A brief update on my business cards, the design was changed slightly so that it can show off a little more of my work. The work in the Hebrides has become an anthropological study of the place and its history, and that leaks into the way I perceive it. Some places I haven’t visited since I was a child and they are so drastically different. The work on the back of my business cards hopefully highlights the way I work. 
As part of the exhibition process a couple of people from the Iris team got in touch with the editor of ‘f2 freelance photographer’ a photography magazine. He kindly gave a few of the team the opportunity to feature in the magazine. This was great promotion for the exhibition and a great way to get our work out there. 
Category: Exhibition
Book Design: Part II. (More Details)
I fear that perhaps in my last post about Iris’ exhibition catalogue I just fired through and didn’t really talk about it very much. Not that I have a lot to say, other than that I designed it?
First off I could tell you where we are getting it printed, which is Reeds in Penrith (around ten minutes on the train) they print using plates, which will hopefully make for a beautiful end product.
I was slightly worried when my image was chosen because its of sheep and we are in Cumbria. I didn’t want people to look at it and just see some Uni in the North being obsessed by rurality, but was comforted by some fellow students that its probably abstract enough that people won’t make the connection.
We also looked through last years catalogue and they had a lot of colourful dots about the place and lines and it all looked a bit busy. So, we went for a more simple plain look for the main pages which you can see in the first ‘Book Design’ post.
The Networking post I spoke of will be up maybe two of three from now.
Book Design: Part I
Today I am in the process of designing and putting together the book for our exhibition. I would like to share with you just a few screen shots of what I’m up to so perhaps there won’t be a lot to say but I’ll just get on with it.
This is the front cover for which we had a competition to have your photograph on the front, and it was a very close vote. I have also designed the inside cover, which is simple but quite striking.
Finally I will give you a preview of the page design for our work and statement, I have enjoyed the process of designing the book. It has its stressful times but if pressure does’t make you work better what will?
Exhibition Possibilities: Part II
Recently I have been looking into which wall I would like and which wall I may get, so I will share with you a few of the ideas I have in mind. First of all, to get it out of the way, the default wall space, which isn’t my dream wall but, with 26 people we can’t all get what we want. I’ll just be happy to have my work on the walls. 
These may not be my final choices in fact I can already say a couple that haven’t made the cut. Like I have said previously I want to go with full bleed images because I don’t think that any single image tells the full story, not that I don’t trust an image to stand alone. Combining the images into such a full on wall display will hopefully help my work to be memorable, but we were told today by two people from the Carlisle Photo Festival, ‘you’re only as good as your weakest person’. So there needs to be an amazing network of support amongst us all.
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These are two ideas I have for my dream wall, the slant in the roof creates some issues, but also adds to the map aspect of the wall display. I think the option on the left is the one I am going to use, it looks neater and still shows off the images. I will be testing the line on the wall some time after easter and I will update you when I do.
Editing: Part III and Mounting: Part III
Today was another very productive day for me I spent most of it in university trying to decide on what photographs I am going to use. By the time we get to the exhibition you may have seen all of the images, but anyway, I had a tutorial with the two of my lecturers we discussed my edit for the wall and how I would display it. I will do another post about the wall display.
I printed a couple more of my prints onto A3 today which has helped me to dislike more of my photographs because of the dull days on which I was shooting some of the photographs are not 100% sharp which is a bit disappointing. I am going home for a week at Easter, so, if I talk to the local crofters again perhaps I can do a second visit, and get a couple more shots for the exhibition before time runs out.
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Today I also tested my image onto A2, and I have learnt that I will have to be very careful with which images I choose. The bigger I go the more mistakes I notice, so I think A2 is the size Im going to stick with. There was also an incident with the printer it chopped the first full A2 print in half.
Finally for today, is (at the top of my page) a rough idea for a wall design. and then below that, sizes and prices for different mounting options. depending on the size I go for depends on the wall and amount of prints I get, I keep planning things for my dream wall, but I also need to plan for the other walls as well.
Web Design: Part II (The Exhibiton)
We wanted to make a simple and easy to use website for our exhibition and so that we did, its all quite boxy and everything is plain.
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Currently it is in need of a few updates, because when the deadline for having images to Caitlin Boak, Ffion Scott and myself came around not everyone had sent us images. If you could take just a couple of minutes to go and have a look at some of our work we would all be very grateful.
Edinburgh: Part I.
First of all on the trip to Edinburgh we encountered a street performance (a fire juggler) whom for his finale picked three people out of the crowd to help him, I was picked, great fun and very funny. 
First on the visit however was the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where the Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse collaboration ‘Ponte City’ is showing in the Photography Gallery, after our lecture on wall presentation that was the what I kept focussing on, as well as the amazing photography. 
There were large prints roughly B0, but I couldn’t be sure of the size without measuring, and the where mounted on something but I couldn’t say what, and framed within a strip of steel, I would have taken more photographs but they were actually not allowed. The frames suited the work perfectly, they had a solidarity and a coldness that the building in the photographs shares with them. Along with the large prints, some smaller prints were stuck up with small nails, some of the people I spoke to really didn’t like the nails, but I thought that it really brought something to these small repetitive prints. 
We also visited the Stills Gallery just off the Royal Mile, there was some very interesting portraits here, but sadly the quality of framing was’t all that great, like I said though wonderful portraits but the prints were warped within the frames. On the other hand, the frames themselves were very good, they weren’t solid black so they didn’t create to much of a solid border around the image. As well as this, the white border within the frame was large and this drew you in close to look at the image. One last thing about this gallery in general, the space was amazing, I loved that the two artists work, though it was different didn’t massively contrast each other, if anything they complimented each other. and the two halves of the gallery flowed together very well. Would love to have my work hanging on their walls someday. 
And after some more wandering around, being tourists and visiting the Fruit Market Gallery (which went over our heads) our day in Edinburgh was done. 
Mounting: Part II
Today we had hours of information, looking toward the mounting and framing process, and something came up that I had never thought about doing because (as my lecturer said) borders are something of a convention. With the right images a ‘full bleed’ could really have a positive change, it could help the series to flow or it could even open the images out and make them feel more open. The nature of my photographs could be opened up by this change, this tightly cropped image can suddenly breath and become an immersive experience. I will come back with more on my final edit and the ‘full bleed’ in the next couple over weeks, if everything goes to plan.
Getting onto the main topic of the post mounting, today we were shown a variety of different ways to mount our photography on to, Dibond being my personal favourite, the rigidity of the mounting material for me is the first positive, then it has a very sleek look form the side, the second positive. Its first major downfall however, its cost. It is nearly double the price of the next cheapest material on the list.
The other material that was an early favourite with everyone, was the 5mm black foamex, it is also pretty sturdy and has a very sleek look from the side, but printing on thick paper, as I may well do, might look odd when viewing the edges.
Another part of of today was seeing paper sizes in all their glory, you can be told them, look them up even imagine them but until you see them labeled in front of you you can’t know. B0 very large, A0 also very large, A1 however, that may be large but I think that it is a manageable size. Below our very own Hal holds up an example of B0. Below that again is Kayleigh holding up an A2 print to see how many we can fit into the default exhibition space.
Tutorial and Exhibition Possibilities: Part I.
Today I had a tutorial to discuss my final edit and make sure that I wasn’t going in the wrong direction. I ended up discussing plans for mounting and what I want to do with my wall. My lecturer took a photograph with my phone and told me to use it for my blog, so I will. 
Carrying on from that, the contents of my tutorial, I was able to see a sample of Dibond, and I’m leaning strongly towards that. Along with an idea that sprang from someone a few days ago, perhaps I would mount myself using a wooden mount? I’m intrigued by this idea, I wanted to incorporate something of the crofting world into my exhibition, and using wood would reflect traditions. I also talked about which wall I would like, which can’t really be said at this point because everyones work needs to be seen and the idea of ‘what, who, where?’ really needs to be established. But I put my name forward for one of the walls, and I’ve taken a photograph of it and I’ve begun to experiment with my line. The wall goes a long way up so theres a lot of issues with what to do with all that space. So, now that I’ve narrowed it down to 49 for my folio and book, I need to decide what 3-7 I want to use in my exhibition. So, there will be an ‘Editing: Part III’ fairly soon where I will discuss my decisions.
Transfers and Stencils.
The plain white wall doesn’t really appeal to me much so I am looking to give my images a sense of place on the wall. I hope to be able to achieve this by having a simple line on the wall outlining the coast where the photographs are taken.
I have been searching for a place to make a stencil/transfer but so far my search is getting nowhere. Companies that make custom stencils seem to go up to around A2 and the ones that make transfers do text only in their custom builds (this only stands for the ones I searched through).
This could be a good thing as it may save me some money, I now plan to make my own stencil. Getting hold of a piece of paper/card the right size shouldn’t be too difficult, I can use cut offs from the studio backgrounds. I will be back with more news on this.
Ruaridh Cameron 