Illustrated Encyclopedia of Camellias

• 2025
• offset lithograph, sewn in sections and cased
• 188 x 258 mm, 640 pp

With detailed descriptions and photographs, this book documents 249 camellias housed in Camellia Hill, an arboretum in Jeju. Illustrated encyclopedias often use drawings to depict the typical features of specimens. This book, however, represents the subjects through methodically constructed photographs by Kim Kyoungtae, who employed a focus stacking technique to create hyperrealistic effects in the images. As a result, the book serves both as an encyclopedia and a photobook.

The design is straightforward: the images are sized so that the subjects appear approximately in their true sizes and are consistently placed on the versos, facing the technical descriptions arranged in clear typography on the rectos. The headings, in a classic sans-serif typeface are widely spaced, inspired by a vague memory of a bird encyclopedia published in the 1980s.

On the cover, a photograph of a camellia is attached as a label. Twelve different labels were used throughout the print run, resulting in twelve unique covers and effectively avoiding the tricky question of which single camellia should be chosen to represent all. Above the title, two thick bars of bright blue and green – the colors commonly seen in Camellia Hill but absent in the flower photographs – are placed both for emphasis and to add vitality to the design. As a friend of ours pointed out, the contrast between the delicate flower image and the abstract color bars is reminiscent of the cover of Power, Corruption & Lies, the 1983 album by New Order – one of our favorite records. An abstract diagram displaying the colors of all 249 camellias documented in the book is placed on the endpapers.

• Project type:
• publication

• Editor:
• Park Semi

• Photographer:
• Kim Kyoungtae

• Typefaces:
• Sandoll Jeongche
• YMG Munche Gothic

• Paper:
• Munken Polar Rough

• Printer:
• Munsung

• Commissioners:
• Camellia Hill
• Park Semi
• White Eye Press