Assignment 2: A Photographic Book Cover

Looking at the list of books, I had read and seen the film of Far From the Madding Crowd, both of which I enjoyed very much.  I was familiar with 1984 and Farenheit 451 from school days and have watch the film of The Remains of the Day.  I was not inspired by any of the other titles having read the blurbs on line.  I am mostly drawn to the Thomas Hardy but also have some potential ideas for 1984 and Farenheit 451.  My sketches and thoughts are illustrated below:-

1984

 For 1984, the theme that springs to mind is: 'Big Brother is Watching You'.  This evoked images of security cameras and an 'eye in the sky'.  To this end I have been out and taken some images of security cameras locally and aim to take a close up of my son's/wife's eye.  These would be positioned on the cover as illustrated.  Although having a preference for wrap around images for covers, I don't think my ideas lend themselves to this technique.  I feel that it is more suited to such as the following books:-

I am not keen, however, on white covers, especially on the back, as in Le Carre and Strange Affair by Peter Robinson; I find these rather cold.

The back of Rogue Male is better but again all black is rather bleak - perhaps what was intended:

1984 is rather bleak, though, so maybe white or black would suit it.  I will give this some thought.

Fahrenheit 451
The main theme of this book that jumps to mind is that of 'burning books'.  I immediately thought of making use of our wood burning stove, here, perhaps with an actual book burning on it. Perhaps an act of sacrilege, so maybe the Guardian media magazine instead which would be used to light the stove anyway.  Here again I feel that the format of the above books would best suit, although, again, I shy away from white for the rest of the cover and may search the internet for a 'fiery' background, maybe with the opacity reduced.

 Far From the Madding Crowd
Of all the books listed, this is the one that attracts me the most.  I think that I am drawn to this book as I have a rural background and have a passion for the landscape, countryside and the play of light on the land.  Hardy's descriptions of the Victorian countryside are so evocative of my childhood.  Not that I am a Victorian child, but the pace of life in the 1950s was still slower and things were only just beginning to change.  As a young child, I remember going to watch my great grandfather at harvest time working on top of a thrashing machine and I remember stooking sheaves of wheat and barley by hand following the reaper binder.  I worked in land-work gangs performing most farming tasks by hand and, as a child, remember the family pig being kept in the pig sty at the bottom of the garden and the screeching of the pig at the annual pig killing.  I envisage a landscape image for the cover (perhaps wrap-around), but would like to move away from a 'chocolate box' rural scene and try for something more creative and experimental.  To this end I have been trying out a new 10 stop ND filter in order to be able to achieve ultra long exposures to create movement in the clouds.  I am thinking of a moody, atmospheric scene to reflect the tragic nature of the book.  One of my memories of the book (and film) are of sheep farming and I remember one of the most dramatic incidents being the stabbing of a flock of sheep to save their lives, so sheep may feature, if I can find some in a suitable location.

I think this may suit a wrap around image for the cover, using one image or even one image copied and reversed to produce one mirror image as in Lewis Man by Peter May.

Alternatively I may go for one image for the front with a plain back as in Strange affair which has a smaller image of the cover photo on the spine.