Jan Valo Photography
A portfolio site for a documentary photographer, built so the work sits on black and nothing else asks for attention.
Designing for a photographer is mostly restraint. The system here is a black canvas, one green, and a gallery that can show a series or a single frame without changing its mind about hierarchy.
Black, and one loud green
A photography portfolio has exactly one job. Everything here is black so the images carry the contrast, with a single acid green reserved for wayfinding — the logo, the active state, the scroll cue. Used anywhere else it would compete with the work.
Four ways in
The site opens on four fixed categories — nature, people, animals, others — each a full-bleed frame from the set behind it. It is a menu made entirely of the work, which is the only kind of menu a photographer's site should have.
Two gallery layouts
Inside a category the gallery switches between a grid for series and a single-image view for frames that need the room. The toggle is two small glyphs; the rest of the chrome gets out of the way.
