The glimpse of a waterfall shielded by a veil of ice crystals invites us to join in, first picture. Viewing the next pictures we marvel at the forces of nature: Flowing water surrounded by frozen water in its different manifestations. Finally, the concept emerges in the last pair of pictures: Water freezes in micro and macro crystalline structure: snow, amorphously hugging the underlying rock and large ice crystals asserting their own macroscopic structure. This lesson on the two different manifestations of frozen water, illustrated in a grandiose Montana waterfall pictorial, is concluded by a final picture showing a rock covered by snow and surrounded by horizontally streaming water.

The first and last pictures form a framework (1) first introducing the waterfall idea and then allowing us to separate from vertical water flow by showing, more or less, horizontally streaming water; (2)showing the two different properties of frozen water, formation of macro and micro crystalline structures.

Steve,

I received your two photos. They are inspirational in different ways. In the snow picture, in my mind’s eye, I can see wild animals running the tracks through an open mountainous landscape; in the forest picture, I enjoy the differences in lighting promising a beautiful day to come.

I am off constructing.

Thank you for the insight about the right page being stronger. Whether I’ve sensed that intuitively or not, it helps to be consciously aware when doing layout. I’m wondering, by the way, whether it would seem odd to sometimes have paired images on opposing pages, and sometimes just a single image on the right. I have seen that in some photo books. The mere fact that it’s not consistent implies that pairing or not has significance.

Your frozen/fluid has added to the plethora of binary oppositions in play here: distant/close-up, abstract/realistic, flat/in depth, coarse/fine texture, general/specific, luminous/dark… In part, the great variety within the black and white subject (and medium) is the message. But in the end I don’t want only the variety to have been the point, I want the viewer to feel that he or she has been taken on a bit of a journey. Perhaps like a docent-led museum tour that has highlighted some of the best pieces, and also hinted at the rest of the collection.

I just love your work and look forward with great eagerness to your posts.

I spent a long time in publishing and worked for a company that did highly illustrated books. From this experience I suggest two things:
1. Yes — take the images out of the computer and spread them out someplace where you can look at a long sequence and shift things around as your ideas about the sequence evolves. Things look different on paper than they do on the screen. (I have my writing students do this with their texts — it’s always a great revelation to them.)

2. Bear in mind that the right hand page (the odd numbered pages, your right hand as you’re looking at the book) is considered the stronger position. This is why all the ads in magazines are on the right hand page.

As the project evolves, you also might want to think not only of how things pair across the gutter (if there are facing images) but also of the pieces in signatures — that is, in units of 16 pages. Publishing is built on signatures and subdivisions thereof (8 pages, 4 pages). That might help with the pacing and orchestration of the content.

Initially, when I was looking at these and my mind was imposing a narrative,it seemed that the images moved from frozen to fluid.

I did miss the ‘chocolate chip cookie’.

The last pair was not supposed to harmonize but instead present a contrast of textures to ’shake up’ the viewer.

I like your idea of and evolving paths should be respected, like the architects who put sidewalks where footpaths have sprung up.

I don’t think that

Make the series like a stripper, decide at which picture you want to reveal the concept.

is enough of an approach. The stripper is part of a business that already did the advertising for her. Doing a book, there has to be something intriguing about the cover page or first picture to capture people’s attention before worrying about revealing the concept later on. I apologize for being argumentative today.

There is a continuation of a flow or feature across from one panel to the other. it’s a good answer to the question. This quality registers with me when the panels are close to each other, but I wonder how it would be when they are placed on separate facing pages.

I totally agree that in a book the sequence propels; and as June said, one tends to constructs narrative willy-nilly. I just meant that on a web page your layout is like a quilt in that you can see all the images at once. Maybe I should lay them all out on a table and see how my eye roves, and evolving paths should be respected, like the architects who put sidewalks where footpaths have sprung up.

The seduction metaphor is also dead-on. The famous photographer Susan Meiselas once told a photographer presenting images for her review: “Make the series like a stripper, decide at which picture you want to reveal the concept.”

Regarding your pairings, I find your thinking and the results quite compelling, except that it doesn’t seem to work so well for the last pair. In such a case I might be able to substitute one of the images with another not shown here. (Among others, I left out the famous chocolate chip cookie, though I nearly included it in a different cropping.)

The standard book is a limiting form. I am, in fact, planning to send these to a potentially interested magazine editor as loose images that can be rearranged at will, so the viewer can play with them as you did. In the past I have also made accordion-style books where not only pairs, but the whole sequence can be unfolded.

My daughter’s father-in-law suggested to have a slide show, detailing the growing-up of the young couple for the evening before the wedding. At first, I designed my presentation chronologically but then Troels scrambled the sequence and it became marvelously funny and was enthusiastically received.