The Moth

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The Moth by Jem Southam. First edition. First impression. Large format hardback in near fine condition. Some minor age related marks to the boards but all pages and spine are clean and intact. About The Moth departs from a meditative black and white photograph of a solitary man on the shoreline whose memory is now awash only with his past. From this starting point, the book heads inwards into the experience of this estranged individual. Here, we encounter photographs of a once sublime rural landscape, inscriptions. As well as animals and the slow foreboding pull of natural elements. The tracing of this recollection culminates in the book the same way it began. With an image that evokes a past experience entwined with the history of that place. One which Southam likens to the same experience felt by the Celtic saints and Cornish miners, both exiled from their homelands by their work. Sleep deprived and afloat at sea, their memory like that of the solitary man is guided by the rhythm of the waves. And as the light brings colour to the rigging of the boat, it is as if the men are falling awake out of their thoughts into a new day. -Unveild Show more