Number three, and possibly number three favourite too, is a book which is unlikely to feature in any list of photobooks by members of the photobook elite. It was a mainstream publication for one thing, there are intorductory chapters which explain almost everything, the pictures have captions and (shock, horror) there's a description of the cameras and films used. Hill Shepherd is possibly what the photobook snobs would call a middle of the road book. But John and Eliza Forder's pictures (there is no indication who took which photos) are not the sort of editorial photographs you might expect in a book like this.
Published in 1989 it was (as far as I can determine) their third book, the first in colour. The pictures in the black and white books look to me to be more in the camera club style. Very formally conservative in content and structure. The colour work in Hill Shepherd and it's follow up, Life in the Hills, are more in what I'd call 'classic documentary' in style.
Covering a the annual cycle of hill farming both text and pictures tell the story, the text including short quotes from unattributed farmers themselves. It would be all too easy for a subject such as this to be illustrated by idialised pictures, and while there is a hint of romanticism (and with the passage of time a stronger sense of nostalgia) it is tempered and not overpowering
Some pictures serve mostly as illustration or to complete the whole, but the strongest stand on their own with any of the best covering this subject or any other. Without a doubt this is one of my touchstone photobooks.
No comments:
Post a Comment