Industrial landscapes book research

My first book for review is ‘Industrial Landscapes’ by Bernd and Hilla Becher. As it says in the title it depicts real representations of landscapes throughout the world.

So I can get a better idea on how I will present my book I will analyse how it’s laid out.

•          This book does contain some double page spreads which I didn’t expect. I think it works because the images that are grouped together share very similar properties (subject, tone and location).
•    The majority of the images in the book are self-standing because in my opinion they optimize the sense of stillness and peace within the subject which brings beauty to a subject that is predominantly seen as ugly and destructive
•   All the images are in the landscape format, equal in size and positioned in the exactly the same place which helps it look considered and professional
•  There’s an essay in the beginning which talks a bit about the inspiration and history of the photographers. To be honest I don’t think this really matters to me because there won’t be enough content to talk about the journey I’ve taken because there will only be a months’ worth of photos and it’s a short 160miles in a car. There is a very similar sort of description in the inside cover flap but this only matters if I’m going to make a hard back, which I probably won’t because of the extra cost and time to create it and thirdly it’s my first book so I don’t expect it to be perfect first time round.
• This book has dates and location names under the photos which you would expect to see and is standard to most photobooks
•   I think a big factor to the aesthetic look the book has, is the black and white images on white background. The saying that white space looks professional remains true in this case.
•   The front and back covers are very simple looking with minimal writing. The cover contains a photo in the middle of the page and the photographers and book name top and bottom of that. The back just contains the publisher and the produce bar code. The spine contains the book name and the photographers second name
• One thing that interests me with photobooks is that sometimes photographers leave a gap between the photo essay and the photos but these photographers haven’t chosen to.