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Still: Short Stories Inspired by Photographs of Vacated Spaces
Still combines twenty-six new short stories with the photographs that were the inspiration for the writing.
Writers were invited by artist-photographer Roelof Bakker to select a photograph from STILL, an investigation of vacated interior spaces at Hornsey Town Hall in north London, and to write a story taking the chosen photograph to a new place with a fresh meaning – away from the original physical setting.
The book includes entirely new writing by Richard Beard, Andrew Blackman, SJ Butler, Myriam Frey, SL Grey, Tania Hershman, James Higgerson, Justin Hill, Nicholas Hogg, Ava Homa, Aamer Hussein, Nina Killham, Deborah Klaassen, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Claire Massey, Jan Van Mersbergen, Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende, James Miller, Mark Piggott, Mary Rechner, David Rose, Nicholas Royle, Preeta Samarasan, Jan Woolf, Evie Wyld and Xu Xi.
Writers were invited by artist-photographer Roelof Bakker to select a photograph from STILL, an investigation of vacated interior spaces at Hornsey Town Hall in north London, and to write a story taking the chosen photograph to a new place with a fresh meaning – away from the original physical setting.
The book includes entirely new writing by Richard Beard, Andrew Blackman, SJ Butler, Myriam Frey, SL Grey, Tania Hershman, James Higgerson, Justin Hill, Nicholas Hogg, Ava Homa, Aamer Hussein, Nina Killham, Deborah Klaassen, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Claire Massey, Jan Van Mersbergen, Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende, James Miller, Mark Piggott, Mary Rechner, David Rose, Nicholas Royle, Preeta Samarasan, Jan Woolf, Evie Wyld and Xu Xi.
190 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2012
109 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 18, 2013
This book is the result of a project by photographer Roelof Bakker, who took a series of photographs of an abandoned London town hall. He then asked 26 known and lesser known authors to write a short story based on one of the photographs.
I had only read novels by four of the authors, but all have had several novels published or won prizes with their debut writing.
The length of the stories differed from 2 pages to 5 or 6 pages. The book itself was very well presented, with heavy paper and very good quality photographs.
I loved some of the stories and was indifferent towards others. Some I didn’t understand at all. In all cases, it was fascinating to see how each author had been inspired by a photograph (shown before each story). Some of the stories stayed quite close to the scene depicted while others strayed far away from the abandoned building idea.
My favorite story was a surprising academic report from time in a very far future, looking back on the First Digital Age (2000-2037) by James Miller. This was a satire of how academics take hold of just any piece of historical information and try to make sense of it in connection to other known information. For instance “Scolars have identified the three wise men [from the Nativity] as Freud, Lacan and Jung.” All this with a fine list of footnotes. I chuckled through this story.
Another great surrealistic story was that of Claire Massey, in which a woman recalls her ballet lessons at the age of seven, during which she made the discovery of a faulty mirror, that made her scared of mirrors for life.
Some of the short stories recalled a place or object that the authors knew in the past, and these read more like memoirs than stories, which I liked less.
Overall, this was a beautiful book with great pictures and some very good short stories.
I had only read novels by four of the authors, but all have had several novels published or won prizes with their debut writing.
The length of the stories differed from 2 pages to 5 or 6 pages. The book itself was very well presented, with heavy paper and very good quality photographs.
I loved some of the stories and was indifferent towards others. Some I didn’t understand at all. In all cases, it was fascinating to see how each author had been inspired by a photograph (shown before each story). Some of the stories stayed quite close to the scene depicted while others strayed far away from the abandoned building idea.
My favorite story was a surprising academic report from time in a very far future, looking back on the First Digital Age (2000-2037) by James Miller. This was a satire of how academics take hold of just any piece of historical information and try to make sense of it in connection to other known information. For instance “Scolars have identified the three wise men [from the Nativity] as Freud, Lacan and Jung.” All this with a fine list of footnotes. I chuckled through this story.
Another great surrealistic story was that of Claire Massey, in which a woman recalls her ballet lessons at the age of seven, during which she made the discovery of a faulty mirror, that made her scared of mirrors for life.
Some of the short stories recalled a place or object that the authors knew in the past, and these read more like memoirs than stories, which I liked less.
Overall, this was a beautiful book with great pictures and some very good short stories.
March 5, 2013
Still is a wonderful anthology of 26 short stories from 26 different writers, all inspired by the photographic work of Roelof Bakker that helped earn him the Gold Prize at the London Photographic Association Still Life 5 competition in June 2011. Of particular note from this anthology of stories are: From the Archive by James Miller (the social satire of the present, written from the view of the distant future, will make you laugh); Opportunity by Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende; The Owl at the Gate by Nicholas Hogg; and How to Make a Zombie by Deborah Klaassen (a story of especially unsettling content). Honorable mentions go to Morayo by Sarah Ladipo Manyika and Waiting by Justin Hill. I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews