The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: typography

I bought a Zenit-E to get the Helios-44 lens which was with it. This is the original lens that the Soviets copied from the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2. It's a pre-set lens and takes a bit of getting used to. Received wisdom is to shoot it wide open at f/2 for the distinctive bokeh, but the contrast suffers when you do this. At f/5.6 it becomes a nicer lens to use. The Prayer Book is Victorian, although the year of printing is not given by Cambridge University Press. Nor is the typeface. I should have liked to know both, but for £2 secondhand I can't really complain.

Long before the word 'feedback' became an alternative to 'views', 'reaction', 'response', 'opinion' et cetera, this was a feature in 'Nova' magazine.

Nikon D700 + Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 AI lens plus a PK-13 tube.

In 1913 Edward Johnstone designed the iconic typeface used on the London Underground. Eric Gill was involved in that project and later created Gill Sans - the typeface used for the Pug Ditch F.C. letterhead - and claimed it to be the perfect legible typeface. It is a sans serif face based on classic roman proportions, and quite distinct from other sans faces. It became the standard typeface for the LNER railway; it was chosen for Penguin book covers; the BBC used it as their corporate face, along with British Rail and the Monotype Corporation. Jobbing printers used Gill Sans extensively during the years either side of World War II. It became ubiquitous and appeared stale despite its obvious beauty and excellence. During the 1950s and 1960s the herd stampeded towards Univers and Helvetica, neither of which have the 'readability' possessed by Gill Sans and which is so essential for extended text.

On view here is the top half of 'You See Poetry', the cover of a collection of poems published in 1970 by University College London Union Poetry Seminar/Workshop. The bottom half has the word 'poetry' divided in half to make a symmetric rectangle of twelve rectangles each being a linocut-style letter. 27 College members from many different departments contributed, including Alex Comfort and Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Nikon D700 + AF Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens.

This is a photograph from the back cover of the paperback edition published in 1977 by Magnum Books. The photographer was Robert Golden. He originally pursued photo-journalism and documentary work before moving on to still life photography, eventually specialising in photographing food. Somewhere in between the change of direction he was producing book covers, of which this is an example of his strong style and ability to interpret a brief. The book cover does not reveal the name of the model who posed for this assignment. I photographed the book using a Canon EOS 40D with a Chinon 55mm f/1.7 lens on an extension tube. I wonder what equipment Robert Golden used in 1977?

This is a close-up of the cover of 'Bend Sinister' by Vladimir Nabokov. It was written before the better-known 'Lolita'. The publishers probably thought there was money to be made by introducing a reprint with a cover reference to Nabokov's famous subsequent work. Nikon D2Xs. Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 AI. Nikon TC-16A.