Skip to main content
state library of queensland
Blog
Australian Library of Art

Memorandum: my book in progress.

By Christene Drewe | 13 November 2015

Siganto Foundation Fellow Ana Paula Estrada has developed the concept and a dummy of her artist's book 'Memorandum' which she shares in this post.

I am at the second stage of my Siganto Fellowship project 'Memorandum', which is an artist’s book that combines oral history and photography.
I attended a Senior Centre every Friday in Brisbane for a few months. I photographed and recorded life stories from Senior Citizens; they shared their life and trusted me with their photographic archive to scan in my studio. I have also been digging in the collection trying to find photographs and other documents to further illustrate their stories.

Memorandum - book dummy, Left side: Coal tippler at Mount Mulligan Colliery ca 1917: 7059, Mount Colliery Mine Photographs, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Australia. Right side: James Hopkins Jeffrey, Brisbane Australia. 2015

Memorandum - book dummy, Left side: Coal tippler at Mount Mulligan Colliery ca 1917: 7059, Mount Colliery Mine Photographs, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Australia. Right side: James Hopkins Jeffrey, Brisbane Australia. 2015

I am currently working on my hand made book dummy, which is a lonelier, crafty and instinctive stage of the project.
Since the idea emerged, I could perfectly visualize how I wanted the final work to look, so I'm meticulously doing everything possible to achieve that, although I'm always open to modifying something if a better idea comes up.
Some characteristics of my dummy are:
•    The book is divided into 7 chapters which are separated with a blue page and a title.
•    Each chapter represents one of the characters; it contains vertical portraits on the right of the page and old photographs on the left.
•    The last chapter of the book contains entirely text; there, the life stories of the characters will be placed, plus titles and extra information of every photo that appears in the book.
So far I've taken the decision of printing locally a quantity of 200 copies. These are the technical characteristics that I am considering for the job:
•    156pp plus 4pp Cover
•    A5 Perfect Bound Booklet
•    Printed CMYK on 300 Sovereign Offset Cover
•    Single Sided French Folded Dust Jacket
•    Fold out section
•    Translucent papers inserts

Click here  to  see Elizabeth´s chapter "A beautiful feeling of peace." and James´ chapter “ A terrific box kite which flew beautifully.” from my book dummy Memorandum.

Last August I had the great opportunity to attend the Ballarat International Photo Biennale where I presented part of my dummy in the portfolio review. My reviewers were Alasdair  Foster (Consultant  specializing  in  international  cultural  projects), Joyce Evans (Documentary photographer), Daniel  Coburn (Assistant  Professor  of  Photo  Media,  University  of  Kansas USA), Madeline Say (Picture Librarian, State Library of Victoria) and Stephen Dupont (Documentary photographer and book maker). So I sat there and pitched my project for the first time to five professionals in the industry. I think it can be tough and challenging to take criticism of your own work, but I also believe it is an excellent way to improve your craft. I made notes and brought them back to my studio so I could keep them in mind during this process.
Ana Paula

Comments

Your email address will not be published.

We welcome relevant, respectful comments.

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
We also welcome direct feedback via Contact Us.
You may also want to ask our librarians.