One script line, then a lot of paper

Why this shop is almost empty

There are three things on the page: a script line, a photograph and a caption. The script is the only gesture allowed, so it is given a long swash and a wide arc and then nothing competes with it. Everything else is flat, unlit and centred, which forces the leaf itself to carry the interest: the glaze on a pressed square, the curl of a rock oolong, the gold tips in a red tea. Wide margins are a claim about pace rather than luxury, since a page this empty asks to be read slowly. Chinese tea rewards that, because the differences between grades are small and only visible when nothing is shouting. The caption stays in plain capitals so the origin reads as information, not as a slogan.