The [ED]it // Edition 004. Luminosity

Travelling through light, time and place, plus news, one image and endnotes.

Apr 30, 2021

Patterns of time and place under luminous skies

Landscape spreads from Paul Glazier’s ‘Island Tides’ (top) and Gus Wylie’s ‘Patterns of the Hebrides’ (bottom)

I’ve just finished reading Kathleen Jamie’s ‘Surfacing’ and I’ve been searching for the right word to describe the book but I think I found it. Jamie’s writing is luminous.

She takes the giant skies of Alaska and the Scottish islands with their almost unending light and turns them into characters in the book. Rather than shining a spotlight, she uses that light in the first two chapters to gently illuminate the things that are surfacing in the Yup’ik village of Quinhagak in Alaska and Links of Noltland on Westray in Scotland, as well as their people and cultures.

These chapters, along with the few black and white reproduced photographs by Erika Larsen, surfaced a memory in me and sent me searching along the yellow spines on my bookshelf. I felt I had seen those photographs, albeit in colour, and heard of these places before. Erika Larsen is mentioned in ‘Surfacing’ as being on assignment for National Geographic at the same time the author is in Quinhagak. I was able to find the 2017 Nat Geo issue that included Larsen’s photographs of the people and archaeology being done at Quinhagak. I also came across a second issue from 2014 where the Skara Brae is the focus of an article and the Links of Noltland are mentioned.

Despite their calm, subtle tones and well-composed nature, I found the photographs lacked the luminosity with which Kathleen Jamie writes. To find that, I had to journey to the other side of Scotland, from the Orkney Islands to the Hebrides, by pulling a couple other books off my shelf.

The first was the most recent, Paul Glazier’s ‘Island Tides’. Like Jamie writing about how time in these ancient places can be both slow and quick, hundreds or thousands of years passing in front of your eyes in a moment, Paul has given us the gift of time on Vatersay. He brings us intimately into the lives of the people and island, showing us generations of families and how they live. His photographs also have a luminosity, with sun sparkling off the water, translucent curtains and the glow of white shirts and priests robes.

Gus Wylie’s ‘Patterns of the Hebrides’ was the second book I picked up. The photographs are sequenced by linking the pictures through motifs of composition or subject. Whereas the light is a character in Paul’s book, Wylie’s is printed with deeper blacks and shadows, and the patterns in Wylie’s book perhaps evoke the patterns that the Neolithic and Bronze-Age peoples of these islands used in their art and decoration.

Sheep shearing. Another pair of spreads from Paul Glazier’s ‘Island Tides’ (top) and Gus Wylie’s ‘Patterns of the Hebrides’ (bottom)

Both photobooks made excellent companions to these chapters of Jamie’s book, and made me think more about the way words and images from several works form a conversation.

I enjoy reading and looking at books by different authors and photographers that take on the same or similar subjects. I may delve deeper into this with examples in future newsletters. Do you do this too? If so why and what do you get out of it?

Leave a comment

// On reflection

Thank you to Tanya Shadrick, who responded so generously to the previous edition of my newsletter on change and the anxieties of the last year via Twitter. Among her Tweets she posted one that included a video animation called ‘The Gap’, a notion expanded upon by Ira Glass. I had seen it before, but it was good to be reminded of it.

My friend Ken Udle also sent me a long email with lots of helpful information. Key amongst them was to think that emotions and anxieties are trying to take all your attention, and the more you listen to them the more they wear you down. The trick, so he’s been told, is to speak to the emotion or anxiety as a parent might: say to yourself exactly what you would say to a child who’s feeling jealous, and reassure them your confidence in their abilities.

Another important point Ken made was to put more of a routine in place. Set aside chunks of time for specific tasks and sticking to them until a habit forms; time for editing, scanning, writing, making new work and marketing (ugh). I’ve mentioned habit before, but I didn’t expect to need to take my own advice again so soon!

// News

Offline intro

Offline Journal issue 006 ‘Wild Skies’ is packed with great articles on photography in Wales. This issue takes on the theme, loosely, of ‘contemporary landscape’. I was honoured to be asked by publisher and editor Brian Carroll to write the introduction. I tried to weave in thoughts about how the landscape has changed for me over the last year and begged the question whether it may or may not have changed for others also. There’s some excellent photography showcased in the issue, and I heartily recommend you pick up one of the remaining copies here.

// One image

A Blue Tit taking flight after being ringed at Tice’s Meadow nature reserve, Surrey.

This image comes from my project on Tice’s Meadow, an award-winning nature reserve that is under threat of sale. I think the story highlights an issue playing out in local communities nationally, and indeed globally; the loss of natural ecosystems and greenspace, beneficial for both animals and people alike, to commercial and residential development. I constructed a Twitter thread and Instagram photoessay (split over nine gallery posts) to showcase photographs of Tice’s Meadow, explaining why people go there and why it is so special. Please take a look and share on social media.

// Endnotes

Take a listen to Open Country on BBC Radio 4 for the audio that accompanies Craig Easton’s Fisherwomen project. I highly recommend listening while viewing either Craig’s website or the physical portfolio. It is hard not to be incredibly moved by these stories.
Craig Easton’s ‘Fisherwomen’ portfolio and the BBC Radio 4 open Country audio playing on the BBC Sounds app (with Bluetooth speaker)
If you want to think about audiences beyond your photographic peers, which you should do, then this video provides some fascinating insight. Source Magazine asked two different book club reading groups to review three ‘classic’ photobooks. I love the tension between two Northern Irish men discussing what makes a good photograph and the awareness underlying the quote from the one responding to his friend who says he has no interest in photography at all. He says, “It’s all around you, how could you not be? It’s the currency of our time.” Hat tip to Jörg Colberg for this.
The 400 Years Project is a website dedicated to Native American photographers telling the stories of their communities, especially the ‘visual evolution of Native identity, rights, & representation.’

Thank you for reading The [ED]it. I hope you enjoyed it. Please forward this on to anyone else you think might enjoy it, and please do get in touch by leaving your thoughts in the comments or contacting me via email at edbrydon@gmail.com

The[ED]it

Discussion about this post