Nina Dodd and The Nicest Knits

Camouflage was always meant to help you blend into your surroundings. In this wildly creative project, time and place are mixed with a brilliant knack for knitting.

Two men wearing matching colorful sweaters stand by a seaside railing; one holds a thermos and the other is fishing, with a backpack and fishing gear nearby. — Images courtesy Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd.

That idea sits at the heart of Knitted Camouflage, a photographic series by Joseph Ford and knitter Nina Dodd that feels equal parts craft, observation, and gentle urban poetry.

A small dog wearing a green sweater with a camouflage pattern, sniffing along a hedge while on a leash. — Images courtesy Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd.

Over several years, Ford and Dodd have worked together to create hand knit sweaters that do not just clothe their subjects, they connect them to the spaces they inhabit.

A man with a unique hairstyle poses confidently against a blue patterned wall while wearing a stylish patterned cardigan and a collared shirt. — Images courtesy Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd.

Each sweater is custom made to match the backdrop, whether that is a mosaic wall, a patterned bus seat, a striped running track, or a leafy shrub.

When a person or dog stands in front of it, they seem to dissolve almost literally into that place. There is no Photoshop trickery here, nor AI at work.

The camouflage lives in the knit and the alignment, not the pixels.

A man with a long beard, dressed in a red knitted sweater, is sitting on a bus seat and knitting. He has tattoos on his arms and a focused expression, surrounded by red patterned seat upholstery. — Images courtesy Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd.

The effect is quietly surprising. A man becomes pattern. A dog blends into green foliage. Twins seated before a vibrant wall look as though they are breathing paint. In one image, a street artist known for a cheerful yellow cat mural stands on a ladder, his sweater’s stripes lining up so precisely that the boundary between body and wall nearly disappears.

A person with curly hair sitting on blue tiled steps next to a white brick wall featuring a sign that reads 'New Lex Tokyo'. — Images courtesy Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd.

Part of what makes this series resonate is the way it reframes a familiar medium. Knitted sweaters are usually practical objects, made for warmth and comfort, steeped in tradition and human touch.

Two women with curly hair sit on a tiled floor, wearing white skirts and brown striped tops, against a textured brown wall. — Images courtesy Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd.

Here they become living camouflage and a kind of urban storytelling. The project encourages us to see patterns not just as decoration, but as a way of belonging to a place. In a world obsessed with standing out, this work asks us to notice where, and how, we fit in.

A man wearing a colorful sweater with abstract patterns stands outside, looking upward with a thoughtful expression. The background features a colorful mural on a brick wall. — Images courtesy Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd.

If there is a lesson here, it may be this. Sometimes visibility is not about contrast, but connection. And sometimes the soft loop of a stitch can tell a story just as powerful as any photograph.