Project 63: A Narrative Picture Essay

I recently undertook a task to be one of the "Official Photographers" at a village event, and have made a separate blog post on that. I was also charged with selecting photos that other volunteers had taken, and putting them together in a photo book to celebrate the event and present to the organisers. This was a good example of a narrative picture essay, and had to include a variety of shots to record the day. As it was a village garden walkabout, with the Parish Hall food & refreshments at the heart, along with a scarecrow festival, I wanted the final book to incorporate all those elements in balance, with each garden fairly represented as well. This was a difficult balancing act, as some gardens naturally offered more variety of images than others. This was all achieved against the restricting factor of space & cost (i.e. keeping the cost of the photobook within a reasonable budget).

I don't know how to incorporate a link into a blogpost, however pasting the following into your browser should give a preview of the final product (note that the book includes the work of others, as noted at the front of the book, as well as my own).

http://www.mypublisher.com/?e=OHm3Q8zJl3T59kofVVFLpa2_K4rYm7e1&_mp=Kp3JLwmfKpoaGv%2BzQ/cDGBPzdoopNKiM%0A

The object of this particular project was to produce a narrative picture essay on any subject. Although I have already done a real life example, as detailed above, I wanted to do another essay to capture a subject close to my heart. I chose to tell a story about my son, and a recent purchase of lego. Although this may seem rather a boring subject, there is a context to this. My son has a diagnosis of autism, and his condition includes obsessions, which often pass as quick as they came. His current obsession is lego, which is his most expensive obsession to date (I'm dreading the Hornby obsession!). He is very talented at building the models, and can do so with no intervention and 100% focus - with larger models such as a police station, this can take several hours of construction. Anyway, I thought I would take the opportunity to record one of his purchases on a recent shopping trip to Glasgow. Some of the shots were taken with a point & shoot, so the quality is a bit iffy, however that's photojournalism for you! I have tried to lay them out as best as I can, within the confines of blogger and its idiosyncracies. The photobook above is probably a better example of my abilities to lay things out appropriately, because the book allows for different sizes of images and arrangements on the page.