Revised About the Author Sleeves

 It was easier to design the about the author section when I used the book sleeve template. I am using the design in the top picture and the collage on the left lines up with the collage from my book sleeve.

Original About the Author and Title Pages

Miniature Book Covers

After critique I decided to go with the one on the bottom and just make some minor revisions.

Revised Table of Contents

Finished Double Page Spread(hopefully)

Table of Contents

 After critique, we decided that the bottom two designs are the most successful. I am working on some small corrections to improve them.

Title Pages

It was brought to my attention that my title pages are more like covers and that title pages need to be more simplistic. I am thinking about incorporating these ideas for my cover and working on simplifying my title page!

3rd Revision for Spread

A few more things need to be tweaked and then my four page spread will be ready to print.

2nd Revision

First 3 Spread Designs

Shooting like Cindy Sherman

Untitled Film Stills

Cindy used herself to illustrate common stereotypes seen in television and movies from that time. After graduating in 1976, Cindy moved to a small apartment in New York City. Living in a rough neighborhood, she often felt threatened outside, so she took photos in her own home.  Between 1970 and 1980 is when Cindy created her most known series, Untitled Film Stills. In these stills she wanted the photographs to be entirely moment oriented and to have the slight suggestion that the characters had a life outside that moment and left it to the viewer to decide just what that moment was. In an interview where she was asked about her still series, she said, “The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told” (Stevens). This proves true in the sense that the viewers come up with their own narrators for the stills.Cindy created her photos entirely on her own by taking the photos, modeling for them, and by doing her own make up and picking her wardrobe. Her work stayed consistent for the most part except for the addition of prosthetics and later on her usage of mannequins. She takes complete control over her photos on her own and it makes her work that much more successful and inspiring.

 

Cindy's College Life

While Cindy was a student in college she met Robert Longo, who would serve as a very influential person for her photography. Robert, Cindy, and another student created Hallwalls while they were in school. Hallwalls is a contemporary art center in Buffalo that is still used today. The center allows mixed medias such as film, literature, visual arts, and performance art to come together and create exhibitions that touch on themes such as racism, sexual orientation, and gender inequality. However, this is not the only positive influence Robert would have on her. Cindy liked to dress up in costumes and wigs when she went to parties and it was Robert who suggested that she use these characters in her photographs. This is when Cindy turned the camera on herself. However, like many assume, her photographs were far from portraits. Many of her critics insisted that her photographs must be somewhat autobiographical and when asked about this in an interview she responded with “I really don’t think they are about me. It’s maybe about me maybe not wanting to be me and wanting to be all of these other characters. Or at least try them on”(Harden).

Cindy's Bio

Cindy Sherman was born the youngest of 5 children on January 15^th, 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. Her parents moved her to Huntington, Long Island where her father was an engineer and her mother taught kids with reading disabilities. She went to Buffalo State University and joined the visual arts program to major in painting. Trying to fill a studio requirement, she took a fundamental photography class and ended up failing. Still needing to pass it for her major she retook it with a different teacher. With her new teacher, she was introduced to conceptual photography and developed a large interest in the medium itself. Realizing the restrictions of painting as a medium, she switched her emphasis to photography. This decision led her to become the well-known and successful photographer that she is today.

Book Design

For our book project, I chose Cindy Sherman. She is such an inspiration to me and it has been fun learning about her. I even bought her book of Untitled Film Stills. 

My Final Collage

When thinking about my two ideas, I felt limited with the marquee of the Rio. While I really liked this idea, I didn’t have a good enough lens at the time to create my collage exactly as I wanted to. With this thought and the opinions from the class, I decided to do my final collage on the Union Station. I created my mixture of old and new pictures by collaging the pictures Union Station had on display along with collaging the ones I took. Surprisingly I only had to go there four times, and the first three I always seemed to be missing certain pictures. I decided it would be best to take the current pictures with me to map out exactly what I needed and at which angles to take the pictures. I decided to focus on three different areas to create three separate pieces in which I would put together to be viewed as one. I collaged the great hall, the exterior, and the main entrance because I felt these were the most known and used sections of the large building. Originally I wanted to put them in frames to match the elegance of Union Station, but after discussing this with my peers I came to the conclusion that this would take away from the photos themselves. Instead I decided to put them on black presentation paper and use pieces of foam core to prop up each picture. I presented them in a way that I felt was the smoothest route for the eyes of my viewers. I took more than 300 pictures, but my final collage only required around 40.

Dropping it down to two

After introducing my ideas to the class, we decided that I should further explore the Rio and Union Station. The class suggested that with the Rio I could illustrate the experience of going to a movie now vs. how it is at independent theatres. They also suggested that I could just illustrate the process of seeing a movie as a whole. When I went out to take photos, I decided that I wanted to focus on the marquee because I feel that is what really characterizes old theatres from new ones. When I visited Union Station, I noticed that they have tons of old photos on display of how the train station used to be used, and decided to continue with the idea of mixing the old with the new. These collages can be seen on the next page.