Linda Lashford | From the Seahouse

‘From the seahouse’ is a set of photos and phrases which have fashioned over 5 successive winters of dwelling, writing, and photographing from a distant Scottish seaside.

Though primarily a photographic guide, ‘from the seahouse’ additionally holds a narrative. A narrative that begins when, exhausted by journey and depleted by loss, I lease a uncared for croft-house on the fringe of the ocean. Stilled by the act of photographing,

Though primarily a photographic guide, ‘from the seahouse’ additionally holds a narrative. A narrative that begins when, exhausted by journey and depleted by loss, I lease a uncared for croft-house on the fringe of the ocean.

I draw down emotionally and artistically and enter an intense relationship each with the home and with the seaside. What develops is just not solely a portrait of the shoreline however a sequence of interwoven poems which, along with the pictures, illuminate the ability of panorama to set off reminiscence and emotion.

My ideas of the seahouse will all the time be dominated by an impression of containment: a quiet wrapping of moor round the home, truncating sightlines and forcing me to look seawards, out in direction of the Summer time Isles and the distant hills of Coigach and An Teallach.

Instantly beneath the home, a dip of warrened machair seeps into an arc of wind-planed seaside, the place the primary, and probably the most highly effective, of three winter burns slices throughout the sand. It carries uncertainty: altering course day by day, shifting stones, opening fissures. Then, after 800m or so, the sweep of sand breaks in opposition to a backbone of shallow rocks. An increase of dune and marram grass leads right into a second, shell-rich bay the place the herons fish. Right here, a tidal lagoon, bottomed by filigreed slabs of colored rock, pulses to a mirror again. A 3rd rise and the panorama modifications as soon as once more, right into a run of brick-red cliffs and a tough, scarified foreshore that holds extra swimming pools of floating weed and richly marked stones.

Unable to drive, I’m bounded by the space I can stroll, and so this brief stretch of coast turns into the panorama of my creativeness.

Stilled by the act of photographing and unfettered from time, photos floor quietly. Banishing ideas of ‘too shiny’, ‘too boring’, I let myself wander, adjusting myself to the peak of the tide and the energy of the wind.

Stilled by the act of photographing and unfettered from time, photos floor quietly. Banishing ideas of ‘too shiny’, ‘too boring’, I let myself wander, adjusting myself to the peak of the tide and the energy of the wind.

The big, mounted types of panorama retreat and I discover myself drawn in direction of transient issues, a drift of weed, the play of sunshine on submerged rocks. Immersing myself in sea and tidal swimming pools, I search for flights of extraordinary color in weathered stones and a float of sky. On scarce, frozen days, I scour the littoral for ice-fast rocks and imprisoned weed and, when the wind is down and the sunshine is low, I search the scarce tumbled stones that, when photographed in opposition to a swirl of sand and shell, turn into a universe of planets.

As evening attracts in, I write, drawing phrases from the identical bodily and emotional panorama as the pictures. While the pictures have a stillness that belies the tumult of the winter shoreline, my ideas and phrases discover that turmoil: the uncooked bodily energy and fugacity of the winter atmosphere and my inside world, the place unsettling recollections and unresolved grief are unlocked by a sudden scent or a flip of a stone. These are the toughest hours of the undertaking – confronting the problems that introduced me to the seaside and probing the connections between the life I’ve lived and the pictures I make.

My father was a keeper of stones. He saved them in a drawer and on particular days would take them out and identify them. An incantation that conjured worlds the place devils misplaced their toenails and snakes had been turned to stone. The place bugs started as woodlice and featherless birds skimmed the skies.

On excellent days he would let me select one. My hand would hover between the glistening pull of mica schist and the fragile fronds of a crinoid fan. And, though the mica was buttery and shone with the softest mercurial mild, I beloved the life inside the crinoid. The star like segments of its fractured stem. Tracing their define, I might think about it complete and dwelling, its tentacles shifting with the comb of passing prey’. – extract from ‘A Reminiscence of Stones.

My father and I had met over stones.

The impulse to attract the phrases and pictures right into a guide got here in waves. At first, pushed by the thought to create one lovely object and with a ardour for printing, I noticed ‘from the seahouse’ as an ‘artist’s guide’: a single guide, printed by me and certain in collaboration with an artisan bookbinder. An invite to exhibit made me assume that such a guide might turn into a spotlight, turning an exhibition into an set up, comprising a guide, prints and a soundscape of the seaside. However, as I explored the choices, I bumped into problem discovering paper of the precise dimension and grain path that may permit me to grasp the drum leaf folded, lay-flat construction I used to be in search of. And so, as I reluctantly moved in direction of accepting the thought of outsourcing the printing, I started to re-think the worth of the guide.

Asking ‘creative’ mates and fellow photographers to evaluation the spreads, I got here to see that, by tying collectively my emotional response to the seaside and the pictures that arose from it, the gathering had gone past a easy portrait of a spot and was reflecting my private artistic journey. And so, I settled on printing 100 copies to accompany a mid-summer set up and having designed the format, I put myself within the fingers of exacting bookmaker and buddy, Eddie Ephraums (Envisage books), to make the ultimate tweaks and supervise the printing. The plan is to print ‘from the seahouse’ on top quality Mohawk Eggshell paper and, due to the load of the paper, to make two volumes, hand-glued and completed. Which is all very properly, however as lots of you should have skilled, comes at a price.

I selected Kickstarter relatively than among the different crowdfunding platforms due to its arts focus, and I might see that it had loads of pictures tasks trying to lift funds.

This brings me to my expertise of launching a crowdfunding marketing campaign to assist handle the printing prices. I selected Kickstarter relatively than among the different crowdfunding platforms due to its arts focus, and I might see that it had loads of pictures tasks trying to lift funds. I wasn’t particularly daunted by Kickstarter’s situation that you need to attain your full funding objective or obtain nothing.

In preparation for the marketing campaign, I created lists of potential backers: mates, household, my pictures community, and individuals who reside regionally and who could be eager about having a guide about their place. For months earlier than, I posted frequently on social media, focusing on and increase a considerable following inside the LinkedIn pictures teams. I assumed laborious a couple of hierarchy of rewards, basically incentives to encourage backers to pledge. These included prints which might reward small pledges and better worth rewards, together with the guide itself – which, in fact, turns into a manner of pre-selling the guide. What I did not assume laborious sufficient about was the worth of a ‘advertising and marketing’ video. Kickstarter advises that 80% of profitable tasks have a video, and with inadequate pre-thought, the making of the video grew to become the hardest problem of the pre-launch part. If I had my time over once more, I might have made a greater plan.

As of at present (twenty third Could), I’m 12 days right into a 60-day marketing campaign and the undertaking is 66% funded {77% as of 2nd June – Ed}, which is good information. Many of the pledges have come from my mates and from my photographic community, nearly all of whom are selecting to pre-order a guide. After all, it isn’t rocket science that my closest social community has responded early and that, as time goes on, I can count on help to dwindle, until I can recruit new backers.

I’m nonetheless attempting to assume creatively about the place they could come from and the perfect time and methods to achieve them. Might they arrive from the bigger Kickstarter group? The platform actually has a big philanthropic following which is keen to interact with tasks. Some of the constantly profitable photographic tasks is the “Remembering wildlife” sequence by Margot Raggett. She brings collectively photos from among the world’s prime wildlife photographers and makes lovely espresso desk books. It is simple to see a large attraction, particularly as earnings on gross sales go to wildlife charities. Her most up-to-date ‘Remembering bears’ made nearly £150,000. Nevertheless, most of us, together with me, have much less globally compelling tasks! Thus far, I’ve seen 20% of the funds raised coming from the Kickstarter group.

Would I do it once more? Probably. It is actually quite a lot of work, but when I can attain the funding goal and produce the guide to print, it is going to all have been worthwhile! And may I exceed the goal, then not solely will it assist fund the framing prices for the exhibition, however perhaps I might take into consideration the commissioning of a bookbinder to create that one ‘lovely object’.

If you’re curious to study extra, the hyperlink beneath will take you to the ‘from the seahouse‘ marketing campaign web page the place there’s a second hyperlink from the place it is possible for you to to see all the pictures as a flipbook.