Kinfolk Inspired

A photograph works because your eye knows where to land first. Then it discovers everything else. The image unfolds. It doesn’t introduce itself all at once.

—Colin King, The Last Layer

More constraints for my current project. Distinct characteristics of the photographs for my florelegium project.

  • Subject Matter: flowers from local flower farms

  • Natural Lighting: directional daylight

  • Soft color palettes: soft whites, earthy neutral tones, desaturated colors/pastels

  • Minimalist composition: negative space, clean lines, uncluttered backgrounds to draw focus to the flowers themselves as subjects

  • Film-like processing: grain and texture

  • Art Direction: handcrafted, vintage, secondhand vases and supporting elements with genuine personality; relaxed, authentic, unforced

My One Sentence

This book is about .

More from Wesley Verhoeve, 248 ¤ The Hardest Part of Making a Book:

After thinking through your area of interest and your desired limitations, we bring it together into a one sentence description of what your project is about.

This book is about .

The best book concepts sound almost embarrassingly simple when you say them out loud. That simplicity isn’t a weakness. It means you know what you’re making and it’s easy to explain it to others.

My start is obvious and very simple. This book is about flowers.

But then, I need to add context and constraints. The book will not be a series of floral bouquets; it will not be about flower arranging. It will not be an educational or illustrative book. It will not focus on the methods of growing or harvesting flowers. It will not categorize flowers by season or zone. It will not label flowers by name, neither common nor scientific.

My one sentence will sound something like this:

A florilegium (anthology) of flowers, gathered from small flower farms in rural Virginia, celebrating the way flowers bring us to our senses.

My one sentence will be revised as I go along, but this is a good start.

Patterns

I don’t know how it is that I am only just now discovering Process ¤ On Photography, by Wesley Verhoeve, but I am thoroughly enjoying his Sunday newsletters. Today’s post, The Hardest Part of Making a Book, presents the first step in creating a photo book. Wesley’s suggestions ring true for me, and follow the exact pattern that I use in determining where to head next with my creative work.

Take a look at the last two years of your photos and don’t focus on just your best shots. Look for what you keep coming back to. What subject, what kind of light, what kind of person, what time of day. What is the thing you photograph over and over without anyone asking you to? That’s a pattern.

…

Patterns in your photos aren’t random. They are the moments and shapes of what you care about. That’s your book. The thing you care to notice and document and, I would argue, that deserves to be shared.