This book is an ode to my homeland, Norfolk (which can be bought here). I stayed in Norfolk during the majority of the first lockdown to look after my father who is disabled, my partner and I did the cleaning, cooking and shopping. The book revolves around a poem I had written during this time.
"Touching in other ways -
It’s not particularly gentle, as I’d like it to be.
It’s not reflective, nor soft. That’s not me anyway.
We don’t all stick things on walls and preach connectivity, some feel too detached and internally isolated. Island mentality in my core on cold feet days, reaching/falling on carpeted floors.
Force me to stop as I stare at walls, I have work to do – I wake up afraid of contact.
Walk through those corridors with me, in infrared vision with cameras that detect our motion. Walk through the distorted lens and feel the caustic fumes of London. Travel with me, I’m struggling to communicate. The flat planes of Norfolk, you could live here but the horizon is flat with straight lines, I made peace with that.
Touching in other ways- by imagining a rouge aircraft was the flashing light on a mountain surrounding Tehran, picturing what London could be if mountains surrounded it too.
Through the kindness of home cooking, and fitness videos I fall in the sea of the Jurassic coast, you couldn’t catch me, you re-lived that
Touching me in ways, past and present."
I shall not post the forward here as it's very personal and I want to save that for any who buys the book, the content isn't the sort of thing I would usually broadcast online. I enjoyed making this, it gave me respite between working on my teaching job and tying up projects I was freelancing at the time. I learned to book-bind with a woman named Holly Sergeant in Buxton at a bookbinders I frequented call
Scriveners when I lived on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border and I still enjoy making all my notebooks.
The opening page contains a contact sheet of the final image, an eroding coastline I grew up by. Each book is hand made, hand-stitched and loved. Every image was taken in Norfolk over the years and the book contains 11 prints. A slip inside is added with a typed translation of the poem, and a small forward. This book is hand made, therefore has many little mistakes. I consider these part of its charm and handmade nature. These are very limited with only 5 copies and each is signed and numbered.
At present 4 are ready to ship.
I have also made available the print set alone, here.
Leave a comment: