the brief

Atelier Sol makes furniture with carpenters and palm weavers from the Central Valleys and sells mostly to architects abroad. Their photographs were taken on white backdrops in a rented studio, and buyers could not see the joinery or the weave.

the approach

We moved the shoots into three houses in Oaxaca and photographed every piece in morning light, in rooms with plaster walls and clay floors. Each chair is shown with the person who built it and the timber it came from.

The catalogue is printed on uncoated paper in Mexico City, with a strip of woven palm tipped into the back cover.

the outcome

Trade orders doubled in the season after the catalogue went out, and the workshop opened a second bench room. The team now shoots new pieces themselves using the same rules, which was the point.