This makes the audience really engage with the person in the photograph. Leisinger spend over a year with the fish porters, by spending time with the subject allowed the subjects to become more open to having their photographs taken and giving honest answers in the questions Leisinger was asking them.

This stunning photo series is one I take inspiration from for this story telling unit. In response to this photo series I plan to conduct a shoot that included audio from the subject I am photographing. Leisinger has also mace me consider having still images and overlaying them with audio. The first shoot I have planned is one using my brother. An advantage of this is the subject will feel more at ease with me as a photographer, therefore be able to assert confidence when i’m taking photographs of him. Leisinger stands as one of my inspirations for this project. Her work with the fish porters is a really good starting point of research for my own project. Her ability to tell the fish porters story through the use of audio and photographs is certainly a piece of work I can look up to for this project.

Today I took part in a book making workshop. The workshop was based around creating my own photo book using hand made methods. Before I made my own book I was shown multiple examples of other artists photo books. Some of these photo books included; Twenty six Gasoline stations by Edward Ruscha and Sleeping By the Mississippi by Alec Soth. Looking at the artist photo books helped me gauge a better understanding of how to effectively produce and layout a book. Being shown a range of different layouts gave me inspiration for my own final piece.

The second half of the workshop was all about making our own photo book. I made a zine like photo book which could be viewed as a book or folded out as a flowing series of photographs. The book was made using paper and glue. For the first step I measured out the paper as instructed. the idea was to create an outside cover and spine for the booklet. After measuring out the paper and cutting it out, I then moved on to the pages of the booklet. Once again I followed the measurements via the instruction manual, after to making thew correct measurements and cuts I then began to assemble my booklet.

I assembled the pages so their appearance was similar to an accordion. By glueing the edges of the paper together gave the effect I needed for the booklet. I then folded the coverer and spine I prepared earlier, into the pages I had made. This style of photo book was really easy to make. Using this style of layout for my final piece would be a bonus because of how cheap and easy the booklet is to produce. This form of photo book would be useful as an information booklet about my final piece. I do not think I will display my final piece in this format as I plan to work with video, however this form of booklet would be useful to store information about my project if I choose to shown it in the exposure unit.

Today I took part in a book binding workshop, the workshop taught us how to bind our own book using a range of different tools and binding techniques. We started off the workshop being told a range of different ways to assemble and present books these included; Ring Binding, Japanese stab bind, Bound edges, Layered design with transparent wrap and Leporello Binds. All these examples gave me an idea of the variety of ways a book can be made. The workshop highlighted the importance of choosing the correct format for my photographs to be displayed . Different binding techniques gave different advantages to displaying and reading pleasure.

The book chosen to display photographs can be a vital part if the message the artists wants to portray in his or her work. The workshop taught me a range of binding methods however the main binding method I was taught was Kettle Binding. Kettle binding is one of the most common ways to book bind, it is one of the strongest ways to bind a book and is used for many high volume books. Kettle Binding is a binding method that doesn’t allow for a large gutter in the book so minimal paper wastage is caused. Overall I enjoyed this workshop and had a lot of fun learning how to create my own photo books.

Learning how to book bind today gave me some more ideas for how I’m going to layout my final story telling piece. After todays workshop I am definitely considering creating some kind of zine or booklet as part as my final piece.

Richard Billingham is one of the great British documentary photographers. Billingham’s photo book ‘Ray’s A Laugh’ released in 1996 shows a graphic documentation of Billingham’s home life. The book features Billingham’s alcoholic father Ray and Billingham’s, heavily tattooed mother, Liz. The Photo book ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ shows his parents partaking their version of mundane activity’s, the Claustrophobic and cluttered council flat is one of the main attractions of this photo book. Billingham documented his parents during his late teens and early twenties. All of the photographs were taken on disposable cameras as this was all Billingham could afford at the time. ‘Ray’s A Laugh’ remains as one of my favourite photo series of all time.

The book opened many peoples eyes to what lower class living was actually like during the 90’s. Billingham highlighted his home life and many people were left in disbelief of the quality of life Billingham’s parents were living. The book highlighted the poverty found all around England and especially in the North. I chose to include Billingham in my research for this story telling unit because, the book ‘Rays A Laugh’ displays such a strong and clear story line. Billingham is telling the story of his life and his parents in-particular. Each of the photographs work so well within a series and as individual images. Each of the photographs plays a part in telling the story of Ray and Liz.

Each of these images tell a story, the expressions in the photographs are so real and do not look at all staged. The subjects in this book seem oblivious to the camera, whether that be because the pair are intoxicated or simply don’t care about being photographed. One of the advantages to documenting and telling the story of someone close to you is that there is a foundation of trust already formed between the subject and the photographer. Billingham’s book remains as a vital piece of inspiration for my story telling project. I want the photographs that I take for this unit to be in a similar candid fashion, a genuine documentation of the events I am photographing.

Nan Goldin is one of my many inspirations as a photographer her photo book ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ truly revolutionised documentary photography. She told the story’s of the the people during the HIV crisis. ‘The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency’ remains as one of my favourite photo books of all time. The realness and rawness Goldin captures in every page of the book help tell the stories of the people effected by the HIV breakout. Goldin is known for her hands on approach in photography. Goldin often lives with the subjects she is photographing, her technique is to get to known the subjects on a personal level before she photographs them. This method is an effective way of getting candid and off Gard shot of the subject, by creating a trust with a subject means they are more likely to express themselves more when they are being photographs.

I think the aim of Goldin’s work is to create photographs by gaining the trust of her subjects, getting them to forget the camera is there and give a true representation of their lives. This story telling unit I have chosen Nan Goldin as one of my points of research because she has a great way of telling peoples stories through photographs. Her book ‘The ballad of Sexual Dependency does not include much writing content however, I believe the photographs are stories in themselves they do not need text to help portray the meaning of the photograph the photograph is simply enough.

During this project I hope to achieve a level of story telling in my own imagers. Looking at nan Goldin’s work has given me inspiration in how to create effective story telling shots. By spending time and getting to know them givens me more opportunities to get the story telling shots. Spending a number of days with subject is much more effective than spending an hour or two. as the trust builds between the subject and the photographer the better and more genuine the shots become. I have taken away from Goldin’s work the importance of patience when it comes to telling a story. For this project I plan to really get to known my subjects, creating a more effective story telling outcome.