me studio

the life of fourteen year old ‘annalisa durante’ her private diary and how she came to be shot to death on a street in naples in 2004 form the backdrop for a new publication ‘gomorrah girl’ by documentary photographer valerio spada, the book, with a soft cover, varied paper sorts and a staggered binding method using short insert pages was designed by talented book designer syb and has happily just been delivered to my studio this week

the editorial choices made, use of various stock, non-intrusive typography and short pages are all trademarks of his own particular style, the short pages have in fact been used repeatedly in his last few photo books, a trick which in a lesser designers’ hands could rapidly become repetitive and forced

syb however, seems to be able to apply the effect in a relevant and fresh manner for each new document, the whole feels very real intimate and contributes in a covincing fashion to the content of the images and the power of the story being told, not an easy task