AGM92 Books and Publications – Jennie Meadows MA Photography

AGM92 The Photography Book As Montage 28 April 2021

A selection of photography books and printed matter was brought to the session for discussion.

Image-text dialectical relationship: juxtapositions and interactions were explained and briefly discussed.

Reading the photograph in the printed page was demonstrated using various examples.

Historicising the photograph – illustrating the text.

Collaborative authorship was recommended.

A photography book can come in many shapes and forms. It can be useful to relate how a photography book is structured by likening it to how music is arranged. I am not a musician, so I lack the words and knowledge to describe this technically. However, I can recognise the patterns of various musical norms and apply them to how the images and text can be presented and read in their various compositions. It can be a classic, expected composition of a sequence of captioned images with a biography of the photographer. This could be likened to the ‘average’ pop song structure. Or it could be just images, or photos alongside a monologue of text, or a combination of photos with images of related objects. The order could be out of synch or have no rhyme or make no sense at all. I liken those to an Avant Garde jazz composition. These thoughts and observations were triggered by Gerry Badger’s article ‘It’s all Fiction: Narrative and the Photobook’. Initially, Badger likens the narrative structure of the photography book to that of film. Badger then continues to compare musical structures to that of how a photographic book can be sequenced:

‘In practical terms, whether considering sequencing or graphic design, I tend to use a musical analogy to get the process across. I could talk about a flow of words, or putting together a scene in a film, but I prefer music because the way a piece of music unfolds equates better to the frequently semi-abstract, and non-programmatic way most photobooks are constructed. Most photographic sequences are more abstract in actuality than they might appear, even when the photography is “documentary” in nature.’

(Badger. G. 2013)

This seminar was certainly ‘food for thought’. Going forwards, I will look at various photographic books to observe and make notes on their narrative structures. I will also look at the elements that make up these publications to see what I can adapt for my own final piece for submission.

Photography Books & Publications

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin Fig. Photoworks (2007)

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin War Primer II. Digital edition (eBook) by Mack 2012

Allan Sekula Art Isn’t Fair (2020)

Allan Sekula Photography Against the Grain (1984) (Mack edition 2016)

Barbara Kruger Picture/Readings (1978)

Bertolt Brecht War Primer (first published as Kriegsfibel, 1955), (1998)

Daniel Castro García (John Ratcliffe Studio) Foreigners (2016)

Fazal Sheikh and Eyal Weizman The Conflict Shoreline (2015)

Fazal Sheikh Erasure (2015)

Geert Van Kesteren Baghdad Calling (2008)

Gillermo Faivovich and Nicolás Goldberg The Campo de Cielo Meteorites Vol II. Chaco (2012)

John Gossage Empire (2000)

John Gossage There and Gone (1997)

Laia Abril The Epilogue (2014)

Latoya Ruby Frazier The Notion of Family (2016)

Lothar Baumgarten, Amerika (1993)

Martha Rosler If You Lived Here (1990) (http://www.martharosler.net/projects/here.html)

Michael Disqué The Theater of War (2017)

Michael Schmidt U-NI-TY (1996)

Michael Schmidt Waffenruhe (1987)

Nancy Holt Time Outs. New York (1985)

Paul Graham New Europe (1993)

Robert Frank Black White and Things (1994)

Robert Frank The Americans (1958)

Victor Burgin Voyage to Italy (2006)

Volker Heinze Ahnung (1989)

Brief Description of Module

In this module, I am asked to realise an ongoing photographic research project in the form of a publication. The module is designed to help me consider specific issues attending the photograph in the printed page: audience, narrative, editing, text, design, binding, materials, etc.

The module also sets the photographic book within both an historical and contemporary cultural context, considering the changing value, function, and significance of the book as a photographic medium in a digital age.

Module Aims, Assessment and Support

This module aims to:

Allow me to explore the significance of contemporary authored photography books and publications
Enable me to acquire aesthetic and technical skills involved in producing a photographic publication
Facilitate me to realise a photographic publication

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the module, I will be able to:

Acknowledge the significance of contemporary photographic publications (LO1).
Deploy technical skills required to realise a photographic publications (LO2).
Demonstrate an understanding of the structural, rhetorical, aesthetic, and narrative possibilities of photographic publications (LO3).

Content

This module begins considering the historical context of the photograph in the printed page, followed by a series of presentations on aspects related to contemporary approaches to the photographic book.

Indicative content might include notions of montage, materiality, technical processes, high art and vernacular forms of the printed image and digital visual platforms.

I am asked to realise an ongoing photographic research project in the form of a publication. This may take the form of a book or a magazine, pamphlet, newspaper, a collection of post cards, etc. The publication may be hand-made or professionally printed. It may represent the whole project or be a separate iteration of one part of it.

The module is designed to help me consider the specific issues attending photographic publications: audience, narrative, editing, text, design, binding, materials, etc. It considers the way in which the form of the photographic book relates to different photographic genres, how it has been transformed by new developments in self-publishing and the relationship between on-line publications and traditional book forms.

The module also explores the fetishisation of the photobook as a commodity and its implications for our understanding of photography as an art form. I am invited to investigate how photographers currently use the medium of the book form to extend their practice and to achieve greater visibility for their work.

Learning Support

Armstrong, C (1998) Sceenes in a Library: Reading the Photograph in the Book, 1843–1875. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

‘Artists’ Books’ (1977), Art-Rite Magazine No. 14, Winter 1976. New York: Art-Rite Publishing

Brunet, F. (2009) “Photography and the Book”. In Photography and Literature. London: Reaktion Books.

di Bello, P., Wilson, C. & Nazir, S. (2012) The Photobook: From Tablot to Ruscha and Beyond. London, I.B.Tauris.

Gidley, M. (ed.) (2003) Writing with Light: Words and Photographs in American texts. Oxford: Peter Lang.

Hughes, A. & Noble, A. (eds) (2003) Phototextualities: Intersections of Photography and Narrative. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Hunter, J (1987) Image and Word: The Interaction of TwentiethCentury Photographs and Texts. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Ionescu, C. (ed.) (2011) Book Illustration in the Long Eighteenth Century. Reconfiguring the Visual Periphery of the Text. Cambridge.

Kusnerz, P.A. (ed.) (2002) “Special Issue: Photography and the Book”, in History of Photography 26:3.

Scott, C. (1999) The Spoken Image: Photography and Language. London: Reaktion.

Source Photographic Review 88 Winter 2016: http://www.source.ie/photobook/

Badger, G., Bate, D., Lockemann, B. & Mack, M. (2014) Imprint – Visual Narratives in Books and Beyond. Gothenburg: Valand Academy.

Desjardins, A (2013) The Book on Books on Artists Books. London: The Everyday Press.

Fernández, H. (2000) Fotografía Pública. Photography in Print (1919- 1939). Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

Fenrnández, H (2011) The Latin American Photobook. New York:Aperture.

Kugelberg, J. and Sanders, J (2012) Artists’ Book Not Artists’ Book. New York: Boo-Hooray.

Parr, M. & Badger, J. (2004, 2006, 2014) The Photobook: A History Vols I, II, and III. London: Phaidon

Roth, A. (2004) The Open Book. A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present. Göteborg: Hasselblatt Centre.

Online Projects / Books

Dana Lixenberg Imperial Courts Project (2015) http://www.imperialcourtsproject.com

Dana Lixenberg The Last Days of Shishmaref (2009) http://www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.com/shishmaref3/cms/cms_modul e/index.php http://www.paradox.nl/project/lastdaysofshishmaref/#work

Susan Meiselas, Kurdistan. In the Shadow of History (1997) http://www.akakurdistan.com

Teaching & Learning Activities

An initial introduction to the history of the photographic book will provide a starting point for the module. Discussion about contemporary practices of photographic book making are extended through a series of presentations, seminars plus group and individual tutorials. Students form working groups to help book project ideas with the aim of each student producing a photographic publication that provides an appropriate vehicle of dissemination for my major project. An introduction to InDesign and a book binding workshop are also offered as part of this module.

At the end of formally taught part of the module, I will present my publication alongside my major project (AGM64) and receive formative feedback from my student peers and tutors.

Face-To-Face Learning

Lectures
Seminars
Group Tutorials
Tutorials
Technical Workshop
Studio visits

Online Learning

Digital resources as recommended in tutorial discussion
Online text and audio-visual materials as recommended
Student-owned social media site used as a focus for sharing additional course materials and subject-related news

Allocation of Study Hours

Scheduled: 25

Guided Independent Study: 175

Total Study Hours: 200

Assessment Tasks

Task 1 (80%): For me to submit a photographic book or publication.

Learning Outcomes: LO2, LO3

Task 2 (20%): To write and submit a Report: artist’s statement outlining the rationale for the book design and situating it in the context of contemporary debate about the photographic book (500) words.

Learning Outcomes: LO1

The volume of the portfolio is to be agreed in consultation with the Module Tutor. The framework for its content is determined through formative assessment, while the independent study hours of the module will be indicative of my effort.

Suggested Reading

Photography Books & Publications