The spines were hand sewn by women from the Toda tribe in a process that took more than a year. Different designs make each book unique.
Book design for Indian photographer Ramya Reddy.
You can buy the book at soulofthenilgiris.com
Soul of the Nilgiris is a labour of love and an ode to the magic mountain light. It is the story of a place told through a personal tapestry of oral narratives, conversations, writings and over 300 photographs — taken over nine years, drawn from the creative abundance of this millennia-old mountain land and her centuries-old inhabitants.
The book traverses the cultural, ecological, colonial and the now drastically altered landscape of the Blue Mountains situated in the Western Ghat region of southern India, while attempting to draw attention to the lives of its indigenous people and the synergistic way in which they were attuned to the natural world. Their lifestyles are based on a respectful, reciprocal orientation and a sacred relationship with their land and there is a dire need to give voice to the relevance of this knowledge to the times we live in.
The typeface Canto, from Eduardo Rennó, is used for the book and chapter titles.
Dia, Schick Toikka, was chosen for the body copy. Text ranges left in 1 or 2 columns at the top of the pages.
Virgo Mono, Sharp Type, is used as a complementary typeface in the index, endnotes, captions and poems.
