Photography project – Postcards from the elephant

As part of one of our university modules we were required to make a photobook. This involved

• researching the photobook industry, including looking into the history of the photobook
• coming up with a concept
• taking photos
• using Adobe Indesign to create the template for the book
• sourcing the right paper that would work with our images
• printing the book out
• experimenting with different ways to bind the book together
• producing a set to work as an edition
• putting together a pop up shop to sell our books to the public.
• Marketing the pop up shop through social media and advertising

My university is situated at the heart of SE1 in Elephant and Castle. The area is undergoing major changes with new buildings popping up all over the place and plans to knock down the shopping centre in the not so distant future. In the past couple of years I have already seen lots of changes such as the roundabout having a complete overhaul but the future plans seem really extreme and the word on the street is that it will become the new time square, surrounded by high rise blocks and hotels.

The idea for my book was to just capture little snippets of what Elephant and Castle look like now because lets face it we’re all quite sentimental about how things are now and not so susceptible to change. We like to look back on how our area was in ‘our time’ so I thought this would be memorable keepsake for the people that have a connection to Elephant and Castle as it is now. I have a few quotes from local people about their thoughts on the changes in the area and think they accompany the pictures well.

These are a few of the pages from the book and I will have an edition of 250 (yes I have chosen to hand make 250 books) They will be on sale at our pop up shop (see the enigma 31 Instagram page for the details and other fabulous books that are also on sale) and also in my Etsy store if you are interested in purchasing one!