Stephanie Scott ART 333: Photo Book Personal Project Mentor May 7, 2013
Throughout this semester, we have examined dozens of different photography books, looking at layout, subject, narrative, etc. The photography book, or photo-bookworks, “utilize photography as a central medium and exist as an artwork in book form” (Schulz). For our final project, in which we were to develop a layout and narrative for our own photo book, we needed to find a published photo book to act as a mentor in our process. For my photo book mentor, I chose The Descendants by Janne Lehtinen. Janne Lehtinen is a Finnish photographer from Karhula, Finland, born in 1970 (Saachi Online). His photo book, The Descendents, is a sort of autobiography, with images and texts describing his hometown, where “people believe that all residents will eventually meet with a sad, usually sinister, and absolutely inevitable fate” (“Janne Lehtinen: The Descendents”). This is the second photo-bookwork that Lentinen has had published. For the most of the book, the photographs are on the right page; sometimes they have a white border between the edges of the image and the page, reminiscent of photo album snapshots; some of these images are indeed photographs from his childhood, in either black and white or sepia, that have been scanned. On other pages the image encompasses the entire sheet. On the left hand page, adjacent to the images, are the memories that Lethinen associates with them. These include memories from his childhood, or events that took place at the settings within the images. Nearly every page has a varying amount of text. On several pages there are
only a few lines, while groups of paragraphs cover others. On some pages, there is no text except for the title of the image and the year it was taken, or simply the page number itself. Lehtinen uses the text to change from one sequence to another. On many spreads, the text illustrates the memory on the left while on the right he uses the image to visually accompany the text. Once the page is turned, that single memory is left behind and a new one is introduced. Each ‘memory’ is titled similarly to the title of the image that accompanies it. For my photo-bookwork, I wanted to assimilate some of the concepts of Lehtinen’s work into my own. The Descendants is a reflection of Lehtinen’s childhood. My photo book, adeptly titled Abandonment Issues, is a collection of abandoned objects: items, vehicles, trailers, and homes. I first developed the idea during my Digital Photography I class while at the College of Southern Maryland. Upon first looking at these items, I found there was something beautiful in the dilapidated objects. I could also feel something relatable between myself and the damaged objects. At the beginning of his book, there is an introduction to the idea behind the bookwork. I synthesized this introduction in the beginning of my own work, describing my idea and setting the tone for the narration within the book. After this segment of text, I did not use any more text within the photo book.Unlike Lehtinen’s book, I did not want text to accompany the images. I wanted the viewer to create their own backstory for the images, so that they could apply whatever memory the image sparked within their own mind. Additionally, I did not want to title the images for the same reason, so that the viewer would see the car, trailer, or discarded item as their own. For certain images, I felt that they required a full bleed, that the full strength of the images could only be received without borders. For others, a border concentrated the effect of
the photograph. This included a spread of two vertical images from the interior of a trailer. The white space and gutter separates the images, but the white borders enhance the images, making them bolder. Lehtinen’s photo book acted as a mentor to me as I worked through the process of creating my own work. His works and his layouts influenced my choices throughout the process, leading me to create the final product: a photographic work with a detailed subject and narrative.
Works Cited Schulz, David. “Visual and Verbal Experience in Photo-Bookworks.” Journal of Artists Books. 27 (2010):25-30. Art and Architecture Complete. 4 May 2013. “Janne Lehtinen: The Descendents.” Hatje Cantz. Web. 3 May 2013. < http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titzif=00002052&lang=en> “Janne Lehtinen at Gallery Taik, Berlin.” Saatchi Online. Web. 3 May 2013. <http://magazine.saatchionline.com/articles/artnews/janne_lehtinen-_at_gallery_taik_1>