Studio Yukiko designs a steamy photobook for Matt Lambert (NSFW)

Moving through Matt Lambert’s portfolio is an intense experience. Based in Berlin, his work straddles photography and film, but regardless of his medium his primary occupation is capturing energy. Whether it’s unapologetic, animalistic lust, or a sedated, sunset-lit youthful ecstasy, an arrogant, passionate intensity underscores every image, making it emphatically unsafe for work.

Who better to design his photo book, KEIM, than Studio Yukiko, the graphic design duo responsible for the similarly charged printed works of Ewen Spencer? Michelle Phillips and Johannes Conrad, AKA Yukiko, were tasked with censoring the book’s cover image – a massive erect penis. “Even though KEIM isn’t pornographic per se the use of materials on the cover was inspired by those old censored, naughty magazines from the top of the shelves and the way they would hide the image content,” Johannes told us. "So we printed on a transparency too, and knocked out the type element in order to lure the viewer in.

“Inside, the book is divided in half by a more rough section, duotone printed on lighter, cheaper paper stock. Here Matt really allowed a collaboration to take place between us, where we rudimentarily cut images out and created collages with aggressive type elements. It was good to also contextualise his photos in that way, really not being precious about them, creating some kind of raw, Punk-zine aesthetic.” The cleverly subverted format gives Matt’s images a new, elicit resonance in the printed form. It was no easy task to make Matt’s work acceptable in just any bookshop, but the studio has done an admirable job of it.