'Before The Bluebells' Book Launch and Exhibition
Before The Bluebells book and slipcase
My very talented husband Andrew Newson has made a book! The launch is this Thursday at his studio in Crowborough and we would love people to come along for a drink. Full details below.
‘Before the Bluebells’ Book Launch and Exhibition
Thursday 11th July (6pm-9pm)
We will have drinks and nibbles, so come and join us for a drink and say hi!
Books will be for sale at the event at the price of £15 (cash only please).
Book format:
80 colour photographs
287x190mm
Soft cover with soft touch lamination
Presented in slip case
As well as the book, I'll be showing some framed prints from the same series. Prints also offered for sale.
Andrew Newson Photography Courses
The Annex, 1 Brookfield Villas, Crowborough Hill, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 2EG
Please park on Crowborough Hill or the free public carpark next to Jarvis Brook Recreation Ground, which is just a 1 minute walk from the studio.
If you are travelling by train, the studio is just a 1 minute walk from Crowborough Train Station.
If you would like to attend please just drop me an email to confirm your attendance.
hello@andrewnewson.co.uk
For those that can’t make the launch event on Thursday, the studio will be open on Friday 12th July and Saturday 13th July from 10am-2pm for viewing the book and prints.
Tea, coffee and biscuits available, of course!
‘Before the Bluebells’ Studio Open
Friday 12th July (10am-2pm)
Saturday 13th July (10am-2pm)
If you would like to attend please just drop me an email to confirm your attendance.
hello@andrewnewson.co.uk
…
Here is the text from the book to give you some more insight in to the photographs.
Before the Bluebells
Before the Bluebells is a series of woodland photographs made in a four month period from
the beginning of November 2018 until the end of February 2019.
I photographed a group of woodlands that are local to where I live in East Sussex. Although I had visited some of these woodlands before, I really didn’t know them that well. I wanted to spend as much time as possible in these places, making photographs and forming a bond with the landscape.
I chose this time of year because I find it incredibly beautiful, even if slightly melancholic. The struggle of nature as winter takes hold is always going to have parallels with life itself.
Whilst out on a 10 mile woodland walk in March 2018, I decided to visit a nearby beach afterwards. This visit changed my life forever, because I had the very unfortunate experience of finding a father and his two young children at the foot of Beachy Head cliffs. Beachy Head in East Sussex is a beautiful, picturesque place, but also a notorious suicide spot. As you can imagine this was a tremendously traumatic experience and one that will stay with me forever.
After these events I knew I needed a photography project, one that would force me to get back in to the landscape and perhaps serve as some sort of self healing at the same time.
For hundreds of years it’s been widely thought that walking within nature has positive health effects, both physically and mentally. It is said that walking in the woodlands increases our level of white blood cells and lowers our pulse rate, blood pressure and levels of cortisol (the stress hormone). Studies say that even breathing in the air around trees and plants has anti cancer properties.
The woods are a great place to go and lose yourself for a couple of hours and can really do wonders for your state of mind. Take a flask, the dog and head off in to the wilderness. Remember to take time on your walk to stop and take it all in, to breathe in the woodlands around you.
Nature is amazing, but it can seem chaotic.
I’m trying to find some order in the disorder, spending time just looking and then carefully framing each photograph. It’s my way of making sense of it all.
Andrew Newson