Topic: Book mock-up -- feedback sought

[hookstrapped]

People have suggested and I've been thinking about creating a book from my series on sex workers in the Dominican Republic. I did an earlier mock-up that was basically laying out my four series in sequence as different chapters, distinct in look, format, equipment used, and underlying narrative.

But I've been exploring photo books and photo book workshops and that's not how they're put together. Rather than single images on one side of a two-page spread (replicating a slide show experience) they tend to juxtapose two or more pics across the two-page spread, and they mix different sizes and formats.

So that's what I've done here. It's been fun working with old pics I've forgotten, and trying to make them work as dyads. My overriding objective with this from the beginning has been to juxtapose the women's professional and private lives, so the dyad idea works even if not all follow a literal professional life / private life formula.

Anyway, I'd appreciate feedback from folks, especially those more knowledgeable about photo books than me.

(Technical notes: large squares shot on Mamiya 6 with 50mm lens, Portra 100 and 400; black and white shot on Canonet and Rollei 35S and Bessa with a 21mm, Tri-X and Neopan 1600; rectangular color shot on Ricoh GR1s, x-pro Velvia 100; and small squares are phone pics (please excuse) with Vignette app on toy camera setting, which does a damn good job of replicating a real Diana, especially how I shot with Velvia 50.)

Thanks!

http://www.hookstrapped.com/book-mock-up/book-mock-up

Kinda NSFW. It's a horizontal scroll, with each dyad (2-page spread) bounded by light gray bars

[Terry]

The thematic dichotomy works for me.  There's a kind of emotive power to the tone of each photo in the pairs (& the way they work as pairs) and it builds and subsides nicely as we scroll through the series.  This is strong stuff and it adds up to a statement that isn't necessarily expressible verbally.  I like the way it operates (for me) on a visceral level. 

The strongest pair for me is the one of the night street shot from a second-story window with the woman bathed in red light.  It's like a sequence from a noirish detective film.

[Late Developer]

I don't profess to be more knowledgeable about photo books than anyone - but I do have quite a lot of them and I'm also thinking about building one via the "Blurb" link with Adobe Lightroom.

I find the layout a bit of a paradox in that I like the photos and I can see and appreciate you intention to contrast the work and private lives of the women and I think it works at that level.  However, the variation in format, aspect ratio and size doesn't "flow" as easily as it might, for me, had it greater uniformity.  Perhaps that's the intention, though - that the viewer has to stop and look more intently at each photo and compare / contrast with its partner.

Ultimately, I can only recommend that you follow your instincts as far as what layout works / looks best.  You know the narrative better than anyone and, if you're happy that this is the most effective way to tell the story, then it's right as it is.  If there'll be text added which provides more context and, perhaps, chronology, it might not.

[hookstrapped]

Thank you both for your comments!  Real interesting for me to hear. In putting these together some dyads work for me and others don't, even to the point of which is on which side.  Some of that is simple geometry in the pics, some refers to the content -- either obvious or not so obvious, but a lot is intangible.  Maybe that's the visceral Terry refers to.

And some pics I like didn't work as dyads at all so they're not included (except for the first pic).

The idea that juxtapositions of different formats might make you consider each more is an interesting idea.  I've come to like such juxtapositions in the books I've been looking at.  If every image is the same format and size, I prefer single-image spreads with the left side blank. I tried one dyad with both the same format because it worked on a couple levels but in the context of all the others the uniformity was dissonant so I scratched it.

[hookstrapped]

BTW, I welcome negative comments, too!  If it doesn't work for you and you can describe why, that also would be really helpful and appreciated. Thanks!

[Terry]

Are you going to go ahead with it?  Taking pre-orders yet....?