“10 Approaches to Portraiture”
Emese Sandor, by Lana Ohrimenko.
I was asked to design a newsprint piece for Palm Tree Workshops showcasing work made by photographers in May 2026 in Dana Lixenberg’s workshop "Approaches to Portraiture."
Truly a puzzle to put together. Featuring one image on the cover was not an option. A type-only cover felt underwhelming to me. It was suggested that we show each artist on the cover with their name. But captions plus title plus imagery—that seemed like a lot of messaging for one page.
There was an easy solution that I did not choose: to simply compile the images as if in a PDF. To not think about creating a proper cover or consider storytelling and pacing. I decided against this because I wanted to make something that would feel special to each of the photographers. The feeling of being published.
I also thought that, after spending five intense, energizing days in Santorini exploring portraiture together and with Dana, they might make new discoveries by seeing their work in an editorial context. The workshop is over, but the inspiration continues.
So I created a cover that represented all 10 photographers with an image of them as well as an image they shot. No one could appear twice, as either a subject or a photographer. And the 10 images needed to work together tonally, compositionally, and in relation to the type. I was also looking for a variety of emotions and personalities. It took a while to get it right.
Another limitation: The piece will be printed by Newspaper Club, and for a tabloid of this size, the max number of pages is 64. Each photographer produced 9 images. There are 10 photographers.
Also:
An introduction to the piece was needed. (I wrote one.)
Each photographer's information (name, country, website, IG account) needed to be featured.
Including a group photo was a must.
The pages needed to be distributed evenly amongst the photographers, and the photographers had to be presented in alpha order.
Below, a video view of the final piece.