Photobook Discussions #2 - Thanks!

Thanks to all who came to the meet on Thursday night.

Our evening was spent discussing the photobook as a concept and object.

We looked at four different approaches to making photobooks around the subject of family and discussed different strategies that artists and designers employed to convey their message.

Each of the books centered on the parents of the artist and, although the theme was consistent, each artist presented their work in a way which represented the subject matter according to their own perspective. These different approaches presented each of us, as a reader, with a sense of the relationship between the child as author and the parent as subject. There was some discussion about the voice of the artist within the work and differing opinions with regards to their dynamic within the family.

Artistic strategies and techniques contributed to the way in which we responded to the subject matter and prompted discussion, which ranged from the use of vernacular images and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky to the news reporting in the mainstream media and reality TV shows. 

Overall, it was a thoroughly engaging and thought provoking evening, with at least one of us, leaving with more knowledge than when he arrived.

Looking forward to the next round of Photobook Conversations. Stay tuned for more info on the books that we will be looking at in the coming months.