52 CLOSETSA 400+ page book consisting of photographs and responses of 53 peoples’ closets. I believe photographs tell you things people won’t say with words. For this book I used closets as a lens to learn more about people.
I planned, photographed, designed, edited, and coordinated the entirety of this book.
DETAILS
Skills: Photography, Book Design, Communications, Type-Setting, Project Management Delivery: Publications + Independent Duration: 6 months (September 2024 - February 2025)
The Book
Printed, 438 pages, A4 trim size, hardcover.
[video flip through the book]
[gallery of high-gloss photos of book]
[gallery of hero spreads]
Making ‘52 Closets’ This was my first book design project of this scale. I was very thorough with planning and organizing this process.
THE STAGES: 1. PLANNING 2.
COLLECTION 3. PROCESSING 4. DESIGN 5. PRINT-PREP 1. PLANNING Once I settled on my idea to photograph closets, I started by looking at inspiration and brainstorming all the possible approaches I could take with the conept.
Moodboard
Initial Ideation
From there, I began outlining my specific plan of approach (overall timeline & shoot methodology)
Test Shoot
I learned that:
1. Doing oral interviews would be too time costly.
2. I should ditch the strobe light. Using it made the process less natural and resulted in photographs that lacked intimacy.
[photoshoot process][casual & deep dives][overall timeline]
2. COLLECTION I tried to photograph as many people as I could. In a future project, I would love to do even more shoots, with an ever greater range of indivduals.
I was restricted within the Pittsburgh area, and without a car, thus limited by my ability to commute and balance my other commitments.
Survey Responses
Shoot Tracking
The photographing process evolved as time went on. I feel that I learned how to get people comfortable in front of the camera pretty quickly, which aided me greatly in procuring the photographs that I did.
Outreach for people to photograph, shooting each closet, and collecting individual responses. (my strategies for getting people comfortable -- big strength) 3. PROCESSING Sifting through all the photographs and interviews to prepare for making spreads.
4. DESIGN Creating a design guide, my specs, grids, and putting all the materials onto a document. Go through rounds of drafts and finalizing for print.
5. PRINT - PREP Once design is complete, edit all selected photographs and update for the final document to send to the printer.