52 CLOSETS_{A 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.