Taylor Robb-‐McCord Art 333-‐ Photo Book Self-‐Assessment Final Project Self-‐Assessment For my final project, I created a photo book entitled “A Simple Reminder.” I wanted to create a book that was a personal narrative, filled with images and objects that hold sentimental value and importance to me. This past semester has been a interesting learning experience, and somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster, so when it came time to begin my final photo book, I discovered that I was truly lacking inspiration. I started to realize that I had become so engrossed in the events of the semester that I had lost track of what was important to me and what my goals were for myself. With this realization came my new inspiration: to create a photo book that served as a “simple reminder” to myself. The back of the book sums up the work as a whole: “a simple reminder of what is important, where you have been and where you are going.” I decided to revisit my first photo book assignment, where we created a visual book for a music playlist, for inspiration. I wanted my book to have the same nostalgic feeling as my playlist book. I wanted it to have the feeling of a scrapbook. Once I
found all of my inspiration, I began looking through all of my belongings to find the items that truly embodied the theme of my book. I found family photos, notes written to me, photographs I had taken and flowers I had received as gifts. I then took my favorite pieces and scanned them. I personally like the way that the scanner blurred some of the pieces, and created an aged appearance, similar to photos in a scrapbook. My biggest struggle with the project was finding my inspiration and getting my project off the ground. I am glad that I struggled with my theme and ideas because it was truly a learning experience, and an important enlightenment of how far off track I had gone this past semester. If I were to revisit this project, I would take more time researching other artists to get a better collection of inspiration; rather than finding one artist and going off of their book as I had. I think had I taken more time to conduct research I would have weeded through my ideas much quicker. I also would have used a higher quality scanner. I am pleased with the quality of the images within my book, but I do think that using a better scanner could have made a noticeable change in the images. I am very pleased with the result of my project. I debated using an 8” x 11” book and decided on a 7” x 7” book. I think that the size of the book makes it more intimate, and more like a journal. I really enjoy the array of images within my book. Some spreads incorporate text, some spreads have full bleeds, and other spreads are very simple with only a single image on the right page. While to some, the images
may seem like a random collection, I know the significance of the images. And considering that this book was a gift to myself, I am thrilled with the results. I think to an outside eye, the purpose of the book may be somewhat unclear, but I also believe that my words on the back of the book would help clarify any confusion that someone would have. I really enjoyed this project, and really used it as a learning and growth opportunity. It has given me inspiration for future projects and taught me important lessons in time management, and how to approach projects that may seem difficult to tackle. But with all of the struggle to get this project completed, I am extremely pleased with my final product, and hope that others can understand the value and self-‐ expression that is present in my images. I believe that I would deserve either a B+ or A on this project. The only reason that I think I would deserve any grade lower than an A is because I had difficultly meeting deadlines. Also, I admit that my dummy book was a complete disaster and would factor that into my final project grade. But, in retrospect, I am glad that my dummy book was unsuccessful because it forced me to reevaluate my ideas and come up with something that I was much happier with.