This internal discussion came into my head when I was speaking to Liam about how best to compose my final year project. He said it worked as either, which then creates an "oh bollocks" moment in your head as you have to decide which one to do.
I quite like the book layout, it operates as a self contained unit that in most cases, often helps to better encapsulate what you're aiming to talk about. It worked well with Slow Burn, but when thinking about it, I believe that there is one issue when trying to integrate it with The Tide Is Coming In: the project isn't done yet. Whilst I think that it is finished for this year, the Huddersfield 10 Year Plan is only at its early conception. To stick this work into a book, to me, would be saying that there is a clear and definitive end to this project. But there isn't. Not yet anyway. Give it ten years and then I can turn it into a book. To try and sell it as a book feels off in a way. Books have a beginning, middle and end, and there needs to be that understanding of what it wants to say by the end. And whilst there might be a message to be had by the end of this project, it's not the message that I want to put across. It would be a message of "Who knows what the future holds", but I don't want that vague question that has just a tinge of optimism, I want to see where this goes and how it's going to effect the landscape that surrounds it.
This is why I think I'll be going with an exhibition/showcase. By surrounding the viewer with all these images of buildings, it is letting them soak in this environment as it is. Unlike a book, there wouldn't be a clear and definitive ending to the project, as you could explore it in a non linear fashion, you're free to approach all the photos in whatever order you see fit. As well as this, it allows the audience who are in these spaces to simply absorb the environment around them. This is what Huddersfield town is like now, and the usage of an exhibition lets you soak that in before its inevitable change. That is why I have shot the buildings the way I have, so that you can fully appreciate the shapes, the patterns, the quirks of these locations before they disappear from view or are altered immensely, and the exhibition only strengthens that I think.
Hopefully this has been a compelling argument, I can never tell if what I am writing is to the standard people are hoping these will be.
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