I needed to clear the staircase, so I thought I’d see which photography books have settled there in the last couple of months.

James Redbanks (2016) The Shepherd’s View – Modern photographs from an ancient landscape.

  • As inspiration/research for a long-term project that I’m currently doing on a wool farmer and his work.

Janine Wiedel (2025) Life at the Fence – Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp 1983/84

  • As inspiration/research for another long-term project, recently started, on the current nuclear threat, impending 2nd cold war, and the ritual dance between peace camps and nuclear facilities.

Simon Martin & Marco Livingstone (2008) Colin Self – Art in the Nuclear Age

  • For the same reasons as above. I saw some of Self’s work at an exhibition in Bath earlier this year and I was curious about more artistic applications of photography to support my project.

Sarah Meister (2013) Bill Brandt – Shadow and Light

  • I took a course by Sarah a few years ago, and was inspired by the depth to which she considered individual bodies of work, and Bill Brandt has always fascinated me, so when I saw that she had curated an exhibition of his work at MoMA NY, I was keen to get the accompanying book. So glad that I did.

Colin Westerbeck & Joel Meyerowitz (2017) Bystander – A history of Street Photography

  • It is on my stairs because I was double checking something before responding to a comment on a forum.

Adam Broomberg (2021) Glitter in my wounds

  • I recently attended a lecture by Broomberg, who was professor of photography in Berlin and currently teaches an MA in the Hague. Currently, he has to be the most consistently daring, long-term project, activist photographer who literally puts his life on the line for the sake of his cause. This book is a relatively straightforward exploration of the experience of trans-people. It was the only one of his books that I could afford! His recent work (“Anchor in the Landscape”) on the Israeli settlers destruction of 1000+yr old olive trees in Palestine is awe inspiring.

George Steinmetz (2024) Feed the planet – a photographic journey to the world’s food.

  • I met Steinmetz at the Visa Pour l’Image-Perpignan this year. His exceptionally long-term project on the world’s agriculture, from an environmental perspective, is a perfect illustration of how a photographer these days has to truly understand their subject matter.

No idea whether this will interest anyone, but it was a useful exercise looking at them again, albeit briefly.