ABALIA HOUSE
Narrative Portraits
What if the people we love became books ?
Concept
A Narrative Portrait is a bespoke editorial book created to tell the story of an individual, a family, a founder, a company or an institution.
Conceived as a one-of-a-kind edition, each book combines writing, editorial direction and visual storytelling to reveal what makes an individual, a family or an organisation truly unique.
Each project may begin with a particular occasion: a birthday, a wedding, a retirement, the creation of a company or a defining moment in its history. Or simply with the desire to tell the story of a person, an adventure or a journey, to leave a trace of it and pass it on.
Our books are built around an original editorial concept, in which memories, conversations and archives become the elements of a singular narrative, entirely composed around its subject.
Our Philosophy
What truly tells us who a person is is rarely what gets recorded. They are also revealed in what remains in the memories of others, from the most intimate details to the events that have shaped a life. Abalia House was born from a desire to gather this material before it fades, and to give it the permanence of a work of art.
A life cannot be reduced to a chronology.
A relationship cannot be told through a handful of photographs.
A personality cannot be contained in a curriculum vitae.
Those we love exist within us in countless ways.
In conversations.
In habits.
In the jokes only a few people understand.
In contradictions.
In the stories others tell about them.
Over time, part of what tells their story begins to fade.
At Abalia House, we believe it deserves to be gathered, shaped and passed on.
To become a work in its own right..
Why a book ?
In a world where everything fades, the book endures...
We photograph almost everything.
We keep almost nothing.
A printed book slows time down.
It invites us to pause.
To turn its pages.
To share.
To rediscover.
Some stories naturally belong on a bookshelf.
Because a book is more than an object.
It is a presence.
A trace.
A legacy that endures...
Approach: From Conversation to Book
Each project takes shape gradually, through conversations, discoveries and the creative process, until it becomes a book considered in every detail and entirely shaped around its subject.
1. Conversation
We begin with conversations.
Not questionnaires. Not forms.
Real conversations.
2. Discovery
Together, we discover the
editorial language that best
reveals the person.
3. Creation
Writing. Illustration. Design.
Every detail is created
from scratch.
4. Edition
The result is a beautifully printed
object designed to be kept,
shared and passed on.
And then, the book arrives...
Everything until this point was creation. Everything after this becomes memory....
