Assignment 4 - Conceptual Reflection (Book 2)

 PULSE (Book 2)

Process, methods, and intentions:

Record relevant technical details (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lighting conditions) 

While taking pictures for this book I didn't mess with the camera settings too much. I had the camera on both auto and manual focus at some point during this shoot. A lot of the photos were taken in the dark though.

Image editing decisions (contrast, tonality, colour, sharpness, effects, physical manipulation) 

Colour was a major part of this book. I wanted to use this to symbolize blood and the colours found on an echocardiogram. Red, a little purple, and blue. The only photo that I physically manipulated is the title page. Another thing that I chose to do is duplicate every third photo in my sequence to represent my unique heartbeat. The title "PULSE" could have various meanings when taking colour into consideration, it could mean your actual pulse, lights at a party, or even just a general energy.

Layout (image order, structure, elimination of nonessential photographs) 

Like stated above, colour was the biggest motivation for the layout of this book. The book starts and ends with a printout of my ECG, the red of the ECG bleeds into the first photos, into the blue ones in the middle, then back to red before reaching the ECG on the back cover. This maintains the sense of rhythm in the sequence.

The duplicated photos being every third photo is also significant because of my heart beat as stated previously.

There weren't any photos that I eliminated, I just added to the photos that I already had. I figured that repetition would help rather than hinder this project.

I chose to not add any words as it would distract from the photos and kept a white border surrounding the black of the pages to make the colours stand out a little more. The black pages were meant to act as the screen of a heart monitor.

Note artists and photobooks you considered (found on the course blog, in the project outline) 

The artist that I took most of my inspiration was Alfred Steiglitz and I didn't use a traditional photobook, instead I used an anatomy book (Anatomy of the Human Body - Lockhart). 

Readings (Moodle) 

The main thing I read was was Alfred Steiglitz's "Georgia O' Keefe - Hands." It described that even if a face isn't shown in a photo, a presence and personality can be shown through just the hands. Hands can describe interests, an occupation, and emotions as well. 

Concept development 

This concept all started with one picture in particular, the image on the first page with the red flashlight in front of my chest. I've always taken inspiration from my heart condition (Atrioventricular Septal Defect and leaking Mitral Valve) in my art so I felt like this could be a great way to incorporate it once again. I wanted to display my self portrait in this way because it's been a huge part of my life and like in book 1, I wanted to show the person behind the chart/print. The sequence is meant to show up in beats. I think this book ended up being my favourite out of the two.