January 26, 2009

The fortune teller

In December I had such a fun assignment. It was to do a photo shoot for a book cover. I've always thought that this kind of project would be right up my alley, as I love books and book covers (to the point that I'm often tempted to buy a book purely on the basis of the book cover). So the thought of shooting a cover was so exciting!

The photograph will be used on the cover of a collection of short stories by a local Montreal author. The stories are about relationships that are destined to fail, and the author came up with the concept of using the cootie-catcher (aka fortune teller) to illustrate how love can make children of us all. We did a series of photographs indoors. We were able to use a professor's office in the Faculty of Law at McGill University. It's a beautiful old building, and the office had a turret with lovely windows.

At the end of the shoot, we decided to do a few photographs outside since it wasn't that cold. The following photograph ended up being everyone's favorite.

However, the author decided to go with the one below. The reasoning was that the above photograph conveyed a little too much hope and the one below reflected the characters better.

The book will likely be published in the spring or early summer.

10 comments:

Lo Christine said...

Great photos!! And I, too, am often tempted to get books just because I love the cover.

Relyn Lawson said...

Congratulations! How exciting. I almost always pick up a book first because of its color.

dragonflydreamer said...

I just saw your shop on etsy and then remembered seeing one of the photos on Ali Edward's blog. I just love your art. So many of your photographs draw me in...breathless and remembering moments in my life...a strong feeling. I am going to be saving up to buy as many as I can and hang them all around me. P.S. Congratulations on the book cover. I think the photo that was chosen actually does convey a feeling of doomed romance.

sølvi said...

I would get that book based on the cover:-)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the cover. I'm a big fan of your work, it's perfect for a book! I'm one of those people who judges a book by it's cover... and I'd grab this one for sure.

Anonymous said...

magnifique série !!!

Anonymous said...

congratulations, your photos will look so pretty on a cover of a book. the description of the book fascinates me, what is the title and who is the author? thanks. . .

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photographs. Congratulations.
Jenny
http://blog.jenniferlorton.com

Irene said...

Thank you all for the lovely comments.

Kate: The author's name is Nairne Holtz and the book will be called "This one's going to last forever".

gh said...

Great work, Irene. I really like the one that they chose as well.
Your post processing is always very good.

They say"Never judge a book by it's cover" but that can be oh so hard. I'm a sucker for great covers, as well as album cover photography and art.
Congrats, and keep up the fine work.