Creating Land & Sea
The Land & Sea Journals are publications that I have produced recently as part of my final major project at university. I have currently created two editions, which to me, have become so much more than just completing a task for uni. They have really allowed me explore a range of avenues with my photography and enabled me to develop my skills.
My main inspiration for the creation of the Land & Sea journals, came from a summer spent at home during lockdown. The global pandemic had forced us all to stay at home, with very little room for excuses when it came to leaving the house. It was during this time and as restrictions slowly started to ease and allow for local travel, that I really started to rediscover the county of Suffolk.
Having spent my whole life in the county, I thought I knew it like the back of my hand. However once I started looking, there was still so much to be discovered within the confinements of the Suffolk border.
I knew that I wanted to create something that enabled me to show off some of the very best attributes of the Suffolk county. So set to work on starting to research for inspiration regarding the style and substance of the journal.
I wanted to ensure that I could include a range or topics within the journal so began emailing and making contact with as many people as possible. I wasn’t sure what the response would be from people, so was pleasantly surprised that most were willing to be involved! As I set off here, there and everywhere across Suffolk, I began to collate a large bank of images that I could use in the journal. I then had to interview relevant people to aid me when it came to writing the articles that went alongside the images.
After refreshing my InDesign skills, I set about trying to piece everything together so that it started to vaguely resemble a book! I surprised myself at how much I enjoyed the whole design element of the project, as this was an area that I had very little experience in. Writing the articles to go alongside the images was also something that I loved doing, more than I thought I would! It seemed to come naturally to me, and I loved the task of trying to write something that aided what the images were trying to show. Both elements had to combine to tell the relevant stories.
After handing in my Suffolk journal I received top marks for my work, which I was thrilled about, as it reflected the hard work and dedication I had put into creating it. I decided to put the journals up for sale and was completely shocked to discovered just how popular they were! After selling around 150 copies I felt so humbled knowing that people were enjoying my work, as much as I had enjoyed creating it.
When second term came around, I knew I wanted to create a second edition. My initial plan was to create volume 2 on Cornwall, as my plan was to return to Falmouth after Christmas. However, with the pandemic looming, we soon found ourselves in another lockdown, and I was unable to return to the south coast. It took me a while to work out what I wanted to focus on for the second edition, as much of Suffolk had been included in the first. I also had to bear in mind that I was restricted in terms of travel too, so had to think outside the box when it came to collating articles.
I decided that my best option was to expand my area to East Anglia. This includes the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire, and by doing this it opened up my options for stories that I could involve in this edition. This time round, lockdown restrictions were intense at the start of the project meaning I couldn’t travel very far. I therefore had to do things in reverse order and plan all of my articles first and collate the photos once we ha da bit more freedom!
For this edition, I was really pleased with the articles that I managed to include. A lot more well-known business’ and people agreed to help me with my project and it really helped to have my first edition to show them what sort of thing I was working towards too. The likes of Fen Farm, The Southwold Flower Company and The Female Fisherman, all wanted to be included, which had great potential for beautiful images as well as an interesting write up too!
I am yet to put the East Anglia Edition up for sale yet, but I hope people are as interested in the second edition as they were the first! I have really loved creating these journals and hope to continue the idea of them on when my time at Falmouth University finishes. They are a great way of showing what I am capable of producing, and I hope that I can go into something along the magazine/journal line of work after I have graduated.
Ellie x