The Hall of Einar Sunday Recommendation #33

Hello and welcome to my Sunday Recommendation. Thanks for joining me. Every week I read great wildlife and nature books, stumble upon engrossing websites and hear wonderful new music. This is my chance to bring you carefully curated recommendations of all the best I’ve experienced – every Sunday. If it’s folk, or independent, or about wildlife, nature or Orkney, I may love it, and so may you.

North Sea Swells – Joanne Coates

Another Place Press produce a series of small magazines they call ‘field notes’, featuring photographs taken on themes which are largely based in specific places. Number 21 in their series is North Sea Swells by Joanne Coates, which explores the modern fishing industry, with images of fishermen and their vessels and the sights they encounter in their daily lives.

It’s beautifully presented, the paper is pleasant, to give clear and accurate reproduction and it’s a good size for holding in the hand.

It’s a zine you can go back to again and again.

I miss the presence of a title page and of typography and would love the explanatory text on the back to be inside the book. I’ll get over it. It’s obviously the modern way. I might also have chosen a more impressive double-page spread for the central one, where the staples nestle, as the book naturally falls open there. I also wish there were photographs on the blank pages. I’m just being greedy for more, aren’t I? Nothing, however, detracts from the power of the images and the beauty of the composition and processing.

It’s a beautiful and fascinating object and I’m so glad I bought a copy. I look forward to exploring others in the Another Place Press series and seeking out more work by Joanne Coates.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back with more recommendations of things you might adore next Sunday. In the meantime, I wish you a great week. Keep safe, everyone.

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