“Tide - Story of Logo” - Plume House of Prayer Series II / Shine, 2022
Commissioned and published by Shine Portrait Studio Press in Newark, NJ.

Published Artists: Margrethe Aanestad, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Beau McCall, Adrienne Wheeler
More about the series here.

Margrethe Aanestad's TIDE: STORY OF LOGO weaves together Aanestad’s photographs in the SHINE studio, depicting found scraps of marble that embrace intuition, the impromptu, and accident, relating to her known Norwegian landscapes. Aanestad lovingly offers SHINE a sense of expanded time, and hints of eternity and the universe, from water tides and undersea mysteries, to sand and quartz, along with the protective qualities associated with this gem-like mineral. Aanestad’s STORY OF LOGO is a longing probe for connection, touch and radiating one’s personal light -- one’s own shine.

​Aanestad’s minimal artwork is deeply influenced by the landscape of her youth in South West Coast of Norway and surrounded by the famously known Jærlyset*, the vast North Sea, with constant dramatic cloud formations, tough weather and a clarifying light. These qualities are in fact kindred to SHINE’S mission as a Newark-based community portrait studio, including openness as an invitation to infinite expressive possibility and self representation, as well as a space of fierce imagination, intimacy, messiness and finding one’s own sense of balance.

In 2017 artist Margrethe Aanestad was commissioned to design the inaugural logo for SHINE Portrait Studio. This trapezium shape -- painted on the immediate entrance wall -- has since welcomed visitors to the studio. The distinctive mark on the wall is a large-scale mural and has the flexibility inherent in all of Aanestad’s art. Initially painted silver, it functions not only as a practical background for photographers, but also as a framework for exhibiting featured photographs. More importantly the logo shape defines a reception area featuring a rattan throne chair, which intentionally references the iconic 1968 photograph “Hewey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense” by Blair Stapp.

Photo: Anthony Alvarez & myself

Editor: Nick Kline and Anthony Alvarez
Designer: Chantal Fischzang
Printing and Binding by: Anthony Alvarez
Publisher: Shine Portrait Studio Press
City: Newark, NJ
Year: 2023
Dimensions: 10 in x 10 in x 1 in
Cover: Paperback, Binding: Perfect, Process: Risograph, Pigment Ink, Color & Black and White, Edition Size: 100

Photo: Anthony Alvarez and myself