There is a roll of paper in the corner of the studio that has been there since 2019. It is a warm, slightly grey off-white, and every object we have ever made has been photographed in front of it.

We tried rooms. We tried a very good stylist and a borrowed apartment with a view of the canal. The pictures were beautiful, and they were pictures of an apartment. The object was a guest.

On paper there is nowhere to look except at the thing itself: its proportion, its shadow, the way light sits on the wood. It is a stricter way to photograph furniture, and it is a more honest one. If an object does not hold up on a blank page, it is not finished.

The roll is nearly gone. We have ordered the same one again.