The photobook

Learning goal

You will be able to plan turning a photo series into a small photobook, an object whose pages are turned. You will explain how a photobook differs from an album or a portfolio by sequencing, page turning and the weight of the book as an object being part of the meaning. You will think of the book not in single pages but in spreads, the pairs of pages seen together when it opens, and build a page rhythm with transitions between full page, small frame and empty page. You will test your decisions on a cheap dummy, by holding it and turning it, and take care that the gutter running through the middle of the photos doesn't swallow faces and important details. You will make design decisions such as paper, size, cover and text in a way that serves the frames, and check with a test page whether the paper you choose closes up dark skin tones.

The question

Your friend has finished the twelve-frame selection and wants to see the frames in a book. In their first attempt they open a ready-made template on an online printing site and drag the frames onto the pages in order: one photo on each page, centered, with the same white space around it. The result is orderly but like a catalog; as the pages are turned each frame takes the place of the one before, and none of them talks with the one beside it.

What's more, in one frame in the middle of the book the tea-stall keeper's face falls exactly where the two pages join. How do you put together a photobook? How can twelve good photos become so silent once they turn into a book?

Context

You studied earlier that when you put two photos side by side a link is born between them, and that the order changes the series' story (Lesson 23.3). While examining paper types you saw how surface, whiteness and texture affect the tones in a print (Lesson 25.4). In the previous lesson, too, you narrowed your archive in rounds and drew out a small series in which every frame does a job (Lesson 26.9).

A photobook brings these three pieces of knowledge together in the same object. On a wall or a screen, photos are usually seen one by one or all together; in a book, on the other hand, the viewer sees them in a certain order, two by two and at their own pace. Turning a page hides one frame and opens the next; this gives the photographer a tool the wall doesn't have: time. The book is also in the hand: its size, weight and the texture of its paper are part of the reading. While the same frames are scrolled past on a screen, in a book the viewer can take the book onto their lap and look at them for a long time, go back, keep a finger on a page and compare it with the one before.

Simple explanation

Why is a photobook different from an album?

A photobook is a publication in which photos are thought of together with sequencing, page layout and object design, and in which meaning is born not only from the frames but from the turning of the pages, the relations between frames and the book itself. An album is usually kept to store memories; a portfolio is prepared to show the best work. A photobook, on the other hand, aims to have the viewer read an idea or a story in a certain flow. The same twelve frames can be a series of sweet memories in an album, and the step-by-step unfolding of a thought in a photobook.

That is why preparing a photobook begins, before placing photos on pages, with a question: when the viewer opens this book, what should they see first, where should they stop in the middle, and what should stay in their mind when they close the last page? Ready-made templates answer this question in place of the photographer and give every page the same weight. Using a template isn't wrong; but if the template's every decision is accepted without questioning, the book turns into a catalog, like your friend's first attempt.

How are the pages arranged?

A spread is the two pages seen together on the left and right when a book is opened, and it is the real unit of a photobook. The viewer sees the pages not one by one but spread by spread; that is why two facing frames change each other's meaning. Two frames linked by a formal echo or a contrast can be placed facing each other; a frame that needs to stand alone is placed beside an empty page. According to a frequently repeated observation, the eye falls first on the right page as a page is turned; many designers therefore put strong frames on the right. This isn't a rule, but a tendency to be tried and tested.

Page rhythm is the reading tempo formed throughout the book by changes in frame sizes, empty pages and facing pairings. A frame of the same size, centered on every page, gives a monotonous tempo. If a large frame covering two pages at once comes every now and then, followed by a small frame and an empty page, followed by two facing frames, the reader speeds up, slows down, stops. An empty page isn't a lack, but a breath; it gives time to keep the previous frame in mind. To see the rhythm, it helps to draw every spread as a small box in a notebook and mark only the size of the frames inside the boxes; the whole book becomes visible on one line. The rhythm is built according to the series' idea: a calm series can move forward with long spaces, a tense series with frequent, large frames.

How is the book tested in the hand?

A dummy is a trial copy prepared with small prints on cheap paper before moving to the book's final form, stapled or folded so it can be turned by hand. On screen the page layout can look flawless; but when you take the dummy in your hand and turn it, you feel that a frame passes too quickly, that two facing frames crush each other, or that an empty page lasts too long. The dummy is remade several times; each version is cheaper and quicker than the one before. Giving the dummy to someone who wasn't at the shoot and watching them turn it in silence shows where they stop and where they speed up.

The gutter is the middle zone where a book's two pages join and which, because of the binding, curls inward and becomes invisible. In a frame covering two pages at once, the detail that falls into the gutter is lost or bent. A face, an eye or an object carrying the frame's meaning landing in this zone ruins that frame. The dummy shows what the gutter swallows much more honestly than the screen.

Paper, size and cover are also part of the decisions. A matte, textured paper can suit a calm series but closes up dark tones more quickly; this can mean the detail of a dark-skinned face being lost in the print. Printing the book's frame showing the darkest skin separately as a test page on the paper to be used in the book, and looking at whether the face is readable, brings this problem out before the final print. The book's size and orientation also come from the frames: a series that is mostly horizontal is comfortable in a horizontal book, vertical portraits breathe in a vertical book. A small book draws the viewer closer and is read like a private notebook; a large book opens the frames like a window. The title, a short text and captions can be kept plain enough not to overpower the frames; some photographers gather all the text at the end of the book.

Visual evidence

Your friend closes the template, prints the twelve frames at a small size and lays them out on the table as spreads. They put the half-painted wall on the right page and leave its left empty; this becomes the book's first breath. They place the craftsperson's hand facing the new cup next to the cup ring; between the two frames, one work and one morning, a link is born.

They staple the dummy and turn it. The tea-stall keeper's portrait covered two pages, and his face is buried right in the fold in the middle. They move the portrait to a single right page, keeping the face close to the page's outer edge. Then they add an empty page, because the frame that came right after the portrait was leaving it in the shade.

They had chosen a matte paper; they have the tea-stall keeper's portrait printed as a test page on the same paper. The shadows on the cheek have closed up, the face like a flat dark stain. They open the frame slightly in the shadows on screen and print it again; this time the texture of the face is readable. When they give the dummy to their editing partner, the partner stops at the empty page for a while and then turns it slowly.

Common mistakes

Summary

A photobook is a publication in which meaning is born as much from the turning of the pages, the relation of facing frames and the book itself as an object as from the frames; its unit isn't the single page but the spread, and frame sizes, facing pairings and empty pages build a page rhythm. Decisions are tested with a cheap dummy turned by hand, care is taken that the gutter doesn't swallow faces and important details, paper and size are chosen to serve the frames, and the frame showing the darkest skin is printed as a test page on the chosen paper to check whether the face is readable.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will prepare a photobook dummy from your twelve-frame selection.

1. Print your selection at a small size and lay it out on the table as spreads; decide which frames will face each other and which will stand alone with the page opposite left empty.
2. Build a page rhythm using full page, small frame and empty page, and draw the rhythm in your notebook as a one-line diagram.
3. Staple the dummy and turn it in your hand; check whether any face or detail falls into the gutter, and remake the dummy at least once.
4. Print the frame showing the face with the darkest skin as a test page on the paper you are thinking of using; if the texture of the face isn't readable, edit the shadows or change the paper. Give the dummy to an editing partner and watch them turn it.

Check yourself

• Were you able to think of your book as spreads instead of single pages?
• Can you draw the page rhythm in your notebook?
• Did you do the gutter and test page checks?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is the real unit of a photobook?

• A) The single page
• B) The spread
• C) The cover
• D) The single photo

2. If the face in a portrait falls where two pages join, what is the problem?

• A) The paper is too glossy
• B) The page rhythm is too fast
• C) The face is buried in the gutter and lost
• D) The book is too small

3. What is the main benefit of a dummy?

• A) Reducing the cost of the final print to zero
• B) Decorating the cover
• C) Showing the frames sharper
• D) Testing the page layout, tempo and gutter by turning it in the hand

4. When a matte, textured paper is chosen, what is done for a dark-skinned face?

• A) Printing the face as a test page on that paper and checking whether its texture is readable
• B) Taking the frame out of the book
• C) Being forced to switch the whole book to glossy paper
• D) Converting the frame to black and white

Answers

1. B — When the book is opened two pages are seen together, and facing frames change each other's meaning.
2. C — The gutter curls inward; a face or detail falling there is bent or becomes invisible.
3. D — Turning-tempo and gutter problems invisible on screen come out in a dummy turned by hand.
4. A — Matte paper can close up dark tones; a test page shows the problem before the final print.

Summary card

• Think of the book spread by spread.
• Build rhythm with full page, small frame and empty page.
• Print a dummy, turn it in your hand, remake it.
• Keep faces away from the gutter.
• Print the darkest skin as a test page on the paper you chose.

Bridge to the next lesson

The dummy is ready, but your friend's club will open an exhibition of its members' work at the end of the year and has asked them to fill one of the walls. In the book the viewer saw the frames at their own pace, two by two; on the wall they will see all of them at the same time, standing, from a few steps back. Which frames should go up on the wall, at what size should they be printed, should there be frames or bare paper, should the frames stand on the same line? How do you put on an exhibition? The next lesson takes up selection, print size, framing, wall layout and the exhibition text.