W e l i v e b y t h e w a t e r

Research and Information on the Series We Live by the Water exploring the narratives occuring within island life. 

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North Sea Swells | Joanne Coates

The Orkney Islands in the far North of the UK have always identified as more Norse than Scottish, or English. The fishing community on the isles is changing, as the communities ways of life are slowly changing.  Over four years I have documented the fishing industry in the far North.  Historically, ports across the U.K. depicted a much different story. Docks were jammed with boats, seas of fishermen prepared their equipment, and growing communities marked this period of time. However, in today’s reality fishing boats are few and far between since deep-sea fishing has given way to alternative methods and in-shore fishing. With the decline of jobs, many feel the pressure to work in dangerous weather to provide for their families that can lead to fatal consequences.

Those working in the sea say they are facing significant challenges navigating tougher regulations on their catch loads and lack of representation in the British Parliament. In order to create a sustainable future, many are partnering with researchers from the Orkney Sustainable Fisheries to gather data and improve fishing practices with the mutual goal of protecting local shellfish. It is as the Orkney Fisherman, Sean Dennison states, “ We all have to share the sea.”

The fishing heritage of the islands provides an important historical and cultural industry, the work is physically demanding and dangerous. The Fishermen’s Mission charity claims that an average of 15 fishermen a year are killed or seriously injured.

For the locals in Orkney who have seen their once robust bounties dwindle in recent years, they are possibly facing the toughest battle ahead. After all, their daily routines — from organizing the morning catch to lifting heavy nets — is not only about earning a day’s wage. Fishermen are the glue that binds their neighbourhood - building on the historic sense of purpose, duty and pride. They’re risking their lives everyday, not only for them, but for the entire community.

With many changes a foot in the industry, only time will tell what the future holds for the smaller fishing communities around the U.K.

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All images and text © Joanne Coates

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Bells Beach - Xavier Davies 

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Today is World Oceans Day. In recent months I've been out making work about our connections with the sea. The sea is the world's seventh largest economy. The estimated value of the world's oceans is £15.6 Trillion but this is increasingly in danger. Human waste and plastics, fossil fuels and an increase in carbon dioxide are all contributing factors. Many are using the ocean sustainably. Today is a day to remind ourselves of what the ocean brings and why we need to take care of this whole other world beneath the water.

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WE LIVE BY THA’ WATER  // COMING SOON!!!!!! 

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Bookshelf: Joanne Coates

Picking a favourite Paul Graham book is similar to being asked ‘what would you prefer, your favourite object or your favourite thing?’ I’m clearly biased being a huge Paul Graham fan. Does Yellow Run Forever? grabbed hold of me through those pages and whispered something a little deeper in my ear. What is it that draws you to a certain a book? The question is as hard to answer as why one person appreciates a piece of art while the next dismisses it as rubbish. Here I delve into the book to try and examine exactly why I adore this book …

Aesthetically appealing.

Those two words truck me on eagerly opening up my pre-ordered copy of Paul Graham’s book. I couldn’t wait to see his new work in the best way that Graham’s work is shown, ‘the photo book.’ Some work really lends itself to the medium and when shown in this format relays and intensifies the message. I was bound to be biased I am unashamedly a massive Paul Graham fan.  I feel the books idea is simple. It’s about gold, commodification. The photo book itself is a commodity and it’s rise also signified this, our need to want, to have. The luxurious soft cover, the printing with glossy images, the gold edges of the book, everything about this book screams luxury. It eagerly shouts its message to the reader.  My question though is, do we absorb it or do we react? Do we look and learn from the book, or do we enter into the cycle? Do we even acknowledge the cycle or simply credit it as a great work and that’s it.

As Yve Lomax states, “We can no longer picture the world in the way that we thought we could … Is there one single image which can “picture” the world? All these films, videos and photographs are not “windows on the world” (even though they may play at being such windows); they don’t picture the world; they form involvements.”

Graham’s work especially develops these Involvements, allowing meaning to build.

I’ll start from the beginning, opening the very first page, we feel the luxurious texture, the gold felt cover that makes us want to hold and have this experience with the book, the end pages are golden clouds allowing us to be immersed into this opulent world.  Usually I wouldn’t mention these details when discussing a photo book but in Graham’s case it builds on meaning. No text, not a single line graces the pages, (apart from title and name of the book and artist) the idea is so simple it hardly needs to be there.

First … rainbows from Ireland.

The first image is that of a rainbow in a rural setting it’s something that we’ve seen thousands of times, a photographic cliché.

These photographs were taken in Ireland building on that cultural myth of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Secondly …a female figure sleeps.  

Straight away we are plunged into a different world, different cultural meanings. A lone figure lies alone on a bed in the corner of the room, it isn’t quite placeable yet, but between the two images there is clearly a sharp contrast, our mind is hopping.  And back to Ireland we go to see another rainbow.

Thirdly …Gold shops in the U.S.A

This continues for some while, perhaps half way through the book until we are greeted by an image stating WE BUY GOLD.  From the phone numbers the apartments we can’t be sure but the image looks rooted in US culture.  

We hop between like this again.

It’s the fusing of three sets of photographs that is done with such ease. Now what do all these subjects have in common?

Graham admits that chasing rainbows is. “Delightfully silly.”

Only on reading a interview with Paul Graham in the British Journal of Photography did I really start understanding the project, after revealing the woman sleeping is in fact his lover. The hopes and dreams, imaginary success begins to become apparent within the project.

“The surprise is the depth you can find in something that seems so superficial –dreams, love , hope, magical winders versus the clear eyed reality.” states Paul Graham.

I love this book because the message is both transparent and opaque. It can be read in a multitude of ways. It is often a strand simple yet effective that runs through Graham’s books. However I still question, like many photo books, their ability to affect those not in photographic or arts industries. I chatted about this with groups of friends, who didn’t really grasp the lines and thought it was a weak connection, that the portraits cannot be open or objective but will always be read in other ways. Graham himself states, ““I’m a firm believer in working in the world as it is and arriving at your ideas through that. It has to be a balance between the conscious mind struggling to rationalize, to make sense of it all, and the world itself.”

The series manages to touch on life’s main considerations do we choose wealth, love, or power? Will we reside in a dreamer’s state or the realm that we consider real. Are we cynics? Are we optimists? There is something about Graham’s books that speaks to me about possibilities. About the way we look at the world, and about the way we interact with images. Within the photo book, Paul Graham is a story teller, but it is the world he is telling us stories about.

Joanne Coates (b. 1989) is a photographer based in London and Leeds, UK. You can visit her website here, her Twitter here and her frequently updated Instagram here.

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The Fishing Forecast, Shipping Forecast - BBC Radio 4

The Fishing Forecast as sent in by Feedback listener Anne Anderton, 26 Oct 2012.

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LIFE IN THE ORKNEYS

Full Film here: 

http://movingimage.nls.uk/film/2009

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Gertrude Emily Benham

Legendary Female Explorer 

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Art school, Smart School

"One of the sort of symptoms of the academising of the art school is that every student is expected to write things about their work. and the things they write are generally just such utter crap." Art School, Smart School @BBCRadio4

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Andrei Tarkovsky, 'Le Monde' , 12th May 1983

"We can express our feelings regarding the world around either by poetic or by descriptive means. I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image- opposed to a symbol- is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite. We can analyze the formula that constitutes a symbol, while a metaphor is a being-within-itself.... it falls apart at any attempt of touching it."

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"A Physical expression of my unconscious mind." Peter Fraser

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Emily Jane Brontë

Ah! Why, Because the Dazzling Sun

Ah! why, because the dazzling sun

Restored my earth to joy

Have you departed, every one,

And left a desert sky?

All through the night, your glorious eyes

Were gazing down in mine,

And with a full heart's thankful sighs

I blessed that watch divine!

I was at peace, and drank your beams

As they were life to me

And revelled in my changeful dreams

Like petrel on the sea.

Thought followed thought—star followed star

Through boundless regions on,

While one sweet influence, near and far,

Thrilled through and proved us one.

Why did the morning rise to break

So great, so pure a spell,

And scorch with fire the tranquil cheek

Where your cool radiance fell?

Blood-red he rose, and arrow-straight,

His fierce beams struck my brow;

The soul of Nature sprang elate,

But mine sank sad and low!

My lids closed down—yet through their veil

I saw him blazing still;

And bathe in gold the misty dale,

And flash upon the hill.

I turned me to the pillow then

To call back Night, and see

Your worlds of solemn light, again

Throb with my heart and me!

It would not do—the pillow glowed

And glowed both roof and floor,

And birds sang loudly in the wood,

And fresh winds shook the door.

The curtains waved, the wakened flies

Were murmuring round my room,

Imprisoned there, till I should rise

And give them leave to roam.

O Stars and Dreams and Gentle Night;

O Night and Stars return!

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Speak of the North, A lonely Moor. Emily Bronte

Speak of the North! A lonely moor Silent and dark and tractless swells, The waves of some wild streamlet pour Hurriedly through its ferny dells. Profoundly still the twilight air, Lifeless the landscape; so we deem Till like a phantom gliding near A stag bends down to drink the stream. And far away a mountain zone, A cold, white waste of snow-drifts lies, And one star, large and soft and lone, Silently lights the unclouded skies.

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An apt discussion to follow the conclusion of Offprint, Polycopies and Paris Photo 2014.

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It's about making pople stop and think and rest for a moment

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