Assignment 1 - I make myself in your meme

My artistic practise involves looking at memory from my own past or doing research into cultural themes that I want to explore further. My photographic and creative output is then formed into narrative sequences, of found objects, places, people, that say something to me. I also incorporate constructed scenes or portraits that enhance the narrative in some way. Although the narrative is usually linear in format I've lately been trying to develop a more non-linear narrative style. This allows for a more conceptual outlook by de-centering the subject and making the viewer more able to follow different narrative pathways of their own. I do find this quite hard to do as storytelling feels quite natural to me. For this project I have used a dual narrative that links in some way. There are also a number of images that are more a conceptual comment on the narrative theme than part of the narrative themselves.

I am aware that I am pushing at the boundaries of what is essentially a documentary assignment with my work. But, the research that I've recently done into documentary photographers such as Richard Mosse, Broomberg and Chanarin, etc, means that I am more than comfortable with my interpretation of the documentary brief.

Some of my images are appropriated from the Internet and adapted or cropped to suit my purposes. So, unfortunately, because of copyright constraints, I am not able to publish the full sequence here.

Note: Since this initial posting the working title of 'Gay4pay pornstar boat-trip' has changed to 'I make myself in your meme'.


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By looking at the images here the viewer will be unaware of the dual narrative element to my sequence. It is just unfortunate that copyright restrictions stop me from posting all of the work. The essence of my project is to take a look at sexuality, and how difficult it can be for a non-heterosexual person to adjust to a society that is not only Patriarchal, but aligned to a Heterosexual Binary Gender Matrix. I've tried to make the work from both a narrative and conceptual viewpoint. Construction of identity features highly in the work and tries to show how all of us are subject to family, cultural, societal and political influences - all of that comes together and forms who we are and ultimately the masks, both public and private, that we wear.

The assignment is now posted to my tutor so I await my feedback.

Edit 7th October:

I've had my feedback for a while now and haven't got around to updating my blog. The feedback was good in general, stating that I was clear in my approach to research and conceptualisation of ideas. I backed up my ideas and explained what I wanted to achieve well. The academic side of my studies is on track basically, with a few tweaks needed to improve my analysis of my own work and more  contextualisation in regard to other practitioners. I'm working on this and will make a conscious effort to cover these areas more in the future.

The not so good news was that my tutor found my assignment images to be somewhat confused. He felt that I had tried to cover too many topics and that I need to reign it in. There is a danger that the viewer would get lost in the work with no real sense of what I was trying to say. He advises that I re-look at the work with the intention of focusing more narrowly on fewer topics.

He does have a point. I'd been reading a lot of critical theory lately around representation of minorities and had expanded my initial thoughts to much wider concerns on how we are all affected by cultural representation in our society. I think I took on a bit more than I could deal with in an assignment that required only twelve images. I provided double that. I've had time to ponder all this and think I know how I want to amend the assignment. I am behind with my studies at present so need to move on with my coursework and assignment 2, so this one will be on the back burner for a while.

I also had some suggestions on photographers to look up that my tutor thinks will be of benefit. I will come back and post the links to my analysis here when it is written.

Edit 21st October:

This past weekend I attended the Brighton Biennial two day study visit. I found inspiration both in the work exhibited and in the review/crit session that was held for the students on the Sunday morning. I took along this piece of work in the hope that I would be able to make more sense of it and move it forward.

I made some notes and have outlined some of the thoughts that came out and my subsequent response to them:

• move image 12 (production assistant) to end of sequence to complete ending.
• will image 12 at end of sequence lessen impact of final porn image?
• this work needs to be a photo book
• work needs commonality of experience
• remove jarring key lines from images
• edit images - remove image 6 (tear sheet image)
• think about final format - print work as a Leporello - this will enable dual narrative to flow and cross over
• think about non standard aspect ratios of porn images - Leporello format will counter this issue
• re-investigate dots - look at recent work of Bloomberg and Chanarin

I was inspired to use the Leporello book format when I saw a piece of work at Vantage Point by one of the exhibitors. I have all the details collected in various notes and postcards and will have to come back here to update this post.

Edit 22nd Oct:

Although this project should be on the back burner so that I can continue to push ahead with the next section of the coursework I couldn't help but want to have a stab at making a basic Leporello. I had some index cards that I sellotaped together and printed out some small versions of my assignment images. I played around with the positioning of the images for a while and printed out some larger ones too, so that there would be variety of size to create a more dynamic feel to the book.

I made what could only be considered a very rough first draft. There is so much more to think about. The sizing is not right of either the white Leporello card or the images themselves. Then there is still the issue of sequencing. I thought I had it more or less sorted but now the images are finally in book form I can see that there are problems to be resolved.

I also need to think about the issue of printing. How exactly do I get a Leporello printed? I want the finished version to look as professional as possible - not hand made. I have plenty of time yet to think about these issues but I must really place this work on hold now and just get on with my studies.


A VERY rough draft of 'fantasy gay4pay pornstar boat-trip'.

Edit 27th Oct:

I'm thinking about pairing selections of images on pages. They seem to work much better as a narrative when there is juxtaposition to reinforce the groupings. This will make the Leporello shorter too - no bad thing. The image sizes need adjusting in relation to each other though. They can't all be the same size. One image needs to be visually dominant with the others having a subordinate role.

Edit 28th Jan:

My tutor feedback for this assignment suggested I look at a number of sources. I will post a link here as and when I've completed a review of each one.

Alan Clarke - Elephant

Philip-Lorca diCorcia - Hustlers


Edit 9th Jan:

Wow, it has been almost a year since I last updated this assignment! I've been working towards the final output and even taken a one day course on bookbinding. I learnt how to make a Leporello (concertina book) and a couple of pamphlets with different types of binding. The course was most enjoyable and enlightening. I got to be hands on with bookbinding tools and glue and cover fabric and papers. Although fiddly (and neatness isn't my strong point) it wasn't too difficult to put a book together. I can thoroughly recommend the course to anyone that wants to learn the techniques for making handmade books.

London Centre for Book Arts

Edit 15th Jan: 

So today I pulled some sheets of cartridge paper together and tried to work out what the dimensions of my Leporello were going to be. I thought that the height needed to be taller than the average greetings card as I didn't want the images inside to be too small. This is because I might lose detail with smaller images. I began with card that was 10 inches high. I made up three separate strips and taped them together to make a long strip.

I laid the strip out on the bed and then began placing my images to try and arrive at a sequence. The narrative already directs this to a certain extent but I do have too many images at the moment. After some time and a bit of shuffling I was able to drop the image count from 23 to 15. The sequence is much tighter now and anyway the final Leporello would have been too unwieldy to accommodate so many images.

Once I had the sequence more or less set I began to look at image sizing. I need to make the images smaller or larger depending on their juxtaposition to other images. They can't all be the same size as they will compete with one another. Each set of three needs to have a dominant image that dictates the intent of the narrative.

I began making changes to the image sizes and stuck them to the cartridge paper with tape. It was at this point that I realised that the 10 inches height parameter that I'd begun with made the book look too cumbersome. So I cut off a strip at the top to lose 2 inches. I'd already made folds to create concertina pages in the cartridge strip. With the shortened height the page widths now looked too wide so the width needs adjusting.

I've made a lot of progress today but I need a break. Tomorrow I will remake a new strip from cartridge paper with the new height and width in place. Then I will continue working on image sizing and placement.

Edit 25th:

I made up my new Leporello in the size and began making small adjustments to the sequencing and image size and placement on the page. Once I was happy I began translating the physical book to Adobe's inDesign application ready for digital upload to my online printer.


Edit 28th:

To accompany this book there will be an artist statement to contextualise the work around identity politics. But on reflection when perusing the actual book I wanted to add an element that humanises those concepts in some way. I've decided to add text to the work. I've spent some time thinking about this; working the flow of text and placement; swapped words around and writing them on my physical copy of the Leporello to see how they fit. I think I've arrived at text that I'm happy with and have even managed to take a line from one of the pages to make a new title for the work. The work is now called 'I make myself in your meme' and I'm very happy with my new title!

I just have the text placement to put into inDesign now and it will be ready for printing! The whole process has been quite difficult because I've had to plan the work on three sheets of A2 that, once printed, I will need to cut and fold into the form of my book. This means that it has been quite tricky to ensure that the images are placed correctly and once folded will not appear on the wrong page or even across folds!


Edit 4th Feb:

A very busy week with lots of progress made! I've received the A2 sheets back and I'm very happy with both the paper and print quality. A couple of prints are a little dark but it's all a learning curve. I've not used hand pressed fine art paper before. It also looks like my image and text placement is correct. I won't find out until I start cutting.

I started by cutting the three A2 sheets in half. This gave me six strips that would need to be glued together to make one long strip. So far so good!

The strips had a noticeable paper curl so they had to be pressed for 24 hours to get them as flat as possible before folding and gluing.

The folding required concentration and constant re-checking to ensure a seam wasn't folded the wrong way. Luckily I had the paper maquette to refer to as I went along. I was pleased to see that my measurements had worked successfully. My images and text were all in the correct places! The paper was quite difficult to handle and very easy to crease if handled clumsily.

On each of the strips I'd allowed for an extended edge so that they could be glued together. It is all the measuring at the planning stage that is so crucial to get right. It is no good spending £70 on expensive paper to realise the images are misaligned or there is not enough space for joining edges together.

The gluing was the most worrying part. So easy to get glue everywhere. A top tip I learned on the recent bookbinding workshop was to wear an apron! This isn't just to stay clean but very useful to quickly rub the glue from sticky fingers! Having a cloth lying around means that with all the other tools lying around it can easily come into contact with clean paper and cause marks. Lining up the glued edges to join the pieces was fraught with worry. So easy to make a mistake at this stage.

It's all coming together! Very pleased with the result! Only two small minor mistakes made that I'm sure can be rectified at the tidying up stage.

Once glued and folded and with loads of blotting and greaseproof sheets added for protection it was all back into the press (a pile of heavy books on a hard flat surface) for another 24 hours.

Only the covers to make now! I've decided to use white buckram, as close to the paper colour as possible. This is so that the book's content will be the main focus. With my book drying my thoughts turned to how to put a title on the material cover. I'm visiting Shepherd's the bookbinding store in London for the materials. I checked on their website and was pleased to see that the buckram is suitable for inkjet printing. I did a test print on a small piece of buckram that I had handy and the results are good. Can't wait to visit their store on Monday. It is supposed to be an amazing place stocked with goodies!

Edit 12th Feb:

My trip to the bookbinders was successful. I'd planned in advance the cover material I needed for both this book and for assignment 2 as well. Although it would have been easy to get carried away with fancy cloth and elaborately designed paper I need to remember that it is the work that has to be the primary concern. It mustn't be overshadowed by other design elements. So for assignment 1 I've chosen white bookcloth material. This is to match the white paper of the interior pages. Hopefully the images inside will then stand out.

Compared to making the book pages, the covers were easy. Well, they would have been a lot easier if I hadn't decided to print my titles using my crappy inkjet printer! My test piece using a scrap of coloured bookcloth went well. Printing my title using black ink on a white piece of bookcloth was a whole other matter! The curl in the material was a problem and I resorted to dry ironing it, which seemed to work. Although the small piece of fabric still kept touching the rollers, and collecting ink splodges. It took quite a few attempts to get it right. Once the printing was sorted it was a relief to start making the covers.

I used special board from the London Centre for the Book Arts for the stiff covers. I made sure there was enough space on my bookcloth to wrap around and then glued the cloth to the board. Once the covers were made they were pressed under weighted books and left to dry for 24 hours.

The finished covers were then glued to the interior concertina pages. This stage was also fraught with worry. It would have been so easy to get glue everywhere or make a mistake when attaching the pages to the covers and ruin the whole book. Thankfully it is now finished - with some minor errors. But it was a positive experience, and for a first attempt at making a handmade book, went well. I'm very pleased with the results.