'I swallowed the light' completed book from workshop - Pauline Woolley 2015
I had booked this workshop with John Blakemore at The Photo-Parlour many months ago with a
sense of excitement and enthusiasm. Over the past 12
months my interest in photo books was growing and I was considering making a book for myself. I had started to wonder if books could be a linking bridge from the 2D
image to the physical object. It also posed a challenge to me in terms of hands on skill.
During the first day John Blakemore showed the
group a range of his previously made books.
These were an absolute joy to look at as well as to hold and
handle. He then went through the
making of three different types of books from a concertina style to a solid
spine type. It was mesmerising sitting
and watching him fold, cut and stick all the pieces together.
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| John Blakemore with his books - Pauline Woolley 2015 |
Towards the end of the first day we moved on to the
important part of sequencing images. Tim Parkin from On Landscape was the first
to start and had bought with him a huge stack of images to select from. At this
point it was thundering obvious to me that the images I had brought along were
too few and too heavily edited already to work from. At this moment I realised how the photo book was a different
method of working to the furrow in which I make images. With my brain whirling I
left the first day exhilarated but in dire need to go back to the studio and
start again.
After a night of thinking, I rose at 6.45am Sunday
morning and chose a new selection of images to print. With new work I made way to The Photo
Parlour.
The second session of sequencing began and John and
I went though my images and considered start and finish pieces. From here we looked at possible
combinations with the centrepiece being the four images of the sun. These were going to be too large to
fit across the pages so the suggestion was made that I slice them into
strips. John’s advice to me was
not to be precious about the images, as from letting go a rhythm could
emerge. I took his advice and over
the next few hours was I liberated by cutting up some of my work.
From the important task of image sequencing, the
group moved on to making the actual book.
I kept it simple with a concertina style. After a few false starts with gluing and cutting the object
began to look like a book. In
hindsight, I would have bought some book binding board that was on offer at the workshop instead of helping the environment and recycling end boards of sketchbooks, which were a bit too old and
flaky when cut.
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| Book in progress - Pauline Woolley 2015 |
Several hours later I began to stick in the sequenced photographs. At this point the
book started to come alive. The skill level of other group members was seriously impressive with people having a go at quarter binding,
folding sides etc. They were all
very competent at it. At the end
of the two days I was proud of my little rough around the edges effort and now feel geared up to go onto other photo book projects. It was a great experience.
