Graphic Design: Henrik Purienne's beautiful but NSFW new book, morena

Don’t be shocked at the photos you see here. Clicking on a Henrik Purienne article and complaining about the nudity is like going to the Louvre and complaining that there are too many paintings. The bounty-hunting jet-setter has recently published a new book, morena, which has been lovingly designed by Barcelona design studio Córdova – Canillas. The concept of the book is simple: morena is a Spanish word for “a tanned or a non-blonde girl, or both at the same time” and the book is “a collection of monographs venturing in a timeless sensuality, in nudity as a state of true elegance, in sex…”

Sure, it’s a book about a beautiful girl who doesn’t seem too bothered about getting dressed, but it really is rather wonderful. Purienne is renowned for his meticulous nude shots of girls from all over the world, but there’s a reason for that – he’s an incredible, niche photographer with a lot of spectacular work under his belt. The fact that he enlisted Córdova – Canillas to design this new book is interesting. Partly because most of Henrik’s work does just as well online and also, how do you go about designing a book that – in all honesty – no one’s really going to buy for its typography and perfect-binding.

“The point is the editorial concept behind morena,” say Córdova – Canillas. “It is a little bit more refined in terms of eroticism and the relationship with the readers. It is not arty, it’s not fashion, it’s not gender relative. It’s an open publication for people who like girls and nudity. Morena explores the relationship between photographer and model, nudity and elegance, and design and content. The format is really interesting because it is a 24 × 32cm monograph of 48 pages in 150g embossed paper with no cover – kind of a fanzine, kind of a coffee table book, it is an undetermined object.”

Read more about morena and about how Hannah and Henrik met over on the site.