GOST Books is publishing a surprising book by Craig Easton, titled in reference to George Orwell: An Extremely Un-get-atable Place.
‘It’s an extremely un-get-atable place, but it’s a nice house and I think I can make it quite comfortable with a little trouble.’ – George Orwell
An Extremely Un-get-atable Place is a lyrical reimagining of the time that writer George Orwell lived at Barnhill, a remote farmhouse on the Isle of Jura in Scotland. It was here that Orwell wrote his landmark book Nineteen Eighty-Four—a dire warning of the dangers of totalitarianism and political despotism. Photographer Craig Easton was invited to stay at Barnhill—largely unchanged since Orwell’s time—where he made a series of landscape and still life images. In Easton’s new book, these photographs are presented alongside extracts from Orwell’s letters and diaries written on the island.
George Orwell lived on Jura between 1946 and 1949 accompanied by his housekeeper and son, Richard, who has written the book’s afterword. Orwell sought the solitude of the island whilst battling tuberculosis and writing his final work. Barnhill is extremely difficult to reach, an eight-mile walk from the nearest public road.
The interior photographs of household items conjure up images of the simplicity of Orwell’s life—the stove and teapot, a shaving mirror, the worn carpet he trod, a coal shovel and tools hung in a shed. Collectively they create an atmospheric vision of Orwell’s time on the island and the mood, desire and hope he experienced. Upon returning from the island, Easton printed the negatives as hand-made silver gelatin prints and toned them in strong tea in homage to Orwell’s famous obsession.
Craig Easton : An Extremely Un-get-atable Place
270×330 mm | 100pp | 58 images | Hardback
ISBN 978-1-80598-014-8
50 GBP / 60 EUR / 65 USD
https://gostbooks.com/en-us/products/an-extremely-un-get-atable-place-craig-easton
