Indiana Presentation Box

My parents moved back to the midwest a few years ago after a 35 year absence in Florida.  Tired of Brooklyn with palm trees, sick of hurricanes (they weathered three in one season before they left), or just responding to that human urge to return to their roots I'm not sure; but they packed up and moved to Mishawaka, Indiana. 

I visited them for Thanksgiving that first year, and again a year later on the same holiday.  During the two visits I shot a lot of film in a variety of formats and then put it all together into a kind of reflection on their transition.  The prints are all four inches high but range between four inches and ten inches wide depending on the format they were shot in.  They were carefully sorted and then matted, sometimes two to a mat, to display in a long linear sequence.  Keeping everything the same height was designed to give the project a sense of visual flow despite the format variations.

Because it was so cold and snowy already, and because the cold was such a shift from their recent Florida home, I printed the project on a cold tone paper and then further toned it with gold chloride (an archival toner that creates a slight blue shift).  The cold tone accentuates the mood of the project and brings out at least my feelings during those first two visits.

I recently completed the finishing touches on the project and engaged a friend of mine, Kevin Martini-Fuller to custom make a presentation box.  The box design had to handle the fact that the mats are sized differently (and in non standard sizes) and I wanted it to make transport and presentation simple.

I think Kevin and I came up with a cool design.  When the box opens it leans back onto it's lid and allows the front to fall open.  The result is sort of like an easel leaned back at about a 15 degree angle that allows a viewer to lay each image face down as it is viewed.  The lid is sturdy enough that the box doesn't tend to fall over backwards during viewing.  The entire thing is covered in a beautiful textured midnight blue fabric that further enhances the coolness of the images.

I'm driving to Indiana tomorrow and am giving this first set to my parents as a gift so I only had time to quickly photograph it.  I thought I'd share the design though despite the quick pictures because I'm really proud of how it turned out.