Presence - Portraits by Edward Barber

Edward Barber is a photographic artist, specialising in images of people and their relationship to space and environment. Barber is best known for his portraiture, through major projects such as Peace Moves, All Dressed Up, In the City and 15:18 Teenagers in their Rooms. He has the rare distinction of being one of the few photographers to have their work displayed and in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Until recently Ed was the Director of Programmes for Fashion Photography at London College of Fashion and ran the BA (Hons) Fashion Photography course. He has now left full time lecturing and returned to life as a working photographer.

This simple piece of literature is to show a series of portraits. Titled 'Presence', because that is what all of the subjects have, it is a simple format showing eight portraits.

The format is a very simple 16pp broadsheet, designed in such a way that it opens easily and displays the maximum number of useable printed panels. Technically I believe it should be described as a '16pp parallel double fold'.

Size is 450x632mm, flat folding to 230x160mm, portrait. This birds eye view should give you the best idea of the format and the way it works.

The below image is the first spread:

which concertinas out to show the series of four images titled 'The Dancers' [Please note above and below the printed image which you can just see appearing to the bottom and side]

In what is effectively the centre spread, two images The Artist and The Actor are shown - again you can see the image below on the left hand side:

The broadsheet opens to reveal this amazing full size image 'The Interior Designer'. The paper chosen is our Omnia 120gsm because it would work with the rich detail that is present in the images but that would give a natural look and tactile feel. It is printed offset litho in four colour process (CMYK) and the black and white images are particularly impressive as the tone is consistent.

The reason I keep referring to the way that you can see an image 'poking out' is because the fold is asymmetrical and allows 10mm to show, which is a brilliant way of revealing that there is something more to come without giving anything away ...very clever!

Concept and design is by Ed Barber and Danielle Inga.

The printing and finishing is by Jigsaw Colour and is excellent. Always a challenge for a printer when the client is a photographer!

http://edwardbarber.net/
http://concreteed.blogspot.co.uk/
www.jigsawcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.10.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 36

Followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by and here's one from 2004.

National Portrait Gallery - Off the Beaten Track 2004

This is the invitation to the Press View for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called Off the Beaten Track, celebrating three centuries of women travellers in portraits. Journeying to distant parts of the world from the 1660s to the 1960s, before the age of mass travel, these women had experiences and encounters almost unthinkable today. The exhibition brought together 60 portraits from the National Portrait Gallery's collections, alongside souvenirs, photographs and paintings made by the women on their travels.

This 'passport style' invitation is 90x125mm, portrait and is saddle stitched with black staples (very nice) and also features round corners. It has a 4pp cover on Colorset Nero 270gsm with a 4pp text on Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm. The cover is hot foil blocked with a matt white foil & blind embossing and the text is printed in four colour process.

Above: centre spread

Detail showing the printed 'intaglio' pattern. Redeem was chosen as it has a neutral white shade with an aged look and feel.

The reply card printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 240gsm and then rubber stamped by hand.



This beautifully conceived and produced invitation was by Frost Design, London. Creative directors on the project were Matt Willey and Zoë Bather. Designer was Laura Hains. The excellent foiling, print and finishing was by Matthew Glover at Orchid.

www.npg.org.uk
www.frostdesign.com.au
www.orchidprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.10.2012