Calvin McClure is 

a designer
a storyteller
“our resident art historian”

based in Los Angeles and Oakland, California.


He is currently studying at UCLA pursuing a B.A. in Design | Media Arts & Art History and typed this text in the third person. This site is constantly under construction.

  1. IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS  / (陰翳礼讃)

  2. TRUST REGISTER 

  3. EVE GRILLZ (pt 1 & 2)

  4. NATIONAL IMAGE ENFORCEMENT

  5. MOTION & MISCELLANEOUS WORK

                                                         

IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS
WINTER 2025

150g/m²  Kozo / Pulp Blend Paper via Echizen, Japan and 25g/m² Kozo Paper via Kochi, Japan. Binder’s Thread, Beeswax
Photographed by Airis Encarnacion ♡

       The body of this booklet — an excerpt of Jun’Ichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows (1933) — begins as a semi-formal analysis of the architectural techniques of Tanizaki’s ancestors, though steadily evolves into sentimental enthuse on the meticulous detail in historical Japanese structures and homes. This combined with his endearing curiosity for every shimmer of intentionally placed gold leaf and invisibly considered shadow in his ancestors’ craft, the reader is left with the aftertaste of a love letter.

       I felt drawn to the theme of change over time — on a micro scale through shadows shifting and a macro scale across generations of Tanizaki’s antecedents —  as well as the emphasis of void; a shadow whose absence of light gives meaning to that which is present.      

    
        Chronology is reflected in a page-by-page tightening of the body text’s margins. Void is represented in these same margins as well as the abundance of white space surrounding pull quotes and the Japanese script printed on 25 g/m²  low-opacity pages that allow Tanizaki’s heritage to fill the gaps of our understanding as they lay across the English-written colophon and title page.