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Besides Press

@besidespress

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@besidespress here! 👋 Some images here from the book KEYWORK, by @chrishoarephoto, with an essay by @dr_shawn_hailemariam_sobers 💥 last copies of this edition available in our shop (link in @besidespress bio 👀) don’t miss it!

After more than a decade of photographing his native city of Bristol, Chris Hoare reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic with a new series of images about the city during lockdown. Continuing his job as a bicycle courier, delivering food each day on Bristol’s deserted streets throughout the national lockdown in 2020, he began photographing with a point and shoot camera from his bike.

“I became interested in the way the word ‘Keywork’ was being thrown around to describe many occupations which until that point went under the radar and were unrespected.”

Being a keyworker himself offered Hoare a unique perspective from which to photograph the city, as he visited the houses of customers from a diverse range of economic backgrounds each shift. In between his deliveries, Hoare encountered and photographed other keyworkers, lone figures carrying out their jobs on the empty streets and in supermarket car parks. Bristol’s long standing struggle with homelessness is another key theme of the work. While out delivering, Hoare became aware that besides Keyworkers, the only people he saw in the streets were those without a home to isolate in.

“We talked about a lot of things, particularly how the pandemic had affected them… Many went into the hotels, but many didn’t, deciding it better for them to stay on the street where they were.”

In spontaneously observed moments, Hoare describes life during lockdown in a UK city, touching upon themes of community, homelessness, and the stratification of wealth in the city of Bristol, the blossoming of spring during lockdown, and the role of key workers throughout the time.

The book contains an accompanying essay written by Bristol-based anthropologist, Dr Shawn Sobers.

KEYWORK
Saddle sewn
Screen printed soft cover
80 pages
Size 210mm x 148mm
First edition of 250

Roll on BOP 2026 💗 by @besidespress

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4 months ago

@besidespress here! 👋 here are some images of Black Cat Kingdom by @sari_soininen. Last few copies available on our online shop (check our bio!).

Come and see us in October @bop_bristol 2026 ❤️‍🔥

About the book:
Walking through her local area one morning, Sari Soininen detoured through an unknown alleyway. On turning the corner, a gang of five black cats began running towards her. “I felt like I’d encountered a glitch in the Matrix” she said, “I began visiting these cats daily for a period of three months through the first lockdown of 2020. They gathered up into the same alleyway every morning. I brought them food and played with them.”

Using flash with colour gels, Soininen transforms the cats into colourful, otherworldly creatures inhabiting a fever dream. Her photographic process draws on philosophical wonderings about reality, and her personal, mystical experiences; Soininen offers the viewer a vision of alternative realities as she sees them. The Black Cat Kingdom was created at the same time as her first major publication, Transcendent Country of the Mind (The Eriskay Connection 2022), in which she reconjured a way of seeing she experienced during an LSD-induced psychotic episode in her early twenties.

The black cat is a rich folkloric and superstitious symbol across many cultures, and in this project they are treated as such. To the Celts, black cats were sacred; the ancient Egyptians worshipped the Goddess Bastet, who was depicted as a black cat; and black cats are repeatedly referenced in pop culture and cinema, such as The Matrix.

The format of the book is labyrinthine. A surreal and winding journey through multiple sections and gatefolds, overlapping to create a concertina-like structure. The book reveals itself in new ways upon each viewing.

Size 177mm x 245mm
32 pages, multi-sectioned concertina
Saddle stitched
Softcover wrap, in 4 different colours
First edition of 500

Edited, designed & published by Besides Press taken in Bristol, United Kingdom by @besidespress

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4 months ago

👋 @besidespress here for our takeover for the next few days - thanks for hosting us! We’ll be posting some of our titles and artists, and about our new studio service too. Tune in!

Besides Press is a photobook publishing house dedicated to photography made in a spirit of urgent curiosity. We are drawn to projects sparked by unfolding events, daily routines, and close collaborations - photography au pied levé…

Through a playful and imaginative approach to design and production, we shape these projects into books that give lasting form to work made in a spirit of improvisation and immediacy.

Here you can see us building Black Cat Kingdom by the great @sari_soininen, which we will post about in the next few days too (few copies left of this title now - available in our website shop).

Roll on BOP ❤️‍🔥 by @besidespress

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4 months ago

From Keywork, by @chrishoarephoto

👀 last copies available on our website. Link in bio.

After more than a decade of photographing his native city of Bristol, Chris Hoare reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic with a new series of images about the city during lockdown. Continuing his job as a bicycle courier, delivering food each day on Bristol’s deserted streets throughout the national lockdown in 2020, he began photographing with a point and shoot camera from his bike.

“I became interested in the way the word ‘Keywork’ was being thrown around to describe many occupations which until that point went under the radar and were unrespected.”

Being a keyworker himself offered Hoare a unique perspective from which to photograph the city, as he visited the houses of customers from a diverse range of economic backgrounds each shift. In between his deliveries, Hoare encountered and photographed other keyworkers, lone figures carrying out their jobs on the empty streets and in supermarket car parks. Bristol’s long standing struggle with homelessness is another key theme of the work. While out delivering, Hoare became aware that besides Keyworkers, the only people he saw in the streets were those without a home to isolate in.

“We talked about a lot of things, particularly how the pandemic had affected them… Many went into the hotels, but many didn’t, deciding it better for them to stay on the street where they were.”

In spontaneously observed moments, Hoare describes life during lockdown in a UK city, touching upon themes of community, homelessness, and the stratification of wealth in the city of Bristol, the blossoming of spring during lockdown, and the role of key workers throughout the time.

The book contains an accompanying essay written by Bristol-based anthropologist, Dr Shawn Sobers.

Standard edition
Saddle sewn
Screen printed soft cover
80 pages
Size 210mm x 148mm
First edition of 250

Special edition
Signed copy of keywork
Edition of 50
10x8 Giclée Print taken in Bristol, United Kingdom by @besidespress

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5 months ago

From Black Cat Kingdom by @sari_soininen 🐈‍⬛

We still have some copies available in our online shop. See our website for more info. Link in our bio 👀

#blackcatkingdom #sarisoininen #besidespress by @besidespress

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6 months ago

From the book BACKDROP, One Rainy Day ☔️

Available on our website. Link in bio.

Backdrop is a playful series of pictures made on a rainy day by 7 photographers working in a frenzied collaboration. With a large black portable backdrop, a camera, and a powerful flash, we set out to photograph passers-by around Queens Square Park and Wapping Wharf, Bristol. Transformed by our impromptu stage set, the people we photographed became unlikely actors; shoppers rushing home from town; office and construction workers on lunch; walkers and their dogs; and tourists sightseeing in spite of the weather; all transformed in the spotlight.

Collaboration between
Álvaro Martínez
Billy Barraclough
Chun Chien Shih
Harry Flook
Oliver Tooke
Michael Alberry
Tayla Nebesky by @besidespress

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6 months ago

Assent, by photographer Michael Alberry @michaelalberry, published by Besides Press, Swanage, England,2025. Thanks to @besidespress for the book. More on www.protestinphotobook.com. Assent is a book of portraits of riot police officers made at the Kill the Bill protests against the British Government’s ‘Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill’ — legislation designed to extend police powers to stop peaceful protest. The Bill was passed into law through its ‘Royal Assent’ in 2022 and is widely employed by police forces in the UK today.On the evening of 21 March 2021, after thousands attended a peaceful demonstration against the Bill, violence erupted in clashes between police and protesters outside Bristol’s central police station.Photographing through riot shields and visors, Alberry finds faces caught between aggression, fatigue, and mingling doubt. Drawing on Sartre’s concept of bad faith, the book examines how individuals internalise the institutional roles they perform — how personal conscience becomes subsumed by duty to state authority.When first opened, the French-folded pages make only the text of the Bill visible. To reach the portraits of those it empowers, the reader must cut open each sealed page — a deliberate act that exposes the fragile, conflicted humanity beneath the machinery of law.#bookaddict #bookshelf #bookblogger #booklove #bookcommunity #bookblog #bookphoto #10x10photobooks #goodpicturesbook #protestbook #protest_photos #protesta #protestant #derechosciviles #savethebook #womenphotographerscommunity #photographybook #photobook #photographybooks @the_photobookmuseum #photobookcollectors #photobookcollection #photobookjournalism @studentski_protest protest.foto by @besidespress

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6 months ago

At Offspring Photo Meet you could pitch your photo book project, find a designer and get pro advice from top industry experts.
Meet:
Aron Mörel from @morelbooks
Tom Booth from @bluecoatpress
Carolina Semprucci from @der_greif
Michael Alberry from @besidespress
Andrew Sanigar from @thamesandhudson
Dewi Lewis from @dewi_lewis_publishing
Book Now and than us later!
#portfolioreviews #photobook #publishing by @besidespress

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7 months ago

Photographers and artists often ask us suggestions on what to do with a book project. We listen, view work and reply to all emails we receive. It's a pleasure for us to bring some of the best publishers and photographers book designers out there. So go ahead and book (no puns intended) your slots with:
@dewi_lewis_publishing @morelbooks @besidespress @bluecoatpress @thamesandhudson
Thanks to our supporters @thearthouselive @theprintspace @bjp1854 @newspaperclub
Link in bio ❤️😎📚💪🏽🤩📸
#photobook #portfolioreviews by @besidespress

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7 months ago

NEW: Assent, by @michaelalberry, is now available from our website (link in bio).

Assent is a book of portraits of riot police officers made at the Kill the Bill protests against the British Government’s ‘Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill’ — legislation designed to extend police powers to stop peaceful protest. The Bill was passed into law through its ‘Royal Assent’ in 2022 and is widely employed by police forces in the UK today.

On the evening of 21 March 2021, after thousands attended a peaceful demonstration against the Bill, violence erupted in clashes between police and protesters outside Bristol’s central police station.

Photographing through riot shields and visors, Alberry found faces caught between aggression, fatigue, and mingling doubt. Drawing on Sartre’s concept of bad faith, the book examines how individuals internalise the institutional roles they perform — how personal conscience becomes subsumed by duty to state authority.

When first opened, the book’s French-folded pages make only the text of the Bill visible. To reach the portraits of those it empowers, the reader must cut open each sealed page — a deliberate act that exposes the fragile, conflicted humanity beneath the machinery of law.

Size 205x230mm
50 pages
French-folded
Screw post bound
Screen-printed softcover
First edition of 50 copies
Signed and numbered

Edited, designed & published by Besides Press

#new #photobook #besidespress #michaelalberry #protest #protestbook #assent by @besidespress

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a year ago

We’re back today selling hot cakes @bop_bristol ! Come and say hello 👋

Selling titles by
@elenasubach
@chrishoarephoto
@sari_soininen
@billybarraclough
@luemacpoet
@michaelalberry
And more

Here until 5pm 🤓 taken in Martin Parr Foundation by @besidespress

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a year ago

We’re @bop_bristol today and tomorrow! Come say hello 🤗👋 taken in Martin Parr Foundation by @besidespress

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a year ago