the story thus far

when you last saw my reach-out-and-read project, it was in its infancy, barely beginning on its path toward identity.

in the time since then i have taken no fewer than 2000 photographs. maybe 3000. so many photographs. consequently, so many iterations. consequentlyconsequently, this will be an image heavy blog post to catch us up on all the stages that eventually led me to my final image, whose color i will be correcting manically until shortly before it is due.

firstly i built my real book-object, from a grimm book called "the fisherman's wife," chosen for its appearance in the public domain. the construction paper letters changed from "read out loud!" to a simpler "read to me," the text from the all-type poster that i didn't end up pursuing.

i opted for "read to me" as opposed to "read to your child" because it engages the viewer more directly and doesn't necessarily imply parenthood. the responsibility of reading to children need not fall only in the hands of parents, because anyone who themselves can read is capable of reading out loud to someone younger.

my original intention was to have hands holding the book, and i tried a variety of people to get some diversity. here are 3 willing or unwilling hand models.

i tried a few other totally different things, too.

it was determined that, despite its unfortunate coloring (i thought it vintage and indie; it came through as a terrible photograph... and as you & urban outfitters can tell, the two are not mutually exclusive) the last was the closest to the right idea, based on the presence of the shadows on the "wall" and the fun bedtime idea that warm lights and shadows might offer. i relinquished the "somebody holding it" idea, picked up some happy bedtime-story taplights, and went to staging.

i'm going to cut this blog post in two so that it does not become quite so unwieldy all in one go. next up: the next set of iterations up through today's process!