Creative Action Network: Photo Book Covers
I made book covers for the "Recovering the Classics" project through the Creative Action Network by photographing designs I set up in three dimensional space. I took inspiration from artists and designers who create messages using ephemeral means and document them photographically, Shirin Neshat, Stefen Sagmeister and Andy Goldsworthy specifically.
All book covers are available for purchase as 12”x18” or 24”x36” prints.
Software: Adobe Photoshop, each photograph was shot with a Nikon D3200 and has only minor edits, such as lighting and cropping.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
To recreate an image of the beloved tea party scene from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I laid out a table with functional and play tea sets. I then spelled out the title of the book and author's name using foam letters. Finally I made a mess of the table with various food and beverages.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
In this cover a bottle of prescription pills is meant to represent the serum that changes Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. I printed a label based on a standard Walgreens prescription bottle, replacing the prescribing doctor's name with the author's, the medication with the book title and the RX number with the book's ISBN. After affixing the label to a prescription bottle, I photographed a model pouring pills from the bottle into his hands.
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
This cover is a play on the hysteria caused by the War of the Worlds radio drama based on this book. Because people who heard the broadcast panicked, thinking the fictional account of an alien attack was news, I depicted the story as the front page of a newspaper. I mocked up a simple newspaper, printed it and photographed it in a newspaper distribution box.
Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm
Inspired by the depravity of the original fairy tales, I wanted to evoke a creepy night scene by constructing the image from light and shadows. I developed a font for this project and used it to make a stencil with the title and authors’ name. I made a rudimentary projector by taping the stencil into a modified paper grocery bag and shining a flashlight through. In this image the title is projected onto a wall and the authors' names are projected onto the ground below.