In the last part, I rambled a bit about my thoughts on how society treats photography nowadays, but I want to switch gears to the little project I gave myself for 2021. To recap, in late 2020 I downloaded a HUJI camera app on my phone and have been taking pictures of things that make me happy or that I don’t want to forget since. I decided that starting with January 2021, I’d make a faux old-fashioned yearbook for just myself.
The other day I uploaded all of them to the Walgreens photo portal and had them printed. It came out about $60, which personally was a little more than what I wanted to spend, but so be it. My Spain photo book cost similar, but I look through it all the time and enjoy having the physical reminder of that trip, so I don’t mind spending the money. With a grand total of 368 photos for now (2021 isn’t over yet!), I realized the cutesy albums I had in mind were going to be too small. Instead, I explored the various options that Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, and Joanne’s had.
I ended up deciding on a 6x12in 3-ring photo album with a black fabric cover. The inside holds pages that fit three 4×6 photos on each side, which is fine for an album where the events usually only have a few photos max. After organizing all my photos, writing notes on the backs of most of them with an acid-free pen, and putting them into the book, I decided to add a personal touch to it. Using my Jacquard fabric paints (which are fantastic and I highly recommend), I painted a semi-opaque white coat to the cover to act as a primer of sorts. I wanted the cover to have a non-bleeding, non-pilling surface as I painted. Then, I went on a Pinterest binge until I found some ceramic plate designs that I liked and that looked doable to paint. Using a mix of them I came up with a general design and got going.
Part way through I realized I wanted to line the design in black, so I very carefully went about that. I mixed a healthy amount of water into the paint to get a consistency slightly thicker than ink and applied it with a thin, long bristled brush. I also used a small ribbon and hot glue to act as a border for the sides of the painting. Since this photo book does not have one of those little parts for writing the title on the spine of the book, I added “2021” to it with paint. Originally I wanted it in the same font as the one on the cover, but I was feeling too lazy to go through the process of tracing it via printing/pencil/pressure, so I just did it freehand. Nevertheless, I’m relatively content with how it all turned out. I do wish the design was related somehow to things that happened within the year (ex: Honduran designs, etc.), but it was just not vibing with me when coming up with it. Overall, I chose a pleasant cover that will stand out more than the original solid black cover would have.
Here are some photos of the book currently. I might make some changes if needed to support the extra photos I’ll be adding for December, but I don’t think any drastic measures will be necessary.
Although I was considering doing this again for 2022, I decided on a different project. Each day, I will take a photo and upload it to this Instagram account: beppa.2022. You can click on it here to see it if you’d like or follow ahead, but I won’t be starting until January 1st. It sounds like something that would be so easy to do given I take so many photos, but life gets busy and it is easy to forget. I decided I’d try to use it to capture life, whether it be the things I do, people I see, or simply the small joys in life. Part of me wonders if it’ll make me more mindful of the photo opportunities and beauty around me, while part of me wonders if it’ll do the opposite and distract me from the moment. Either way, I’ll do this for a year and see how I feel about it. My thought is to get a book printed of all those photos at the end of the year in place of the yearbook I did for 2021, although probably in a Shutterfly-type style rather than as a photo album (I assume it would be easier this way since I could just import all the photos from Instagram directly and arrange them online so I don’t have to worry about mixing up the order). Let’s hope it goes as planned!
Happy reading,
-Beppa