I wanted to design a book from the very start of my project, as this isn’t something I’ve really done before (I usually just choose a selection of images to print). I thought it would be interesting to take on a new challenge for my very last uni project, and as I started to develop my project more and look at artists such as Stephen Shore and Alec Soth, it became important to me that my photos would tell a story. Particularly as the pandemic escalated and lockdown started, it was interesting to be able to document this time in my life through a book.
TITLE
As I discussed previously in one of my experimentation posts, I wanted the title to clearly reflect the idea behind my work, without being immediately obvious. I chose ‘Everyday Every day’ because the work simply is a document of everyday things throughout every day of lockdown. I thought this was a clever repetition of words. Repetition is something I also tried to achieve through my use of similar images. When I looked at Alec Soth’s ‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’, I noticed he often repeated themes and imagery. It’s also a reflection of the repetitive feeling of the days in lockdown that I often talk about in my diary entries.
THE REAL THING
Unfortunately, due to the uni closure, I didn’t have access to all of the resources that would allow me to create a physical copy of my book. Although I looked at some online sites that would print the book for me, these weren’t particularly cost effective, and personally I feel that half of the satisfaction of a real book would have been that I had made it myself. Therefore, I just designed the pages on InDesign. But I feel it’s important to discuss a little bit about what I would have done, had I had the tools available to me.
As I wanted the book to be a diary/journal of my time during lockdown, I chose to design the front and back cover in this style. If I had made the real thing, I definitely would have looked into buying some highly textured leather material to stitch onto the front and back of the book. It also would have been really interesting to try and imprint the title into the leather with some kind of stamp or letter press. The inside pages could have been made from a nice thin, handmade type of paper, reminiscent of a diary. Had I included the text diary entries in the final edit, I also would have liked to write these by hand to further add to that diary effect.
For the sizing, I would have gone for roughly 125x176mm (slightly smaller than A5). This is a fairly standard pocket diary size. I think size is something I would have been able to determine more clearly if I could experiment with real materials, however.
THE PHOTOS
I chose to include photos from lots of different shoots, not just the final ones – I feel that there were strong photos littered throughout my project, and the idea of the work was to demonstrate a passing of time, therefore this felt appropriate. After much experimentation, I decided that the images worked best when they filled the page, and I often cropped and cut (and sometimes rotated) the images to fit the page. This also linked to the style in which Stephen Shore and William Eggleston frame their images in a style that reflects the ordinary, everyday subjects which they photograph. As well as this, it allows a notion of a world beyond the frame/edge of the page, which Stephen Shore refers to as ‘passive’ framing.
By cropping some of the images, I could join two on a page into what looked like one continuous image (by joining up the lines and shapes). I also often used photos side by side that shared similar patterns, subjects, lighting, colours, textures etc. This was heavily inspired by the photos I found on Luke Saxon’s Instagram. I think this adds another interesting visual element to the book.
I also had a lot of landscape photographs (as this is often my preferred way of shooting), and I felt some of these stronger images worked well on a double page spread. The idea of this was also to represent the feeling of lockdown – in which days often seemed to blur into one.
I chose to include the photos I liked the best, but also the ones that represented the themes and ideas that had accumulated throughout my project. These were the everyday; looking at the mundane in an interesting way; entrapment (because of lockdown); interior, domestic spaces and how they reflect us (heavily inspired by Nigel Shafran and Gaston Bachelard); light and how it creates emotion (Nigel Shafran inspired). Visually, I wanted the photos to work well together too, so I chose images with a similar colour scheme and lighting (with the exception of a few bright colours here and there). I think the dashes of colour worked well alongside the more neutral, muted tones because again, it reflects what the days in lockdown have been like. Some days were dark and depressing (like some of the photos) and on others I felt hopeful and optimistic (which is reflected in the brighter, more colourful images).
I finally decided against using the diary entries that I had been writing during lockdown. I felt that as this is a photographic piece of work, I should let the images speak for themselves and I feel that they do. I did however, try to include the images on the days that were appropriate to what I had written. For example, if I had talked about it being someone’s birthday that day, I used the birthday banner photograph. If it was a down day, I tried to use a darker, more emotive images that reflected these feelings. I also included photos that really represented lockdown to me; such as the empty toilet roll! I think this was also me trying to take a slightly humourous approach to what really has been a crazy and challenging experience! I didn’t want to make the whole project about lockdown (because I had already established some key themes and ideas for my work to depend upon) but I’m glad that I found ways to subtly incorporate the pandemic into the work. I think it has been an experience worth documenting and it’s something I can look back on and reflect on this time.
OTHER DESIGN CHOICES
Other little design choices also took a lot of thought and experimentation. The dates at the top of the pages I think work really well. I chose quite a simple yet sophisticated font, that I feel goes with the cover and title. Although I took out the diary entry text, I still wanted to give that impression of a day-to-day diary by including the dates and number of days in lockdown. Instead of text, the diary entries are images! For the most part, the dates are written in white to contrast against the photos. However, on some pages the white text was lost, therefore I changed it to a neutral brown colour.
I chose to include 50 days of lockdown, because I felt it was a nice round number and a substantial amount for a book, and I had enough images for this. It’s also quite amazing to think that we’ve already completed 50 (and more!) days in lockdown.
I included two quotes in the final book. The first one, I put on a double page spread at the start. The quote by Gaston Bachelard about the house, I feel reflects the idea I’m trying to portray about the importance of the everyday spaces around us. I also really enjoyed reading his book ‘The Poetics of Space’ and it really inspired my ideas further, so I wanted to include his writing somewhere in the book. I also added a quote from Nigel Shafran, at the end of the book, about how objects reflect who we are. Shafran is also one of my favourite sources of inspiration for this project. I included this at the end because I think it gives away more of what I’m trying to say through my photographs of everyday objects. I wanted to first leave the images open to the viewer’s interpretation before they read this quote and perhaps understand more fully what the work represents
Overall, I’m really pleased with how the book turned out. There were points throughout my project (particularly during lockdown) where I felt very uninspired by the space I was stuck in and worried that I wouldn’t have enough material to make the book. However, it worked out really well and I will definitely consider making the real thing one day if I ever have access to the right resources!
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