In front of me

There is a long tradition of paper manufacturers working closely with illustrators, photographers, artists and designers to make attractive publications that demonstrate the qualities of all the participants. Usually distributed as samples, many have found their way into history books and design collections: we have featured many specimens in Pulp over the past decade, such as Nicola D’Arcangelo’s Fabriano swatch books in Pulp 23, and SEA Design’s The Art of Color in the first edition of Pulp.

To demonstrate the ever-expanding range of Arena papers, Fedrigoni UK commissioned Esterson Associates to produce a portfolio featuring the work of photographer Julian Anderson and illustrator Lucinda Rogers. The result is a saddle-stitched, 24-page booklet (340 × 245 mm) printed on six different papers, launched in convivial style on Tuesday 6 August 2024 at Fedrigoni’s Imaginative Paper Studio in Clerkenwell, an area traditionally known as London’s Italian district.

The first half of the Arena Portfolio displays a generous selection of Anderson’s high-definition digital photographs taken in a garden in Sussex, southeast England, which he visited and documented at different times of the year during the Covid-19 pandemic. Anderson found great satisfaction in recording the garden’s changing moods throughout the four seasons, with an approach to nature photography that is unpretentious and fresh.

Lucinda Rogers is best known as a reportage illustrator, with her work appearing in newspapers such as the Financial Times and the Guardian. The drawings in the Arena Portfolio were taken from New York: Drawings 1988-2018, an acclaimed crowdfunded book that features her personal approach to a city she has visited regularly across three decades of rapid change, documenting its streets, buildings and people in their exuberant diversity.

During a wide-ranging conversation at the launch event, both practitioners touched upon current concerns about Artificial Intelligence in the creative industries. ‘We can all use our brains,’ said Rogers, ‘but AI can only come up with something based on what has already happened.’ Anderson said: ‘I’m recording stuff that’s in front of me.’