Compare
Carnely or a photo book?
The photo book is a beautiful object, and we love it too. Here is simply what it keeps, and what it lets pass.
Its qualities
The object you set on the table.
A cover, a weight.
Thick paper, a linen binding, the object you hold in your hands. You bring it out at Christmas, you set it on the coffee table, it lives in the living room like a beloved book.
The gift you give.
One photo book a year is a ritual you offer to parents, to children. No one tires of it, and everyone knows what to do with it.
The photos that stay.
Once printed, it is printed. Twenty years on, the photos are still there, exactly as you chose them.
Its limits
What does not fit on the page.
It shows what was seen.
The photo shows the scene, never what stood around it. Why Grandma burst out laughing that day, what you were thinking at that very moment — the photo book does not know.
One a year, and the in-between.
You choose, you edit, you approve. The book arrives in December. Between January and November, what you had to say stayed in the air.
No voice, no words alongside.
A photo book does not take your voice, does not carry three lines of story beside a picture, does not keep what you were told around the table.
Side by side
Where each one does its work.
- What it holds
The photo book
Chosen photos, and their captions
Carnely
Photos, lines, your voice, dates
- At what pace
The photo book
Once a year, in December
Carnely
Week by week, with no pressure
- The story behind the photo
The photo book
A caption, if you wrote one
Carnely
A line, a paragraph, or nothing
- Your voice
The photo book
No sound
Carnely
A few seconds are enough
- If you change your mind
The photo book
Printed is printed
Carnely
You correct, you add
- For your circle
The photo book
Only if someone knows where it is kept
Carnely
Your own know where to find it
- Price
The photo book
£30 to £80 for a yearly book
Carnely
Monthly subscription · reading is free for your circle
In practice
The photo book is not to be replaced.
Carnely does not erase the photo book. Many people make one each year — for Christmas, for the holidays, for Mum’s eightieth. The gesture of leafing through it together is a joy that stays.
Carnely simply takes up what does not fit in a photo book: what you were told around the table, your father’s voice, the dates, the names you are starting to forget, the story behind the photo.
The two can live side by side. At year’s end, you can choose your finest Carnely pages and turn them into a photo book. The rest keeps on living inside Carnely, ready to be added to.
« Which photo of your family still asks to be told what stood around it? »
A question from the path, chapter 2.
Carnet
My Carnely
For my own
Carnely
To begin
You can open yours today.
A few lines, a photo, your voice. At your pace, for your own.