Winter Doorstep Poster

Winter Doorstep is a photograph taken at the bottom of a flight of brownstone steps after heavy snow. A red front door stands at the top with a wreath hung on it, lit from inside so the glass panels glow, and the brick around it is dark and wet. Snow sits several centimetres deep on every tread and on the iron rail, and a garland of spruce has been wound along the balustrade with a wide red velvet bow tied at the bottom. The bow is the closest thing in the frame and the sharpest, which pulls the eye forward before it climbs the steps to the door. A margin runs around the image.

The photograph is dark and saturated, so it needs a pale wall and a simple frame. Black suits the brick and the iron; light oak softens it and brings out the red. A hallway is the obvious place, since the picture is itself a doorway, but it also works in a living room where there is already dark wood or a deep paint colour. Hang it at eye height rather than high, and keep the wall around it clear.