Using MagCloud to create a physical version of my photo series, In The Public Eye, was easy and pain free. Publishing a magazine of my photos seems to make my role as an artist more legitimate, at least in my opinion, because I am a very tactile person. Taking the time to choose my images and put them in an order that makes sense was a difficult task, but one that made me think a lot about the importance of order. Studying Robert Frank's The Americans also made me think more in depth about the significance a certain order can have. Frank ordered his images in a holistic way so that they blend together in ways that make sense and make people think. Sarah Greenough's article "Transforming Destiny into Awareness: The Americans" looks into some of the choices Frank makes in ordering his photos and how they are significant. He takes a number of approaches, including juxtaposition of subjects, and grouping ideas.
Ordering images isn't something I had put much thought into before, but after reading the article, I rethought the order of my photos in my magazine. I decided to group each of my photo shoots together. I used two, three, or four from each separate photo shoot. Within each group, I ordered it in a way that made sense and that flowed well together. Choosing the order of the groups was a little bit harder - I ended up choosing the order based on form, color, and composition. Many of my photos were taken in the same general area - so I also ordered them in a way that made it feel that you could walk from one set to another, since they were very close by. After ordering and reordering, I came up with my final product which I submitted to MagCloud through Flickr.
I agree with you on how easy MagCloud was to operate! I think the ordering of your images is really important because you have such strong images with each set of people. I like the idea of ordering them into sets and making each set flow within each other. I think the ordering of your photos really make your concept even stronger than it was before.
ReplyDeleteI like that you bring up the idea of legitimation of your artwork because of it becoming a tactile object. I experienced similar feelings about the project as well, being an artist that usually works with tactile materials such as paint and clay. It was very interesting to go through the evolution of the Flickr project to the magazine project and realizing how much more "real" the artwork felt because it was put into a tactile format rather than just floating around in hyperspace.
ReplyDeleteThe level of thought artists and designers put into sequencing images can seem invisible until you become aware that it is something very carefully considered. Your new sequencing made yours a much more evocative project.
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