The following is just a rough and crude suggestion of how the cover is supposed to be:
 
 
The Theme:

The main picture will be shot at a normal day at Chowpatty or Juhu beach at around sunset. The father is sitting with his hands behind as a support. The small daughter is clinging to him from behind (Galyala mithi marun ubhi ahe). There is supposed to be a castle from bucket mould, a shovel and a small bucket lying next to them. There is the usual crowd and commotion around. The theme being that the father is gazing the sun go down as the rest of the world continues to be busy in their work( in short normal activities continue ). The sea is also quite calm. The above suggestion is dark but the actual will be a high-contrast one(6.p.m. light).

The Treatment:

The shot will be taken at a slow-shutter speed at around 6.30 p.m. The film will be either an infra-red or tungsten TP;cross-processed. The vibracncy will be controlled and enhanced at photo-processing. The sunset -orange may turn to either blue hue or greenish , depends on even what the film is and the exposure it is shot at. It will definately look great with the whole scene turning to vibrant blues-greens and oranges. The slow shutter speed will create a motion blur of people around. The father-daughter will be in their normal gradually shifting into the rest of the cross-processed effect. The film wil be pushed to give the soft noise overall. The whole scene will be a little out-of-focus.

The typeface and the syle of "50 and done" is also supposed to be refined. The above is just a thought. Same will be with your photo. I will be having a b/w print (glossy) of your photo with the film grooves and the no. (as in on a contact-sheet) and cut it undefined. The treatment is again supposed to be worked on. There can be a lot of those options.

There is one inner page I've worked on. The concept, the treatment and the rest of images are explained below.

 
 


The feel will be abstract as discussed.

I'm using different parts of plants as the theme and the complementing prop just as a design element.
I've linked each part of the plant to a phase of life.

Sec 1:
A shot of clean roots with a part of purple or pink marble paper in the scene. Roots may depict the initial phase of life.

Sec 2:
A shot of flattened tulip flowers with some pencil-sharpened peices(those flower like things) and 1/2 lead bits around. Tulips are the budding phase.

Sec 3:
A wheat-crop with some wheat-seeds(gahu) and splatters of ink(you know the streaks of ink- you jerk the pen when the ink is dry). The wheat is the matured stage.

Sec 4:
A cover of corn(makka) flattened. A typical old iron key in an old iron ring(for keys) lying besides.The corn cover is the middle-age phase of reposibilities.

Sec 5:
An old banyan or a similar big and dry leaf overlapping the corner of an old diary page.The dry leaf is the final phase of memories.
 

The Treatment :

Even these shots will be on a tungsten or an infra-red film and later on cross-processed. The result is that the brown leaf might just turn into voilets or purples. The same treatment is for the rest 4 shots. Thus not only the props but even the colors will be abstract. Secondly it will be slightly over-exposed resulting in burning off some parts of the shot.(Believe me it'll look stunning). The green corn cover might just turn to orange or chrome yellow or the wheat might just go blue.

Again even these shots will be more out-of -focus and the film will be pushed to produce that soft noise.
Moreover since the film will be cross-processed the result has to be surely great.

The photographer will be a FEMINA photographer and my Ex-HTA collegue(I was with HTA for 2years as a graphic artist) Sunil Cherian who is a team partner with my Sunday Review assignments.

All I can say is keep faith in my work and I can blast the book cover and the inner pages.


Mandar Kulkarni