Littoral
A photobook project
Note: This post contains a lot of pictures which means it will appear as clipped or truncated in an email. To see the whole thing just press VIEW ENTIRE MESSAGE at the end of the email and you’ll see it in one. Or head to the online version.
Hello Everyone!
recently shared a piece on the importance of showing our work, not just digitally on the various platforms available on the web but in a printed form. Over the years, I’ve been asked what I do with my images and for a long time my answer would have been I share on social media and have made a couple of photobooks for myself. In more recent times that has changed. Although I don’t actively try to sell images, I have sold prints to those who have contacted me to purchase a particular image. I’ve also exhibited solo, jointly and as part of a group. It’s not a cheap exercise, but viewing an image as a print is extremely rewarding.Sharing images on social media and, to an extent, exhibiting can be transitory in nature. A more permanent way of showing work is in a zine or book. I’ve not produced anything as an individual but, in 2022, I was delighted to be accepted as one of three photographers to produce images for a photobook to raise funds for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution for those not familiar with the organisation).
The remit was simple. Each photographer was to produce 12 black and white images on the topic ‘littoral’. I knew roughly what the word meant but looked it up just to be sure:
littoral
/ˈlɪt(ə)rəl/
adjective ~ relating to or situated on the shore of the sea or lake
noun ~ a region lying along a shore
I tend to be a bit of a random photographer in that I’ll just go out and see what happens. Having a specific remit to shoot for was a new experience, and one that I enjoyed. I actually planned my photographic excursions knowing why I was to visit a particular location, although my images were still a response to what I found there.
Living in the Highlands of Scotland, I’m not far from the coast in any direction (the nearest is 8 miles away) so had a plethora of locations to choose from. In fact, there were too many! Initially, I was overwhelmed and couldn’t figure out how to approach the project. Finally, there was a lightbulb moment when I started to narrow down what I was interested in. Having worked as an archaeologist, and carried out a lot of survey work in the landscape, I’m drawn to structures. So that was it; my theme within the project theme was to be man-made structures. I made a list of places to visit, some of which I’d never been to previously despite them being relatively close by, and started on my outings.
The first was interesting. I turned up and then couldn’t bring myself to get out of the car; I was completely overcome by a lack of self-confidence. It’s one thing to go out and shoot for yourself; it’s something else to produce work for someone else. In some respects, it seems ridiculous thinking about it now, but it took me about 30 minutes before I could get going. It started raining so I got out of the car.
My next problem was being unable to ‘see’ any images. Nothing looked right in the back of the camera. Changing my camera’s settings so the image showed as black and white was a game changer, and finding a pill-box with a startled expression (who else has pareidolia?) was the final push that I needed. Each excursion after that was much easier and I came home every time with images that I was happy with.
We all eventually submitted about 25 images each to be whittled down by the editors for inclusion in the book. It was actually quite surprising how hard I found handing over control of my images, and my choice may not have matched that of the editors. But, of course, the images submitted by all of us had to work as a coherent body. These of mine were selected:
(Click on the images to see them full size)
The book was printed by Taylor Brothers in Bristol so is a high quality product. In addition to the images, there is poetic prose penned by author Jeff Young in response to the images. We are all very proud of it, and it raised about £2000 for the RNLI.
You can see a video by Euan Ross of Biblioscapes going through the book here and listen to us chatting with Euan on his podcast here.
I mention the project and give the story behind the Mermaid of the North in a previous post:
Some of the images either not submitted or not chosen for the book:
Beautiful images, they make me feel at home by the coast. Thank you ❤️.
Such beautiful atmosphere you captured. When i first read the word Littoral i thought you might have taken these photos while you were still in Romania because this is how we call the seashore area in Romanian. The word might have some latin roots.