Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Sightwalk, Phaidon Press, 25 Tokyo Photographs Beluga cover Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Sightwalk, Phaidon Press, 25 Tokyo Photographs Contents Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Sightwalk, Phaidon Press, 25 Tokyo Photographs, divider

Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Sightwalk, Phaidon Press

Why do photography books have to feature a photograph on the front cover? “Sightwalk”, a collection of Tokyo images by Russian-born Magnum photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov, was an opportunity for the designer to break this mould.

Sightwalk is bound, appropriately, in “Beluga”, a bubble textured material. Inside, the images are printed on a metallic paper and the pages are french folded. A grid device introduced on the fly sheet as a debossed pattern, appears again as the contents page, featuring all the photographs in the book. It is then developed as a series of windows with “haiku” style titles to mark the chapters. Together, the elements set a pace that encourages you to linger over the images. In all, the design helps to turn a small collection of only 25 photographs into a sumptuous album.