Join the conversation
Subcribe to comment rss feedNew photo book collaboration
Alexandra Wesche
I am an amateur photographer from Germany who is into landscapes and stories. I like to discover both on my daily walks through the woods with my sighthounds and on occasional vacations.
In early September, John Ash and Paul Gotts announced the launch of their fifth photo book, “Home,” for a six-week pre-order period. The book features 38 images from Mali Davies, Mick Houghton, and myself. The images were all taken in areas local to us, which are areas that we might normally just pass by and have a focus on the natural environment. The images are supported by very personal words from author Jeff Young, whose message is very poignant. Finally, Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce has been able to write the foreword. Everyone has given their services for free, and all proceeds from the book will be donated to the Paper Cup Project (www.papercupproject.org) – a Liverpool charity that supports local rough sleepers and homeless people.
When John and Paul released their note about a further collaborative book project in the summer of 2023, I felt really excited about it. This was something I would love to be a part of. I love photo books in general, and I really enjoyed their previous projects, particularly “Littoral,” which beautifully combined the black and white images of three photographers with the poetic words of Jeff Young. Since Jeff was going to be involved in this next project as well, I was even more keen to apply for it and was fortunately accepted.
Mick Houghton
Finding the Right Path
In early 2023, I adopted a rescue dog with some behavioral problems that took up all my mental and time capacities away from photography. For several months I had not picked up my camera on my walks in local woodlands, which was previously a regular habit for relaxation, reflection and enjoyment. All this time, I had to avoid the paths that used to be so familiar and had become very dear to me during the 12 years since I moved into this area, located in a low mountain range in central Germany.
One requirement for this project was that the images had to be new work taken within three to four months after its start. This gave me the perfect incentive to pick up photography again and reconnect with it with my natural surroundings. I had missed it very much and was excited to see how much had changed since I had last explored my favourite spots.
The other conditions of the project were that the photos had to be taken close to home, possibly within walking distance, and should be scenes that most people would just walk by, taken in natural environments. This sounded very much like what I used to look for in my photography anyway. Thus, I ventured out again. While I previously always had my dogs with me on these walks, I now had to take some time to walk alone to have the space in my mind to be relaxed and get lost in the scenery. I had to really push myself to let go of all the other things troubling me, a state of mind I had taken for granted before. I revisited many spots I had noticed before and walked all the paths that I had enjoyed in the past. But I also explored some new places and overgrown trails that were easier to navigate on my own.
I’m naturally drawn to complex motives that take some time to untangle visually. I love exploring these scenes with my eyes and finding just the right angle for all the parts to fall into the right place, like a puzzle that can only be perceived wholly once it is assembled correctly. You don’t need spectacular views and classically beautiful landscapes to find these kinds of images. They are everywhere: behind hedges, inside the underbrush, beneath bushes or hidden inside rain puddles. You need to dive deep into the natural world to become aware of them. You need to train your eyes and your mind to appreciate them. To me, these scenes are like magic in an often much too trivial everyday life.
Alex Wesche
Alex Wesche
Reflection
I gathered new images for several weeks until I started browsing through them, deciding which one fit with the theme, considering which ones should be black and white and which work best in colour. There was no specification either way for this project. I had made about 200 images, and whittling those down to the requested 20 wasn’t an easy task. At last, I managed to make up my mind and sent my first batch of images to John and Paul for review. It turned out that I was still too much of a coward initially, sending some images that were still pleasing to the eye above all and, therefore, did not quite fit with the idea of focusing on images that most people would not notice. Despite the fact that I don’t live in a postcard beauty area, it is still possible to find views that fit the idea of more classically beautiful landscapes. But that was not the objective. I dug deeper through my images and looked harder until I found some more that were closer to the original idea and, coincidentally, also more true to myself. I just needed another reminder to be more brave about releasing them. John and Paul dutifully delivered that.
A Difficult Concept
Originally, the title of the book was “Local”, but now it will be released as “Home”. I’m very glad that I didn’t know that in the beginning because, for me, it is a word that is pregnant with meaning and numerous layers of bias and ideology. It would have made creating the kind of whimsical and guileless images that I was aiming for a lot more difficult. I’m not sure if I succeeded in that either way because there remains a sense of darkness and foreboding when I look at them now. But maybe that just means I was able to capture some pieces of life as they are.
In a previous article, I have written about “Hiraeth” - the concept of longing or homesickness for a place that once was and never will be again. “Home” is just as difficult a concept, if not more so. My images were all taken in an area where I have now lived for 13 years. Does that make it “home”? The place where I grew up is connected with many troubling memories and hardships. I rarely felt at home there. I mostly felt like a stranger in a strange place, an outsider. But that was many years ago, and I don’t think I was very much myself then. That seems to be an important piece of the puzzle to me: being yourself and being comfortable with yourself and your surroundings. That appears to be the main requirement for feeling at home to me, wherever you are.
Certain environments also help to invoke that feeling for me. It usually doesn’t take long for me to be comfortable and at home in a forest or by the sea, even if it’s in an area that I have never actually been to before. Certain trees, the way the sunlight filters through the leaves, the sounds of birds and other animals, or the salty smell of the air at the coast trigger memories that feel like home because they are good, safe memories for me.
Mali Davies
Mali Davies
Gratitude and Humility
Of course, there are more obvious circumstances that can make you feel at home, like an intact roof over your head, a clean and dry bed at night, a full belly, and most of all, feeling secure. These are things that we take for granted most of the time. It leaves me with absolute disbelief and incomprehension to observe the growing number of people who begrudge refugees all over the world their wish to pursue exactly these things for themselves and their families.
And finally, I’d like to express my heartfelt approval of all excess revenue going to the Paper Cup Project Charity supporting homeless people in Liverpool. Many people are uncomfortable initiating contact with homeless people, myself included. Maybe it is the fear that when you realise that they are just normal people, you see that becoming homeless can happen to anyone. For me, it is also the feeling of insufficiency after offering some spare money. I pay tribute to the social workers and other people who work tirelessly to actively support homeless people. It remains my hope that many people will purchase this book and maybe some prints to contribute a little bit of support to some of these people.
Being involved in this collaboration was a very interesting, instructive, and rewarding experience. I have created books before, but mostly did all the editing, writing, and designing by myself. It was fantastic to be part of creating something together, initially working separately but seeing everything being woven into a new whole that has become more than its single parts. Thanks so much to John and Paul for putting this together and to everyone else who joined in!
Purchasing the Book
Mick Houghton
The photo book is only available by pre-order from https://homephotobook.co.uk :-
- Standard hardback book £20
- Standard hardback book – signed £25
- Standard hardback book – signed + 1 print £40
- Standard hardback book – signed + 3 prints £55
- Standard hardback book – signed + 6 prints £75
- Limited edition (4) handmade book with slipcase – signed £180