Mainlicht is a small digital notebook kept in Frankfurt am Main, collecting abstract studies of colour, light and paper. The images are made on screen and gathered here slowly, without hurry.
Explore the studiesAbout this project
Mainlicht is an independent digital notebook kept in Frankfurt am Main. It gathers abstract colour studies, river-inspired forms and paper textures — things noticed in passing, written down, and then rebuilt on screen until they feel right.
Every image here is made digitally. Nothing is a documentary photograph, and nothing is offered for sale. The notebook exists simply as a place to look through the studies and read the notes that go with them.
Studies built from scanned paper, soft edges and the shape a shadow makes when it falls across a sheet. The grain stays; the object doesn't. Most of these sit in grey with one warm area holding the frame together.
digital study · scanned paper
Horizontal bands and broken reflections, drawn from the way light sits on the Main towards evening. Colour does most of the work here, and the edges are deliberately left uncertain. None of it is a record of the river itself.
digital study · reflected light
Two colours held next to each other until the edge between them starts to hum. Often no more than a field and a single line. These are the smallest things in the notebook and take the longest to get right.
digital study · two colours
Short runs of four to six studies that only make sense in order. Each one is quiet on its own; together they set a pace. They are arranged on screen and never printed as a set.
digital study · short seriesIt usually starts as a written line or a colour sample rather than an image. Most of these sit in a file for weeks before anything is made from them.
Colour fields and scanned paper are tried quickly in software, without much care. The majority of tests are discarded the same day.
The few that hold are layered, softened and reworked until the edges settle. Everything stays digital throughout.
Finished studies go into the archive and occasionally into a journal note. Nothing is sent anywhere or made available to order.
Single studies are easy to like and hard to remember. Lately the notebook has been filling with short runs of four or five, arranged rather than collected.
A pair of colours either holds or it doesn't, and the difference is rarely something I can explain. August was spent testing pairs and throwing most of them away.
In summer the light stays on the water longer than it stays anywhere else. Lately I've been noting colours rather than taking pictures of them.
A few sheets of cold-press paper have been on the desk for weeks. The interesting part is not the paper but the soft line where a shadow falls across it.
No. Mainlicht is a notebook rather than a shop, and nothing here is for sale. The studies are made to be looked at on screen.
No. There is no licensing, and no permission is given for reuse. The images are personal studies and stay where they are.
No. There are no talks, workshops or events of any kind, and none are planned.
No. Every image is a digitally made abstract study, built in software from colour fields, soft edges, screen light and scanned paper. They are not documentary photographs of anything.
No. There is no commission work and no client work behind this notebook. It is a private project that happens to be public to look through.
Neither. There is no mailing list, no contact form and no way to subscribe. New studies and notes simply appear in the journal when there is something worth writing down.
There is no contact form, no mailing list and no shop here — the archive is only meant to be looked through. New studies and process notes appear in the journal from time to time, and that is the whole of it.