The brief for this
assignment is to create an illustration for a book cover using digital
techniques and use this as a means to explore the ethics of image manipulation.
Book covers (along with record sleeves and film posters) are something I find
of great interest - I love the way a single image can be used to define another
art form. Sometimes the approach can explicitly define the contents while at
other times the content can be abstract. The well worn cliché 'never judge a
book by its cover' can at best be seen as cautionary advice since I doubt such
energy would be given to designing book covers if they did not influence sales
a great deal; I know I am guilty of buying more than one book because it looks
good on the shelf! More importantly for many authors, musicians and film makers
however is that the images they choose to represent themselves with can go a
long way to define them as artists.
This assignment
differs significantly from others because it requires only one image to be
produced rather than a set, although this could consist of a composite. My
initial research into potential approaches for the assignment led me to a
number of interesting articles. In late 2013 the singer Morrissey released his
long awaited autobiography after a period of typical controversy when he
appeared to have fallen out with publishers Penguin. The exact nature of the
dispute was not completely clear but one of the key stumbling points appeared
to be Morrissey's insistence that his work be published under the Penguin
Classics imprint (Penguin eventually agreed and the book was published.) This
stance was ridiculed by many as further proof of Morrissey's tenuous grasp of
reality, but others saw this as brave evidence that he was unwilling to accept
any compromise on the way his work is presented. Since the early days of The
Smiths and continuing through his solo career Morrissey has been obsessive
about the way his work is presented. Following the books eventual publication,
The Guardian invited readers to
produce alternative covers for the book, most of which are humorous and
flippant. This led me to my first idea to design an alternative cover in a
humorous style.
Another article I
came across discussed the effect that the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' trilogy had on
publishing. The set of books was a phenomenon that seemed to come from nowhere
in 2012. One of the effects of this is that many publishers attempted to cash
in on the success by reissuing books with covers that echo the cover of 'Fifty
Shades.' Perhaps I could do this too, and maybe create a cover whose style was
completely at odds with the content of the book?
Again from The
Guardian this article shows a number of real life and extremely ill judged book
covers of famous literary works.
I knew from previous
experience that the planning and concept stage of assignment preparation can
often lead to procrastination and lack of progress. With my course deadline
approaching I knew I could not afford any delay, also, the thought of
approaching the exercise as if it was a commercial assignment with a definite
deadline was one that helped focus my mind. I started to think about books that
have had an effect on me and which I already knew a great deal about so would
be able to think of an approach quickly.
After scouring my
bookshelves I came upon 'Book of Matches' a 1993 poetry collection by Simon Armitage. The book is published by Faber and
Faber who unify the style of their poetry collections by using only plain
(albeit strongly coloured) covers featuring only the authors name and the
title. This seemed like the ideal choice as it is a work I love and also I
would be producing the cover without anything to influence me. I knew I wanted
to be keeping with the simple style of the existing cover so thought about bold
and effective imagery that would complement rather than detract. I decided to
try photographing a box of matches as this would provide an interesting
counterpoint to the writing and I would also be able to play with literal and
metaphorical readings through the image. Looking through my cupboards I found
an old matchbox that I thought would fit perfectly because the battered box
would echo the themes contained in the book of looking back, the past and
nostalgia. I set the matchbox on a plain background and photographed in a
number of different ways and angles using a tripod as I wanted to capture as
much detail as possible and needed to select a small aperture. At the time of
shooting I had a strong preconceived idea of how I wanted the matchbox to look:
I would take the shot directly from above to keep the perspective true which
would echo the shape of the book. Experience has taught me it is important to
keep an open mind and experiment to find the right approach so I shot the box
from a number of different angles as well as open and closed so I would have a
selection of shots to choose from and could experiment with which one was the
most successful.
I used Photoshop to
create the cover, first creating a canvas the exact measurements of the real
book. For my first attempt I placed a closed matchbox near the centre of the
cover with my intention being that I would put the book title across it and the
author name at the top. I quickly aborted this as the approach did not seem
right - the final effect was missing the boldness I had preconceived, also, it
seemed wrong to have the matchbox shut. I went back and to my shots and chose
another image of the matchbox open with the matches showing. I was struck with
the idea to make the box the same width as the book cover, this seemed to work
well and left me with around half of the cover blank which I decided to could
use to place the text in a similar way to the existing cover. Next, I wanted to
accentuate the creases and folds of the box along with the texture of the
matches so duplicated the image layer and applied hard light blending mode
which increased the contrast and saturation of the image. I also needed to
remove the background at the top of the box, with hindsight I should have shot
the box against a contrasting background as the grey was extremely close to the
colour of the box and this would have made it easier to select. In the end I
used a layer mask to hide the photographs background so I could go back and
edit my selection if necessary once I had added a new background. Next I needed
to delete the writing on the box, I did this with the clone stamp tool followed
by the healing brush to replace any texture that had been lost. To emphasise
the edges of the cardboard a little more I duplicated the layer and changed the
blending mode to multiply before adding a layer mask and painting over the
edges of the cardboard to emphasise the degraded nature of the card. Lastly I
chose the colours, I decided to do this by using the eye dropper tool to sample
colours already in the image - for the background I sampled the grey of the
open box, the authors name is sampled from a match head and the book title is
from a match itself. The effect I wanted from this approach is for the colour
choices to subtly unify the image.
Original image
Cover A
I am happy with the
end result as I think I have managed to fulfil the brief I set myself for the
cover - I wanted a simple, bold image manipulated subtly so it retains the
appearance of reality. I was lucky to find a prop in the old matchbox which
aided my vision, without this I would have had to use a lot more Photoshop work
to produce the aged appearance I was after. The choice not to do this was all
about ease of achieving the end result rather than any ethical choice about the
pursuit of truth. I am well aware of my limitations in using Photoshop however
and doubt I would have been able to create a convincing result myself but I
imagine many digital artists would be able to in a way that would leave the
viewer with no clue as to the level of manipulation involved. The way the image
is presented gives it a more illustrative rather than photographic feel, there
is a sense of heightened reality rather than photographic truth.
I made a conscious
decision not to produce alternatives for this assignment and I have enjoyed the
discipline this has enforced which has made me focus my attention. The
motivation for this approach has been one of ensuring I keep to timescales and
achieve deadlines, in a commercial situation I would imagine the client would
expect to see a number of treatments to be able to reach a decision. Out of
interest, I quickly changed the cover to reverse the position of the matchbox
and the titles which interestingly feels more like my original idea for having
the titles as writing on the matchbox itself.
Cover B
Looking at the work
of other students for this assignment it seems many have chosen a much more
manipulation heavy approach resulting in much more abstract images. I have
interpreted the brief in a quite straightforward way and the results are
clearly a photograph. Does this show an inherent conservatism in my work?
Believability is something I hold dear and I consciously try not to over egg my
images, however, I can appreciate strong manipulation in other images when done
well. When I first became interested in digital photography I would use
Photoshop extensively but over the last few years I have been concentrating on
camera technique and have rarely used Photoshop doing most of my post
production in Lightroom. Now I am more confident with the camera perhaps I
should learn more about Photoshop and begin using it more extensively in my
images - it seems the key difference between then and now is that I am now
better at being able to understand the image I would like to create rather than
trying to use the software to make something from an image that does not
deserve having the time spent on it.
