WHAT CAN A UNIQUE BOOK BE?

Shaped by the eye of the photographer and the designer, a unique book carries the past and present to the future - a window into your world.

For most of us a home sums up our lives - what we've achieved and hold close. And with the passing of time a property may change; yet a book of painterly interiors and still-lifes will evoke surprisingly powerful memories.

A book may also be family portraits - candid and formal, individual and group - seen through MacWeeney's sensitive eye. Or a set of private portraits, in an edition of two. It can record the subtle changes of time upon a child, in repeated volumes. (See About the photographer.)

A gathering of relatives could be commemorated. Or a garden at every season, in vibrant details and landscape photographs. We might follow the construction of a house, from an architect's renderings to the dream realized.

A book can celebrate a special activity - the lifelong enthusiasm of an equestrian, a skier, a client constructing his own plane. And when a client and his friends took their annual Alaska fishing expedition, MacWeeney brought along an expert sportswriter to provide a vivid text.

A book can create a legacy, to honor a loved one who has passed on - while a house or apartment's possessions are still infused with that life. The design may include heirloom photographs, maps, genealogies.

Some clients who have spent years acquiring a collection that either cannot be shown or is about to be donated or dismantled (whether fine paintings, Bakelite, automobiles, Persian ceramics, toy soldiers, Shaker quilts, or antique lace) find that a distinctive book is the ideal way to memorialize and share their interest.

And for others their book is not even a book at all, but a limited edition of select prints, housed in a custom box.

Hammond Editions will advise and guide the client through the many options, determined by the size and length of a book, the number of copies, and the budget.

A personal book should reflect one's life - beautiful moments and places recollected. You need only take it off the shelf to revisit those treasures again and again.