29 Questions to Ask a Vampire
This photobook is a solo project. It is an in-depth investigation of my friend's double life as a vampire and a human through photos and interviews. The concept of vampire is used as a metaphor for "queerness" throughout the book 🌈
Role
Artist, Photographer, Lighter, Interviewer, Book Editor & Designer
Tools
Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, Bookwright, Blurb
Duration
Feb - Apr 2024
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📸 Starting with Some Unfleshed Ideas
Due to my personal affinity to the community and its lack of representation, I started the photobook with the idea of documenting my queer-ish East Asian friends.
Experimenting with Studio Photography
To have more control of the lighting conditions, I experimented with studio photography and color gels. This helped create a personalized vibe that aligned with each model's style.
During the post production, I also edited the color profiles of the photos to strengthen the effect.
Down-Selecting the Photos
I invited several of my friends for the photoshoots and asked them to bring whatever they feel important to the photoshoots.
I ended up using just one friend's portrait because the photos were strong enough to tell a compelling story.
🧛 Using Vampirism as a Metaphor for Queerness
Because my model tend to dress in gothic style, the idea of vampire popped into my mind. I was inspired to turn this photobook into a peek into the life of a vampire because of the commonalities between vampirism and queerness: double identity, outcast, subculture, etc.
Creating a Vampire Storyline
To further build the connection between the concept of vampire and the existing photos, I conducted a lengthy interview with my friend, asking 60+ questions to investigate his double life as a vampire and a human.
With the large amount of information from the interview, I got a comprehensive look into the vampire's life story. I edited out the incoherencies within the answers, and then asked my professor to help rate the answers based on how interesting they were, so that I have a second pair of eyes on the information.
I ultimately boiled the information down to "29 questions to ask a vampire."
My very eloquent friend talking about his double life
Queerness, hinted throughout the book
Although no explicit statement was made about queerness, it is hinted throughout the book:
The photos show a male-looking persona transforming into a female-looking persona.
The Q&A includes discussion on shapeshifting, gender, identity.
The foreword and acknowledgements use phrases such as "come out as a vampire" and "double life."
📖 Make it Pop in the Book Form
I learned the inside-outs about book design and self-publishing and got my first readers & buyers.
Creating the Gothic Chinese Look and Feel
I ultimately set on a 8*10 inch photobook with soft cover and matte paper. I chose the fonts Black Chancery + URW Gothic, and used the color black as the background, with red and light gray for texts.
To further emphasize the identity aspect, I added Chinese elements (i.e., dragon clipart and calligraphy) and Gothic elements (i.e., blood clipart) to the book. For the layouts, the book mostly varies between 2 types of layouts, with sporadic two-page full bleeds.
Throughout the photography bookmaking process, I presented the book to my peers and photography professor multiple times for design critiques. I self-published my book via Blurb.
Getting My First Readers & Buyers
My photobook also received acclamation from fellow artists, friends, and family. It has also been collected by award-winning photographer Geoff Winningham and Fondren Library.
Geoff Winningham
Award-winning Photographer
“Ariana, I love your book. I have taught years of photography bookmaking, and this book is the most unique and idiosyncratic I've seen by far. I have a personal collection of books that students have done, and I would like to include a copy of yours.”
K. Sarah Ostrach
Art & Architecture Librarian, Fondren Library
“Congratulations on the publication! This would be such a great addition to our Fondren library collection! I've placed an order for your book. There will be one copy for the art library stacks and another in the Woodson Research Center archives.”
Learnings
As I was making the photobook, I not only learned a lot about the considerations needed to design and publish a book, but also managed to step out of my comfort zone and trust the process, allowing myself to be fully immersed in the creativity.
Step out of my comfort zone: It was my first time trying studio photography, so I was a bit scared. I watched a lot of tutorials on studio light setting and created plans for the photoshoot. I am glad that the preparation paid off, and the photos turned out powerful.
Trust the Process: I was unsure about how to proceed with the project after the first photoshoot. So I had some trial-and-error, where I took the project to a direction but then reverted to another one. It can feel somehow confusing to go on with little understanding of the full picture, but it is also a fun and meaningful part of the artmaking process – to trust the process and embrace the uncertainty as the full picture unfolds.