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// Edition 010. Can books stop war?
Ukraine, commission news and endnotes.
Ukraine
I can’t revive a newsletter at this moment and not address the current situation. We are living through a significant, historical event. Russia has cast, through propaganda, a country run by a Jewish president as in thrall to Nazism and used that as an pretext to invade.
My friend Marc Wilson has photographed the history of World War II in two books, The Last Stand and A Wounded Landscape. I believe that such books are a powerful way of helping retain the impact of history beyond ‘generational memory’, the idea behind ‘never forget’. We must not forget.
A Wounded Landscape, his latest book, released last year, is a magnum opus on the Holocaust. Within that book, horrific stories crisscross the same land that is experiencing war again. The topic is personal for him; he has family who died in or fled the Holocaust, and a wife and family who come from Ukraine. He has written about this in National Geographic. Please do whatever you can to help his Ukrainian family via his print sale.
Mark Neville, based in Ukraine since 2020, has produced Stop Tanks with Books. He hopes his book will impact political and societal consciousness by distributing copies to a target audience of politicians, media and celebrities to help Ukraine in real terms. The book is sold out, though another print run is planned.
Whatever you think about the potential impact of photography to help bring about change, both of these books are important works of our time.
Lewis Bush and Jörg Colberg have produced books recently that cover European history, and also visualise how current events are intertwined with that history. Lewis outlined this particularly well in this Twitter thread. You can read about Depravity’s Rainbow on the Kickstarter here and Vaterland in reviews by Photobook Journal and American Suburb X.
Much is being done to help Ukrainian refugee families here in the UK. Kirsty Mackay has photographed some of these people for an article in the Guardian that includes Marc and his family. Locally to me, Farnham Homes for Ukraine are doing a ton of work. Please support whoever you can, however you can, in this crisis.
The Books:
Marc Wilson, A Wounded Landscape
Mark Neville, Stop Tanks with Books
Lewis Bush, Depravity’s Rainbow
Jorg Colberg, Vaterland
// News
Go Ape – for Telegraph Magazine
In January, I took a commission from Andy Greenacre at the Telegraph Magazine to photograph Rebecca and Tristram Mayhew, the founders of Go Ape. You can find out more about that commission and article on my website here.
Tansa
Living in Farnham, a ‘World Craft City’, I am surrounded by artists, makers and craftspeople of all kinds. I enjoyed this commission to photograph textile artist Linda Brassington’spiece, Compressed, for the Tansa-Japanese ‘Threads of Influence’ exhibition and book. Read more about that commission on my website.
Menai View
Last year, I was asked to do a very personal commission: to photograph and print a particular view of the Menai Strait in Anglesey, Wales. The experience was very rewarding and I would very much enjoy doing more of these kind of personal print commissions. Interested in commissioning a photograph of a place that holds meaning for you? Find out more here.
// Endnotes
1. Word of the month: Diaphanous [dahy-af-uh-nuhs]
2. Giant ice crystals the size of people: National Geographic
3. Is geometry a language that only humans know? New York Times
4. Cory Doctorow on the puffery of recycling plastic
Thank you for reading The [ED]it, I hope you enjoyed it, please do forward this on to anyone else you think might enjoy it. If you have questions, comments, ideas, projects, sponsorship or anything else stimulated by this edition, you can reply to this email, or get in touch by leaving your thoughts in the comments or contacting me via email at edbrydon@gmail.com
Take care,
Ed
Thank you to my editor, Alli Brydon, who proofreads and edits this newsletter.
If you are a new subscriber, please browse the archive for previous newsletter editions.
I was not paid for any content in this newsletter.
About me:
I am a photographer and writer available for commissions based near Farnham, Surrey, in south east England, just 45 minutes from London. I also regularly work in North Wales.
My more recent work explores personal connections to place, the land and natural environment, how each of those, and the connections between them, are changing.
In 2017 my ongoing project on people of North Welsh heritage in the northeast US was exhibited at Northern Eye Festival. I was subsequently awarded a commission from the Welsh Parliament in 2019 to make new work for exhibition around Wales in 2019-20.
You can find out more on my website here.
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If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, please consider supporting my work. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it increasingly hard for independent photographers, artists, crafts people and writers to make new, creative, original work. You can help me keep my practice going by clicking the link below to make a contribution.
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