Macro shot of a vintage cabinet's front face: a long horizontal row of small ivory tongues. The middle five are apparently worn down, the cream lacquer rubbed away to bare bone-white at the centre of each. Lone window source from the side, deep velvet shadow at the edges. Museum still-life composition, painterly chiaroscuro.

A lone piece of carbon paper laid across a dark wooden floor. The reverse-imprint of an entire essay is just readable across its surface, smudged at the bottom margin. Cold overhead daylight from a skylight. No other objects in frame. Macro static shot. Slight curl at the upper corner.

Bird's-eye-view macro shot of a long horizontal black lacquered cabinet from directly above. A faint rectangular dust pattern across its top surface shows the clear outline of five oval pads that recently lifted away. Lone rim source from a window, deep velvet surround.

A sheet of cream cotton paper laid across a parquet floor. Across the paper, smudged black charcoal arcs in clustered groups of five, the clusters distributed along the upper margin. No figure, no other objects. Soft north-facing window daylight, painterly chiaroscuro.

Macro of the interior of a tall iron cabinet. Long slender metal arms reach upward from a hidden mechanism. The tips of five of the arms are blackened with carbon residue from repeated impacts against an unseen surface above. Deep amber industrial source from the side, deep velvet surround.

A lone small ivory tongue from a vintage cabinet sits alone on a black velvet pedestal in a museum gallery. The lacquer is worn in a precise oval at its centre. Lone hard rim source from the side, gallery still-life framing, deep shadow surround. Macro composition.

Wide static shot of an empty desk in a dim library carrel. The desk surface bears polished arcs and grooves worn into the lacquer by the back-and-forth motion of an absent presence. Lone green-banker's-shade source on the desk, deep shadow at the edges. No figure.

Macro shot of a long curved fiber drum wound around an iron cylinder. The drum bears a horizontal row of small black character impressions, evenly spaced. Lone window source from the side, brass mechanisms catching the luminance at their edges. Specimen-photography composition.

Bird's-eye-view macro shot of a cracked dark leather workstation surface. A pale rectangle of un-faded leather marks the exact footprint of an object that sat there for many years and has just been removed. Soft overhead daylight, no other objects, painterly chiaroscuro.

Bird's-eye-view shot of a large iron-bound book lying open on a black velvet desk. The two facing pages are blank except for hundreds of tiny dimpled depressions across both pages, each depression circular, the pattern dense and regular along the upper margins. Lone ambient overhead source, lone rim from a window.