Influential Photographers:

• Steve McCurry - McCurry's works are always beautifully composed. He has a particular talent for spatial relations among subjects and objects and a gift regarding colour grading. Famous for the vivid use of colour that dominates his work. He uses all kinds of daylight but in the middle of the day, he suggests using bright shadows to see the difference from the hard sun.

• Michael Yamashita - With his eye for composition and colour, and creative ingenuity, his photographs create a compelling narrative that draws viewers into the scenes. known for his breathtaking landscapes, intimate depictions of daily life, religious and cultural ceremonies and portraits of people.

• Denis Dailleux - He shoots contemporary, urban and industrial landscapes, uninhabited spaces, bright lights and deep shadows. His images (captured using a medium-format film camera), include individual portraits; bustling souks and cafes; empty hotel rooms and homes; and subtle details of daily life which form a visual poem that communicates the rich culture of Egyptian life.

Themes - Portraits of the citizens of Morocco, the architecture of Marrakesh and its surrounding areas. Capturing the essence and ambience of the hectic environment, focusing on vivid colours, contrasts and patterns.

Book Binding Supplies - White waxed thread, black book cover fabric, A5 Buckboard, PVA Glue, Card for inner cover pages, 30 msg Paper for printing, scalpel and guillotine for cutting pages and board to size.

Software - Indesign for layout and planning the pages, Photoshop for editing images and removing imperfections and Lightroom for colour grading and making all the images cohesive so that the book pages flow well.

Photography Techniques - Played around with different lighting and shadow techniques, often opting for a higher shutter speed to capture movement but also maintain the vivid colours of the environment.

The Atlas of Beauty - The Atlas is a fantastic collection of portraits of women from across the world, photographed by Mihaela Noroc. It is a small compact phonebook with rich vivid imagery, with captions carrying the narrative of female beauty and empowerment. A powerful sentiment with even more power in the photographs, I felt very inspired in how I wanted to capture portraits for my phonebook and especially took away from the editing styles, Mihaela is known for her colourful images and I'd want to edit in the same style to truly breathe life into my photography.

Women in Revolt Exhibition - Carrying on with the narrative of female empowerment, I opted to visit the feminist Exhibition ' Women in Revolt', I resonated deeply with the exhibition's subjects and art due to my own experiences with being a woman in Bengali culture. This helped hone my interest in photographing portraits of people often overlooked, to truly capture the essence of a city, you have to look where others don't and I find it is important to know a city more through the people that make it up. The exhibition had extensive photography displays and I was particularly drawn to the black-and-white explorations in the art, I have been leaning towards a more vivid and colourful style for my project but I was reminded that black and white can be equally as powerful in capturing my narrative.

India Book -

Frameless Exhibition -

Exploring portraiture, noticing details of architecture, building my confidence in speaking to locals and requesting photos to be taken helped hone my style for the photos taken in Morocco. I particularly concentrated on colourful contrasting compositions of subjects and objects and held more interest in capturing the heart of the culture through portraits of its citizens.

Through colour grading I was able to make my images more cohesive and flow better when compiled into a book, achieving an interesting narrative and telling the story of travelling through Morocco. I was able to do this through my previous travels, so by improving my skills enough I had more control in executing my ideas and visions for my photographic images.

My travels honed my storytelling style and improved my colour grading skills. My Morocco images are now better composed, showing emotion and stories in the moments and portraits captured.

Binding Process - Regarding the binding process, I chose to use the Japanese stab binding method for my book, this was a beautiful way to show my stitchwork and bring some contrast to the cover by using white thread on a black cover. I find the stab binding method very easy to execute as it was simply punching holes using a guide and aligning the pages perfectly, I was able to bring interesting stitching to life against a white background. I began by punching holes into the pages themselves and then proceeded with the covers which require a bit more force to get through the board, I had no issues in the binding process.

Challenges:

• Page Alignment - I found that my pages would've achieved a cleaner look had I used a larger guillotine to cut all the pages to size at once rather than individually cutting the pages - this meant that not all pages were aligned, it didn't achieve the sleek look I wanted but on the brighter it gives my phonebook a bit more a rustic style which compliments the travel theme

• Stitchwork - My stitching held together well and was done tightly, I also achieved the contract look I wanted with white thread against a black cover, however, once I had finished binding the pages with the white thread I realised it wasn't as straight and aligned as it could have been. this may be down to a miscalculation with the holes in the cover boards or general misalignment with my pages but the stitching although done well, could have been straighter to give a cleaner look.

Solutions:

• Page Alignment - In future, I would use a larger guillotine to perfectly cut the pages exactly to size and ensure they are aligned.

• Stitchwork - With practise my stitching would improve and I'm sure in future projects I'd be able to achieve a cleaner look, although I loved the contrast of white stitching on a black hardcover, I would start practising with a similar colour that could blend way any obvious misalignment in my stitchwork.

• Personal - Despite the tumultuous time I was having in my personal life during this project, I am proud of the first book I have ever made, I achieved what I set out to do, and showcased my photography to the best of my ability.

• Photography composition - I am particularly proud of the composition work of my images, I was able to achieve the contrasting and vivid images I envisioned to capture the essence of Morocco. I also leant more into portraiture work and was successful in capturing beautiful moments with the people of Morocco.

• Achieving a Narrative - I feel as though I was successfully about to create a narrative throughout my phonebook, the colour grading helped achieve a flow throughout the pages and the pages played into each other to transition between locations and the environments of the images captured.

• Colour grading - Using Lightroom and Photoshop, I am ecstatic at my improvement with colour grading my images, I feel as though I was able to bring to life my images through my editing and colour grading skills, helping to bring a narrative to my book through the cohesive colours and vivid constants in some of the photos. The editing made it more interesting and visually appealing.

• Indesign layout - I found the beginning of the layout process tricky but quickly understood the process to achieve the correct layout for my photo book. I opted for a simpler stitch (Japanese stab binding) which meant the pages only needed to be printed one-sided and not folded so this made the printing and layout work much simpler to achieve.

• Creating the Cover - Although there was difficulty with the fabric choice, I fully enjoyed creating the cover and the steps done to achieve a clean look for my book. I feel as though I achieved a sturdy and well-made cover as someone who had never made a cover before.

Improvements:

• Book cover colour choice - I chose to use black cotton as the cover fabric for my phonebook, initially, I liked the idea of a sleek and simple cover but during the manufacturing process, I came across issues. The difficulty lay in PVA glue becoming messy and staining a few spots on the covers. This was nearly impossible to remove without damaging the cover and so it has left the end product looking less professional and neat, I would change the colour if I redid this project.

• Page Sizing - Due to my inexperience in bookmaking I found it particularly difficult to make my pages neatly align in size, I cut each page individually with a guillotine as I didn't want to use the larger machine without supervision and help. I found this somewhat successful as I was able to size it to the backboard and none of the pages stuck out too harshly, but it could have been much neater in appearance if I had used the larger machine to cut all the pages at once and achieve a cleaner edge. I would do this in future to make my product more professional.