CraftIssue N. 001

Craft

Tools, materials, and processes, named because the working reader needs them.

Eight crew members on a photography set in a windowless studio with a spotlight and dark flats, 1990. — Penn's New York studio in 1990, the crew on the set: a spotlight at one side, dark flats all around, and no windows anywhere.

Latest in Craft

A Skylight You Can Switch On

Irving Penn's studio had no windows and one direction of light, and that was the whole idea: daylight on demand, built by hand.

Sofia Lindqvist, September 29, 2026

Prints That Outlive

Craft Prints That Outlive A gelatin silver print and a platinum print age on different clocks, and knowing which clock is running is the beginning of collecting literacy. Daniel Okafor · September 28, 2026 · 8 min

The Metals Beneath the Image

Craft The Metals Beneath the Image Platinum printing nearly died a century ago and survives today in small darkrooms where photographers still coat paper by hand, because the chemistry does something silver cannot. Daniel Okafor · September 18, 2026 · 8 min

The Room That Is a Camera

Craft The Room That Is a Camera Penn's studio had no windows, one direction of light, and a corner built from two flats: walk inside his rooms and you can identify the photographer blind. Sofia Lindqvist · September 15, 2026 · 7 min

The Second Negative

Craft The Second Negative Decades after the magazines printed his pictures, Irving Penn started printing them himself, and the platinum darkroom became a second career inside the first. Henrik Dahl · September 14, 2026 · 8 min