If you follow me on Twitter you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Kinfolk magazine. In fact, I’ve been known to tweet of my desire to live inside Kinfolk. The magazine, which releases its 5th issue today, calls itself A Guide for Small Gatherings. According to the Kinfolk manifesto:

“Kinfolk is the marriage of our appreciation for art and design and our love for spending time with family and friends.”

The stories, profiles and even recipes in the magazine are thoughtful and well presented, but it’s the photography that has me really hooked.

The photography is lush, with deep, rich tones. Food is beautifully but simply styled and tablescapes have a rustic elegance. In keeping with the theme, many of the photographs highlight the gathering of people in celebration around food, even if it’s a celebration for one.

Kinfolk features a variety of photographers within its pages, a number of whom shoot with film. As well, they have created and produced a number of films. As someone who is interested in creating video and photo slideshow montages, I find the videos as inspiring as the magazine. And speaking of the magazine, there is an iPad version for those of you who like that, but for me, it’s the print version all the way. Kinfolk’s creators seem to have taken as much care in choosing the paper as they have in creating the content. For me my Kinfolk is appointment reading. I like to set aside the time sit with a cup of coffee and some great music in the background while I dive deeply into Kinfolk’s wonderful photos and interesting stories.

While I wait for the next issue of Kinfolk to arrive in my mailbox I decided to do a little photo shoot of my own, inspired by the magazine. Playing off the ideas of simple, whole foods in rustic surroundings, as well as the richness of the clour tones often found in Kinfolk spreads, I took my Polaroid cameras (SX-70 and SLR680) to my local farmers’ market and favourite bakery/brunch spot. Here are a few of my favourites from that day, shot on Impossible Project film.

Hopefully that will hold me over until my copy of Kinfolk Issue 5 makes its way across the border and into my mailbox. If not, I always have the back-issues!

Debra ~ Manifeisty