The objective of this assignment is to produce a photographic image to illustrate a book or magazine cover. The briefing highlights these covers are sales vehicles for their contents, and so are often quite widely interpreted by art directors, illustrators and photographers; with the moral ground potentially being ambiguous.
I’ve had a couple of ideas for this, originating from an image I did for one of the exercises in the first module of this course “The Art of Photography”. Again, it was a book cover for the book “Spares” by Michael Marshall Smith. This is the image I created for the original exercise:
Spares Exercise
Idea 1 – Smashed
This idea would be a hand “smashed” as though it were pottery. There would be other identical, intact, hands somewhere in the background. To achieve this I’d smash a plate and separate parts of the hand image, using the smashed edges at the separation points. I’d then shoot several images of the same hand to place in the image. Here’s a rough sketch of the idea:
Spares – “Smashed” sketch
Idea 2 – Delivery
This idea would be the hand and forearm in a polystyrene case on a table, as though just having been delivered. In the background there would be two identical shadows behind a sheet – ideally to give a kind of “science fiction” look to it. Kind of reminiscent of this image from Doctor Who: Tomb of the Cybermen.
I would see this accomplished with several shots. The hand and forearm as one. The polystyrene case as another, and finally a shot of the shadows behind the sheets. The hand and case shots would be shot against a green background to facilitate easy removal of the background, and replacement with the shadow background. Here’s my sketch for the idea:
Spares – “Delivery” Sketch
Which to choose?
Of the two, I prefer the second idea; it’s a bit different to the original one I did for the exercise and is a little more “real” than the idea of a smashed hand. That doesn’t make it any more valid a choice, but it appeals more as an idea to try and create something that looks realistic and believable, yet for a sci-fi setting.
One point of note is I need to ensure I leave sufficient space for the title and author this time – something I didn’t do in the original, and haven’t really done in the sketches either.