OUGD504 - Type In Context - Brassai Graffiti

In conversation with Simon Harrison we spoke about my images and they way they have been photographed and explained how this can be called a Typology when you systematically photograph objects in the same way to highlight the differences. The most famous of photographers using this technique being Bernd and Hilla Becher. I then went on to say how I think the work of the photographer Brassai and his book 'Graffiti' would be an interesting connection to my work. So I took this book out from the library to try and grasp the concepts of his work, the production and how this is informed by this.

The theme of the book by Brassai 'Graffiti' is documenting the graffiti and carvings found on the streets of Paris in the 1930's. Then ordering and compiling these images in to a variety of categories things like, Animals, Love, Death, Magic and Masks and Faces. This work can be seen in a way as a kind of typology, a typology of primitive graffiti therefore I feel this work has lot of connections with my own photographs especially in the way Brassai has gone about taking them. He has walked around the streets of Paris with no prior knowledge to what he might see or photograph but instead capture them when he sees them. There is also an element of Magic within this work he has taken something almost dismissed by the public and not seen as amazing or interesting and changed the context by photographing it as an art piece. Finding the Magic in the ordinary. 

In the opening passage on 'The Wall as a Proposition' he explains 'Sometimes Nature presents us with forms so ambivalent, so disturbing, that they suggest to us other, purely imaginary, forms. Boulders, mountains, gnarled tree-trunks, twisted roots, cracks in dry mud, veins in a piece of marble or porphyry can "propose" incomplete extraordinary to which we feel compelled to add the finishing touches.' This I feel is very true of my own project I found myself looking at rocks, plants, and other elements of nature and felt myself that looks like an O or almost looks like a T and so on. In my case the finishing touches is not changing what I see but adding the context to make this into typographic forms.

The images above are of the book 'Graffiti' the book is very large and could be classified as a coffee table book, this for an art book is not uncommon, the pages are all very glossy with full bleed images. The content is split in to categories that explain each section, the writing takes up a double page spread and the typeface is large. Coffee table books are designed to be a little impractical and show the content in as large scale as possible. The hardcover and dust jackets only add to this impractical feel to the book. The design of this book suggests it is only for leisurely reading. The stock is a heavy weight of paper and is printed on gloss this adds again to this art book style with no expensed spared to make the images look as detailed as possible. If for example the reader wanted to walk around with this book and find each location it would be extremely impractical. All of these design elements that effect the production and target audience of the book. I feel this book is targeted at people interested in photography and that have money to spend on large expensive art books. 

As the concept of the images is fairly similar to my own work I feel it is important to consider a coffee table style book as an option for my own publication and what this means for production and the design.