Independent Art and Photography - Rob Hornstra's KIEV

I wanted to look at a book that made more use of fold outs, one that completely changes its shape when the viewer interacts with it. Rod Hornstra's book KIEV comprises of one large sheet of card, with one image printed on one side, and several others on the other side. The subject of the piece is analogue photography and it's inconsistencies. Hornstra describes that:

"The power of analogue photography is the unpredictability, the imperfection, the setbacks that are initially so frustrating, but ultimately add unexpected dimensions to the images. It is this that gives the work its own identity. Analogue photography thus reflects real life, more than digital photography ever will."

The layout of the book is shown in this video:

KIEV from The Sochi Project on Vimeo.

In order to see the full large image and all of the smaller ones, the viewer is forced unfold the whole sheet, meaning that, even more so than with Eng's book for example, it really is designed to be interacted with. It also has to be flipped over or folded up and unfolded again to see everything that is printed. Something else that Hornstra has featured is a double page spread of text explaining the story behind the project.

Using text is not something I had considered for my book. It might be nice to give some background information about the project and why I shot it, including the emotions behind it. However, I know my opinions about the city, but I think I would prefer viewers to be able to form their own. I feel that if I were to describe what I expect viewers to think, it may change the way the images are viewed. I wanted the images in this project to take on almost an objective style, but coming from a more personal place.
In terms of the construction of Hornstra's book, I feel it works for this project where the narrative of the images is not incredibly important, and they are not designed to be viewed in a set order. Having the photos arranged in a grid allows the viewers' eyes to flick over them at random, as opposed to viewing one image at a time. For me, I want my images to take on a set order, which is why I am still incorporating aspects of a traditional book. I do find the ways that Hornstra has created this artefact interesting, but I don't think it particularly applies to my particular project.