Anchal with clay cook
Anchal is a deeply important project for photographer Clay Cook. Based on the Hindi word for “shelter,” Anchal is a non-profit fabric, fashion, & accessories brand with a mission to provide sustainable, meaningful careers for women in India. And it’s so special to this Louisville-based photographer because it’s where he first met his now-wife, and founder of this company—Colleen Clines. Together, they captured the individual stories of the resilient women who have found stability and community, while hand-stitching intricate and colorful fabrics.
I had the pleasure of working with Clay during my time at Wonderful Machine. He has a reputation for being everyone’s favorite in our office, so I was so excited when he reached out about creating a promo, focusing on this series.
The idea came together very quickly. We decided to create a deck of cards to pair the portraits with the stories—packaging the deck in a customized box.
The deck consisted of 5-by-7 cards displaying images, paired with 4-by-6 cards with handwritten quotes and stories (told by these women, stylishly written by me). The back of each card was individually detailed, using Procreate. Finally, as an added touch, we marked specific sections throughout the deck with small scraps of the actual fabric used in Anchal’s goods.
This project was so unique. I had the opportunity to hand-draw all of the elements, creating a unique and colorful package for this beautiful series.