Subscribe

Photography series · Documentary

The Book, Half Open

For
Publishing house
Location
Berlin, Germany
Scope
Photography · Editing
Published
Close-up of a book's fanned pages
Photograph by Arun Prakash

A publisher wanted the paper, not the cover. So we photographed the edge of the book, fanned open on the windowsill, until the pages looked like the thing they are made of.

Paper

Macro lens, north light and a stack of the same title in six paper weights. The heaviest one made the picture; the lightest one made the catalogue.

A book is a block of paper with a story in it. Most photographs of books show the story. This one shows the block, and it is the block the publisher sells.

Vintage living room with a leather armchair and bay windows
The reading room where we shot it, when the light had moved. Photograph by Clay Banks.

Fanned by hand, held with two clips out of frame, and re-fanned every four minutes because paper relaxes. Forty minutes, ten fans, one picture where the pages are a wave.

Comments

Comments are unavailable until you allow the required cookies. You can change your choice in Cookie settings.