Shoreline by David Southern | My Photo Bookshelf
I’m unsure how I originally came across David Southern and his close-up, abstract work. It could have been a podcast or maybe on Instagram via another member of their Parhelion creative. Still, either way, the timing could not have been more perfect, as around the same time I started to become more interested in this genre of photography, I also came across David and his Shoreline book.
The synopsis
All the images within the book were captured within a 40-mile stretch of coastline. With his imagination let off the leash David did not limit himself to seeing an attractive pattern or shape etched in rock but rather enjoyed the liberation of finding subtleties of light, shade and water flow that created compelling images.
My thoughts about the book
When this book first arrived, not only was I blown away by the imagery on show, the lines, the patterns and details but the imagination to see familiar-looking shapes and objects and communicate these through clever titles. The below page spread is a perfect example of David doing this. It’s easy to see that so much work went into each and every individual photo to make the very most of the compositions on offer.
On the day I received the book, I had a quick flick through a few of the pages and noticed the creative image titles, so when the time came to spend a bit more time with the book, I had a lot of fun studying each image and trying to guess what the title might be after. I was wrong almost every time.
The book itself is well presented, with minimal text except for David’s introduction and a forward written by Rachael Talibard (which is a nice touch.) The sequencing works really well with some fantastic image pairings but as mentioned in other photo bookshelf posts, I’m not a huge fan of pictures that span multiple pages as it partly obscures the image and can often interrupt the flow and this book has a few of them.
This fantastic project and beautiful imagery deserve to be shared in printed form and this book does the job perfectly. I’m thrilled to have it on my bookshelf.
Book Details
Hardcover
Size: 240mm x 280mm
Pages: 116
Availability at the time of writing: Still in print and available from the author’s website at https://www.southernphotography.co.uk/