Do Judge a Book by its Cover: Development

Im really struggling with this brief. I can't seem to get a hold on the ideas in these essays. There are so many complicated themes going on concerning landownership, connection to nature and racial segregation. Its hard to express all these vastly different and important themes in one coherent image. I really wanted to make something using the Appalachian culture as I see this linking in quite well with ideas of community, and feeling a sense of belonging, but in centring in on this idea I feel like I am losing a key part of the book which is the ongoing racial tension in rural and urban America that Hooks talks about in these essays.

In exploration of Appalachian culture I did some drawings using Shelby Lee Adam's photography as reference. I have started to feel, however, that in order to sufficiently represent this culture I would need to create quite a detailed and complicated image. I am afraid of this idea leading my book cover to being too busy and cluttered in its composition and design. In further reading about Shelby Lee Adam's work I have also found that he has been accused of promoting stereotypes through his photographs. Promoting generalisations is something that Hooks is wanting to avoid through these essays, therefore I don't think the images I have created here are appropriate to the book and so I will not be taking this idea forward.  

After looking at the pelican books I decided to take my work in another direction. I think that because this is an academic book of non-fictional essays a simple and professional layout is most appropriate. I also really like the idea of using an abstract image on the front cover in order to communicate the complicated issues within the book. 

I created an image that I think uses the most effective parts of some of the images from my roughs. I wanted it to have the same emotive image of someone cradling "rural america" (as in my rough) but combine this with ideas of erasing racial division. This is aimed to convey Hooks ideas of creating a 'beloved' and 'anti-racist' community. 

I decided that this was the image that I would like to use on my front cover and so started testing it in different media. In these tests I found materials that create texture, such as charcoal and oil pastel, visually most interesting.  This image is also most effectively communicated in black and white - using colour distracts from the message I want to convey concerning the elimination of racial divides.