Haynes has made a habit of creating image books as a guide to the visual feel of his films, going back to his drama Safe (1995). The compendiums are culled from photographs, film stills, paintings, periodicals and other sources to generate ideas for the film's style. They are meant initially for the cinematographer. The books are not to be confused with storyboards, the shot-by-shot breakdowns he has made since his first feature, Poison (1991). Haynes said that his image books are "a way of communicating beyond words that gets to the crux of what the mood, temperature and stylistic references would be." And "on a very practical level, it becomes great reference for clothes, hair, makeup, the way women carry themselves in the period and the specificity of how they're being created from the outside in." [from N.Y.Times 2016].
