Thursday, 31 January 2013

Children's photography and illustrated books



Author: Richard Dawkins
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Publisher: Bantam Press
It is a graphic science book aimed primarily at children and young adults. Dawkins has stated that the book is intended for those aged around 12 years and upwards, and that when trialling the book prior to publishing, younger readers were able to understand its content with additional adult assistance. 

Maureen O Neill suggested this book for me to research. The magic of reality is full of detailed illustrations that explain how our planet works. 
The pictures almost look 3d like. 



My Fold Out – Words Board Book
Publisher: Priddy Books
Babies and toddlers will love learn first words with this bright, bold board book
Features one long, concertina page, printed on both
sides, which is perfect for unfolding on the floor for little ones to look at
With full colour photographs of fun and familiar things, such as a ball, dog, shoes and car. 




My book won't be this simply as my age for my book is 5+ however I love how bright and clean this layout is. It reminds me of the useful photography and point it books by dieter Graf.



Publisher: Heinemann-Raintree 
Super sense- seeing is a book about the use of our sight. 
Photographs and text is used throughout the book.

 

The text uses the pictures to look out for funfairs and pretend to be one. 
Close ups of children point to their eyes and explain what helps us see. 

This is a good idea as shows children exactly where to look and Ives them a clear example of sight. 




I love our Earth. 
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing
This book is aimed from 3-6 year olds. That explore the beauty of our Earth and why we love it. 

Children from all over the world are placed in the book describing what they love about our earth. 
Where the child is talking about what they love, a photograph is displayed describing what they are explaining. 




What Is Matter?
Publisher: Children's Press

This is a big book, that covers all types of science curricula in a simple form. From friendly dolphins to giant pandas, from icebergs and glaciers to energy from the sun, from magnets to solids, liquids, and gases, is made for primary-grade classroom.




What is Matter shows the opposites which is made clear in a simple layout. In a large book you can investigate the scale of the photographs. They look great in this size.




Author: Geraldine Taylor
Publisher: Scholastic
Audience 3+


This is the first question book I have come across. It will be interesting to see how they have dealt with illustrating the questions and answers. 



Even though this is an illustrated children’s book I find it interesting in how they have written out the answers.
How detailed they are how many words they have to be
Typo.




Again from the same author and same audience, brings another book but ranges the questions about animals. 




This magazine was £10.99
and is packed full of information about all the elements of the earth. 




How it works magazine is filled with photographs, illustrations and text about certain subjects. Each page contains at least three questions with facts. Photographs with diagrams on top display in a simple form what that object does.

I like this layout, however I feel like its a bit too much with a lot of information in double page spreads.  







The website is exactly the same as the magazine and has the same content, however in a bit more of a simpler form. 


New Scientist magazine
This front immediately drew my attention to the question “why is the sky blue?” Its a powerful image, that captures the eye and makes you ponder of the blue sky. When shooting my blue sky, I need to make sure its a strong blue sky. 


The New Scientist’s main feature is about the atmosphere and what is does to the clouds. The photographs are fantastic and provide detailed description about the clouds we see everyday. 


































Polaroids for the children's book.


During this project I was given a polaroid land camera. I wanted to give it a test by photographing the sky. 
These were really successful and love how vibrant and child friendly they are. 
I would love to test them out in my project and see if they fit within the book. 




These are from London and documents wetness. The top left has a pattern which is quite undone and handmade.  




This was an experiment of how does paper float on water. I documented how long it took to sink. The images look quite surreal, as your not sure what is going on. But with text this can help the audience too. 




Dylan was sticking his tongue out at me and wanted to photograph it. 
For the question:
Why do we stick out tongue out at each other?
I made a double exposure, to show him sticking it out and in, but you can’t really tell what he is doing.



How is a beach formed?








The Science Museum.




From the thinking hat tutorial, a few people suggested to go to the Science and the Natural History Museum. It can explain many questions that the world holds. Many people have said they like to photograph the answers with little text, which is harder but I can experiment. 
I was in awe over the entrance of the science museum.  A large runway centres the large hall full of facts and visual media. Above is a large circle with a bolt of electricity flying around. It a fantastic building, however this photograph doesn’t capture how large and amazing the Science Museum.  





This is the liquid dropping in the glass, showing the movement of liquid. I love this construction as it explains the movement of water and the different solidarity's of water.  





This is a diagram of a Molecular Structure which is exhibited in light boxes, which gives it better attention and detail. 





This was an incredible sculpture/documentation of many materials that have been layered on top of each other. It was a work of art and was used for learning about the different textures and patterns of material.





The Agriculture gallery is divided into three bays of exhibits. The first presents a history of agriculture told with the aid of delightful landscape dioramas and superb scale models. The many ways of powering the plough are explained alongside a working demonstration involving four tiny tractors.




Influences for my children's book



Colourful, simple and with a great layout. 
Point it by Dieter Graf
has two functions, one being a useful book
for travellers who do not speak there language, so instead if they would like a chicken from the menu, they would point on the book. As photographs describe exactly what your looking for, a main use for photography.
The second aesthetic from this book it is arranged in a artful way, making it a artful book. 
The still life's are pictured with great composition and clarity. 


From Graf’s series Point it, came more of a post modern view of collecting what people sell on the internet everyday and creating a book from amateur photographers. The use of colour is prime as it tells us the exact details of this object. 


I love the colours used on the cover, the blue back with the red slipcase catches the eye and gives a fun impact on the book


Martin Parr’s work is something I have always been keen on but never seen much hype around why he is so popular. However when attending his talk in Eldon building on 1st February, I recognised how passionate and knowledgable he knows about Photobooks, which is something I am currently learning about. 
Common Sense a book about consumerism within Britain captured in a violent setting caught my eye out of the many photobooks he has made, as the colour was so strong with full bleed images throughout gave a strong sense for a children’s book. 




I was suggested this book in the presentation as it documents children around the world are where they sleep. 
Its such a clever series and shows the diversity of and, often, disparity between children’s lives around the world through portraits of their bedrooms. 
This book is created for children and adults to show them where children sleep and in what conditions. Children can where they live from looking at the pictures. 

I love the colour of this book, its so vibrant and has a squishy cover that feels like a children’s book. 
The graphics on the front reminded me of Rob Ryan, a paper cutting artist. 



This gives a real sense of the diversity of children that are shown in this book. 
At the top is Kaya, who is four years old who loves toys and wants to be a cartoonist when she grows up. 
The bottom images shows a boy who is four years old where his family sleep on a mattress on the outskirts of Rome, Italy. The family cannot read or write. 


Taryn Simon
                                         An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar,


Simon’s series provides unfamiliar places were  the public have not encountered as they hidden. Gaining access to these places Simon photographs and gives a description of what exactly this place or object is. 
My self led is about teaching people the unknown and unfamiliar of everyday life that we find interesting and curious about. Simon’s work are similar to what I am doing but at a mature level. 


Bonnell places everyday, household items in rural contexts and photographs them within the landscape. Appearing at first quirky, whimsical and humorous, the images also allude to the domestic role of women in society and environmental abuse.


She plays with man made washing object that bold colours against a natural environment such as the beach or countryside.
 This plays with a surreal aspect, wondering why has she done this when it means a deeper meaning.


Jason Evans

\

In our 2nd year we had Jason Evans as a guest speaker, I really enjoyed his talk and how he photographs banal objects and turns them into something very surreal. On of his websites is called The Daily Nice, everyday a new “happy” image is put up for just that day. This image can inspire you or make you happy. I look at this website everyday and to either look for ideas, take my mind off something or to cheer me up. It works believe me! 







Artists and scientists analyse the world around them in surprisingly similar ways, by observing, collecting, documenting, analysing, and comparing. In this captivating guided journal, readers are encouraged to explore their world as both artists and scientists.



The colours within the book are only black and white but with a shot of colour that is orange. 
This gives the book lots of advantages as it compensates for the flow of the book. Images are made more simple and understandable. Finally it gives the book more of an earthy feel, something that is good for the environment. 



Found faces is funny, it shows the humour of the book, to have fun with it and to explore every nut and craney of our world. 
All sorts of different methods are used to explore. The bottom image is to interview people and Smith again has created a fantastic grid of interviewing a person. 



The film concentrates on strong movements and images that create metaphors within truth, grace and god. The film poster reminded me martin parr's layout to common sense. However completely different concepts. I still really like this idea of showing a images in this grid. You can see the range of colour, composition and feel of what the film is like. 



William Eggleston’s Guide is a guide from the MoMa exhibition in 1976, New York.
It was the first exhibition to exhibit colour photographs, however Eggleston’s work got a lot of bad press for being banal by photography boring subjects. It was not until later people started to apperceive the composition of his work. 



These banal and everyday settings 
are turned into something beautiful and captivating. The colours are strong that make the image stronger. 



His images I find are whimsical, child-like and hold a great simplicity to them. 
The book is incredibly laid out with a continuos flow of his hometown. 
The white around the images, help you concentrate on the colours inside the image and also helped with the exhibition when it was up at the time. 


"The composition appears so intuitive, so natural. It is not forced upon us at all. It appears the simplest thing, but of course when you analyse it, it becomes actually quite sophisticated and the messages that these pictures can release to us are quite complex and fascinating, and that of course is the hallmark of a very good Eggleston".- Martin Parr. 


This was my favourite quote from Colourful Mr. Eggleston. 
It defiantly reminds me of what I feel when viewing his work, calm, natural.
However reading deeper into the life of Mr. Eggleston, there is another side to his work. Something dark and complex. 


\

 Tana Hoban, an accomplished photographer of children who turned her photography into an innovative kind of illustration for books for the youngest audiences
Shapes, Shapes, Shapes documents the shapes you find in a normal day.
Publisher: Harper Collins
Price- £3.99




I love how simple this book is. I gave it to Dylan and he immediately spotted the shapes in the book and was interested in the photographs. 



Foam magazine created an issue called “Happy”
This had photographers Henze Boekhout and Olivia Bee who both use colour, depth of field and different angles to make “happy” photographs. I found this issue interesting as many photographers capture dark and sad times of our lives, instead this fully concentrates on the opposite. 
“Gaiety is often regarded with a degree of scepticism and disdain”. (Krijen, 2011, page 5)
Happiness is a deep emotion which can express our love for things in life through the medium of photography. 



This project gives a dreamy sense of being so close to a place, but far as we are only seeing the pictures. Boekhout handles a camera cautiously when recording an image, he observes his surrounding and takes his time building an image around him. He uses natural lighting and flash to create a surreal abstract viewing of his world. These pictures remind me of a woodland fairytale, a fantasy. 





















new project- the six thinking hats.


?
curious questions
from inquisitive minds







Curious questions from inquisitive minds is a children's book I created for my final project at university.
At the beginning we used the six thinking hats technique to make my idea stronger and to look at the positives and negatives of what I could face. This gave me a lot of new ideas and new artists to research.