44 PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS
In large part, this unlikely photography book owes its life to an order of cinnamon rolls. Jason Bitner, an author from LaPorte, Ind., was waiting for baked goods at a diner in this small town when he made an incredible discovery: Roughly 18,000 historic portrait photographs were hidden in the restaurant’s back room. “People tend to look down on the culture of the Midwest,” says Bitner, cocreator of Found magazine. “I wanted a book that was earnest. For me, it’s sort of a yearbook of the Midwest in the ’50s and ’60s.”

Deb Wood, the design director at Princeton Architectural Press, knew the key to honoring these images—and the regular townspeople they depict—was to create a design that was digni- fied rather than kitschy or silly. “The book is really simple, and it should be simple,” she says. On the cover, for example, the lamination subtly mimics the texture of an old photograph. Inside, inventive image pairings invite readers into the story. Are these two women related? Or are their similar looks a mere coincidence? These unlabeled photos may never reveal the truth, but the volume’s design compellingly invites readers to guess at the answers. by Michelle Taute