For this project, I knew I wanted to make a physical book. It's a process that I've done a few times before and really enjoyed. The time frame of this unit means that I have a lot of opportunity to really go in depth on something and produce a book that will hopefully showcase my photography in several different ways.

I initially considered continuing my Vespa Club project from last term, but ended up opting against that, given how difficult it was to find participants. 

I've wanted to do a project on football for a while now and saw this project as good opportunity to start that. 

Inspiration - GLORY 

My primary piece of inspiration for this unit is are the magazine made by GLORY. 

Every few months, the team pick a country and produce a book that combines photography, graphic design and journalism, exploring the world of football through the eyes of that country. 

For example, their most recent book is based in Qatar, the country hosting the World Cup later in 2022. 

My favourite book of theirs is naturally the special Norwich edition, where they broke the usual tradition of doing a country, to take a closer look at football from the Fine City's perspective. 

Above, on the right, you can see a great example of how they use graphic design and photography. They tell their story through a combination of the two. 

The designers aren't afraid to overlay images, text or use bold colours - whatever aids the telling of the story. Some pages are entirely graphics and text. All fonts in the book are very carefully considered, too. 

Above is a great example of the editorial nature of the magazine, as they interview one of the Norwich players. I'm a big fan of their use of graphic design here, as they overlay parts of the Cuban flag over the portrait. It's a really great way of tying everything together and making the package feel really cohesive. 

I love the bright and bold photography - out brings out the best in the kits. They have a real mix of candid and posed portraiture that are used to support their features. 

The book itself is made from very heavy paper stock and is matte in finish. This finish is absolutely something I want to base my book design off because it feels very high-end and professional. The matte finish makes the images much easier to view too, unlike a conventional glossy magazine. 

Ryan Mason is one of the co-founders of Glory Mag, and is one of the main photographic contributors to the magazines. But I wanted to focus on his work in particular because I feel his style of shooting will be really important for me and my project. 

The images above, part of the same series called 'Hopes and Dreams', looks at England fans mere hours before the Euro 2020 final. What I really want to take away from these images is the quality of the contextual information in the detail shots. A portrait of someone in an England shirt is something seen before, but the England flags decorating the fireplace is what tells us there's a tournament on, and the two images work so well together. 

When shooting a country and its football for Glory, it would have been essential to capture the essence of the place as well as the football. The images above are perfectly composed so as to provide rich, and sometimes humorous context to the football side of things. 

Urban Goals is an instagram account showcasing permanent, temporary and makeshift goal posts around the country. The images, for the most part, share some features, in that the goal posts are always centred and the images are square. Each image is quite gritty and high contrast, really leaning into the urban aesthetic. 

I like that each shot is void of any humans. It leaves the viewer to imagine how it might look when people are playing football here. When all displayed together, like on instagram, it takes the form of a really interesting and quirky project. 

For my book, I've decided I want to take a look at London's football culture. It will be similar in vein to Glory, only with a lot fewer interviews with footballers and more of an in depth look at multiple different clubs.

I want to capture the essence of football in London, all the way from Wembley to Grassroots. The book will feature photography and graphic design working together. 

Features that my book could include:

- A look at Wembley, and the England National Team.

- The rivalry between Arsenal and Spurs.

- A look at some of London's most iconic football shirts (shot in the studio)

- Features on some 'Super fans'

- A look at grassroots football and the Sunday league

-  Standalone shots of football places or people that I've met on the street and photograph in a documentary style.

This project will really push me as it's quite ambitious in size. I'm sure over time, the stories that have most substance will take priority and the scope of the book will become more focussed and direct. 

To see how parts of the project might come together, I did a test shoot at Wembley, looking at the stadium and its surrounding architecture. I also started playing around in InDesign, considering page dimensions, layouts and fonts. 

I was a really big fan of Glory's 7:9 aspect ration. I've made square phonebooks before but as a photographer who primarily shoots portrait images, this isn't a format that's ever worked particularly well for me. The 7:9 ratio is what I've gone for. It works really well for both portrait and landscape shots and can be scaled nicely. 

My working title for the project - Football for London

Here's how I could introduce a feature on the England National Team, with grey boxes showing where additional contextual images will go

Double page spreads to introduce the stadium and its most iconic feature, the arch.

Overlaying text onto images and considering the relationship between the two.

On the right page, I envisage putting the lyrics to the famous 3 Lions song.

Then, a look at England legend Bobby Moore, and some words on his contributions to the team

Another double page spread to introduce a match-day, these images will depict the crowds outside the stadium

Below is how I see a feature on a super fan looking. Portrait on the left, contextual image on the right, along with some words about their team, favourite game, shirt and experiences of supporting their team. 

Here, I've looked at clothing company 'Alma de Ace' and their product photography for inspiration. They hang clothes on wires in the studio and use photoshop to make them look like they're floating. I see iconic shirt on the right, and some words about what makes it special on the left, beneath the graphic I made. 

I requested a sample pack form Ex Why Zed and began to consider what type of paper stock I want to print my book on. Whilst I'm a long way from having to finalise these decisions, I think it's important to have a clear vision in my head for what the final product might look like. 

I chose Ex Why Zed because of their reputation for producing very high quality phonebooks on limited runs. In other words, they're not going to charge me the world for not printing thousands of copies. In reality, I'm probably going to want between 5 and 10, enough for the University hand in, some to use as portfolio pieces in the future and some as spares. 

After some consideration, I'm a really big fan of the uncoated paper stock. It has such a nice feel to it. The biggest adjustment I might have to make is to print everything with extra brightness and saturation as XYZ warn that this stock isn't as bright or vibrant as other stocks. Currently, I really like the 300gsm for my cover, and 115gms for the pages, but this might change over time.

This has been a nice way to start the project. I wanted to begin visualising how it might all come together in the book before I start the bulk of my shooting, meaning that when I'm on location and shooting for the real thing, I have a really clear vision in my head for what exactly I'm after. 

The stadium shots are nice and I like how they work with some of the text I've chosen to overlay. The pages that are entirely graphics are okay, but I hope to improve my skills in this as time progresses with plenty of practice. 

It was also really interesting to begin the process of deciding page sizes, dimensions, aspect ratio's and even the paper stock that I want to print on. I know these points will likely go on the back burner for a number of weeks as the photography takes precedent, but it's really nice to have a clear vision in my mind for how I want the book to look and feel when it's completed. 

I now need to begin thinking about time scales and what I shoot and when. I'll be aiming to have most of my photography done by the easter break, leaving plenty of time afterwards for post production, designing the book and printing. 

It's a big project with broad scope. Naturally it will become progressively focussed as the weeks roll on, but quite soon decisions about what should take priority will need to be made. 

There are just under 14 weeks between now and hand in, with the last 4 or 5 of those being for the publish phase of the unit. So, that leaves about ten weeks for shooting. 

My thinking is to shoot what I can independently over the next 5 weeks, whilst simultaneously arranging the shoots that will need extra participants to take place over the last 5 weeks. All the while I'll be doing post production and adding things to my flat plan so the book comes together naturally. 

There will be plenty of time at the end to consider reshooting, putting the book together, getting sample prints from the printers and I will make allowances for having to get the book reprinted if it came to it.

Wednesday 9th Feb - Wednesday 9th March:

Shooting the things I can do independently such as stadium exteriors, iconic shirts/

Also arranging the additional participation shots such as the Super Fan sections. 

All the while adding to the book's design and layout.

Wednesday 9th March - Wednesday 6th April:

Shooting the additional participation shots such as the Super Fan sections.

Reshooting anything that I need to, also gathering the street candid shots.

All the while adding to the book's design and layout.

Wednesday 6th April - Wednesday 11th March:

Finalise the design and get some test prints done either at Rave print shop or by XYZ if they'll do it. 

Have the files with XYZ by mid April and have the finished books with me by the first week of May at the latest. 

This will leave plenty of time to finalise Behance and prepare for the project hand-in.

To kick off the shooting for the unit, I thought I’d start by shooting for the ‘iconic kits’ section of my book. The effect I was aiming for was for the shirt to appear as if it’s floating in the air. 

The original plan was to achieve this by using wire/string and tying it to various anchor points around the studio. Unfortunately this didn’t work out as I wasn’t able to get the tension in the string to support the shirt. 

Ultimately, using a C-Stand, I was able to get closer to what I wanted from the shoot. There still isn’t quite enough tension in the shirt for my liking, and the sleeve on the left looks a little slack, but this shoot can act as a benchmark for what can I can achieve here with little equipment. 

In post production, I used the pen tool to remove the shirt from the background. This also removed the hands/C-Stand from view. Removing it from the background also meant I could add in a pure white background which removes any imperfections that were in the studio backdrop.

To add a little depth, I added a subtle black —> transparent gradient rising from the bottom of the image. 

From here, I was able to resize my canvas as much as I wanted to get portraits, landscapes and also add in my text overlay. 

On the following spread, I inserted an image of the shirt’s pattern close up, and then added a white layer with 85% transparency so that text could be read over the top. The text provides a brief history / context of the shirt and then another image providing a close up of the Arsenal badge on the right hand page. 

What went well?

- I’m pleased with the overall outcome of this shoot. Whilst not perfect, I think this proves the concept works well and can be improved upon in the future. 

- Shooting tethered in the studio was a good decision. Very few images provide a lot of flexibility as I’m able to zoom in and crop dramatically without sacrificing image quality and resolution. 

For next time?

- Firstly, improve the concept. Is there a better material, like a more solid wire that would do a better job of supporting the shirt and giving it some tension? Probably.

- Secondly, I want to shoot the shirt on location, too. Possibly outside the stadium, or the Arsenal tube station that has inspired the shirt. 

Unfortunately, the shoot at Charlton ended quickly as I was told I needed permission to shoot on their grounds, so I've written to the club and hope to be aloud back soon. In the meantime, I started placing the Millwall pictures into the flat plan: 

This project has been put on hold whilst other ideas are explored.