The House of Poets
Concept, typesetting and visual design.
Timo Kelaranta is one of the best-known Finnish photographic artists. He became widely known for his abstract black-and-white photographs. He has also been a great personal influence and teacher to me, and it was a great honour to design this book.
In recent years, Timo has moved into working with colour — immediately diving into the deep end. In his homestudio, he works with coloured papers and cardboards, bending and rolling them into sculptural compositions from which he constructs still lifes that he then photographs, often using natural light. The resulting images are abstract, characterised by the interplay of light and shadow and by vivid colours and colour combinations, often featuring bright oranges and greens. In addition to the paper constructions, Timo has also created still lifes using coloured threads, and naturally his practice still includes black-and-white and grey abstract compositions as well.
Timo works serially, and the images resemble a symphonic theme with variations. His working method is highly intuitive and emotional, and the images are deeply poetic. Small series emerge within larger series. For this reason, we decided to present many of the works in small scale, side by side and layered within grid-based layouts. The book also includes larger full-page images. Spot-varnish was used on the reproductions to enhance the colours and contrast. LensCulture describes Timo’s photographs as follows: “This aptly named photobook is filled with visual poetry, simplicity of style, and the craft of a master. The energy of the magical pictures derives from a combination of play and experimentation.”
At the beginning of the book there is a foreword by Timothy Persons. In the text Friction and Spark, Timo reflects on his own working process and artistic practice. The book also includes a text written by Timo’s wife, Auli, which has the character of a personal letter. For this reason, I wanted to separate it from the rest of the content as a booklet-like insert bound into the book and printed on uncoated paper.
In the index at the end of the book, all the images are listed as small thumbnail reproductions accompanied by artwork information. The book was published by the German publisher Kehrer Verlag.
| Artist | Timo Kelaranta |
| Publisher | Kehrer Verlag Germany |
| Size | Size landscape 300 × 240 mm |
| Content | 116 pages / 106 colour illustrations |
| Language | English |
| Texts | Timo Kelaranta, Auli Leskinen, Timothy Persons |
| Binding | Sewn binding, hard cover |
| ISBN | 978-3-86828-517-8 |
