What is Knolling or Flat Lay Photography by MyPersonaliTea.

I’m no photographer and never will be. But, people like seeing pretty pictures and it’s one way to capture a moment in time and present it to the world. So I’m taking pictures, or at least trying, of tea in an attempt to convey the benefits and value of tea through visual means. That said, I’ve been browsing around Instagram more lately and have been noticing this photography style of taking pictures from an aerial view, from over head. It’s like you’re looking down from a plane onto everything and snapping a quick picture, except that everything is laid out perfectly and seems to match. It seems so simple yet is so aesthetically pleasing to look at it. All the information that you get in one picture yet it doesn’t seem too busy. Anyway, I wanted to know if this form of picture taking had a name or any “rules” behind it. “Google is my friend” and I started googling flat pictures, pictures taking from over head and eventually came across something called “flat lay photography” which I have since come to learn is an Instagram account @flatlays . All they post are these flat lay pictures of stuff. It’s so pretty! Another Instagram account of flat lays is @sophiebuh79 . She does food, beautiful, colourful, yummy food flat lays!

This photography technique of flat lay pictures has been around for a long time now, close to 30 years! And it’s original name is not flat lay but knolling. So the story behind this style of picture taking is as follows:

Once upon a time there was a janitor name Andrew Kromelow at Frank Gehry’s furniture store. It seems Gehry was a designer for a furniture store brand called Knoll. It seems at the end of the work day Kromelow would find tools lying around the store and arrange them on a flat surface so each was at right angles to the other and then took a picture. He called it Knolling because it reminded him of the furniture in Knoll’s collection. Knolling, however, became popular through Tom Sachs. Tom Sachs was an artist and sculptor that worked with Gehry. He saw some of Kromelow’s pictures and made a piece about knolling. By 1987, knolling had become a trend. That trend has carried over onto Instagram, which is where I first really noticed it, and all kinds of people are using it more and more. Artists, photographers, companies are using it to promote their products and services.

As I mentioned earlier, I was curious about this photography style and if there was a technique to it. Here’s what I’ve gathered:

Knolling steps,

Get a bunch of stuff
Arrange each item on a flat surface so they are at right angles to each other, usually a solid background is used making it easier to see each item and allowing them to pop out of the picture.
Snap a picture from above

The result is,

A look that is symmetrical
Pleasing to look at
You can see many objects at once in one picture

Seems easy enough. I now know what these flat pictures are all about. I’m going to try and hone my knolling skills through tea pictures.

References:

What is Knolling? The Overhead Photography Trend Explained, Creative market, May 2016, URL: https://creativemarket.com/blog/what-is-knolling-the-overhead-photography-trend-explained

@flatlays, Instagram, URL: https://www.instagram.com/flatlays/?hl=en

@sophiebuh79, Instagram, URL: https://www.instagram.com/sophiebuh79/?hl=en

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Lani and Norm

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!