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Raft is a new imprint from @jemsoutham publishing photography books relating to Life, Art, Natural History and the Earth Sciences

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raft is a new venture from photographer @jemsoutham , representing a long-planned evolution in his practice. Since his time in the design department at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, in 1987, Southam has been interested in the possibilities offered by the form of the photography book. Each new project is conceived with consideration for structure and form, bringing together images and text in ways that articulate the ideas under investigation.

The Raft series will feature photographic studies that reflect on art, natural history, and the earth sciences. Selected titles will include essays by leading writers in these fields. Alongside his photography, Southam produces short texts that provide context and extend the meaning of his studies, and each book will contain such writing.

Raft will initially publish two titles per year, one drawn from Southam’s archive and one presenting new work. The platform will also support collaborative projects, the first of which is 27 Indications of Spring, a series of volumes to be released over the coming years.

The venture is supported by a group of collaborators: Rudi Thoemmes acts as mentor; Josie Atkinson and Jess Thoemmes-Tondowski of @rrbphotobooks provide publishing guidance and oversee marketing and distribution; Andrew Nadolski serves as design advisor; and Eleanor Macnair coordinates publicity. All titles will be printed at Narayana Press, a specialist arts printer in Denmark. by @raftpress

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a year ago

Bristol Photography Book Fair (BOP26)
Is nearly upon us - opens this Saturday at 10am.
‘raft’ and I will be there waiting to say hello, chat and present our 2026 publications.

The highlight will be the launch of
‘The White Wood’ by Andrew Nadolski.
A remarkable B&W study of a dense river valley on the edge of Dartmoor. The book follows the descent down the steep slopes to reveal a hidden natural sepulchre at the bottom.
Exquisitely printed in tri-tone at Narayana Press in Denmark who print all ‘raft’ books.

Andrew will be on the stand all weekend and will be doing signing sessions on both days.

See you there, and as always many thanks to the wonderful folk at the Martin Parr Foundation who organise and run this brilliant affair!
@raftpress
@andrew.nadolski
@martinparrfdn
@narayanapress
#photographybook by @raftpress

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4 days ago

THE WHITE WOOD by Andrew Nadolski

The idea of the underworld has been present in The White Wood from the beginning.

The descent into the valley is physical, but it also became something else: a movement away from the familiar, towards a landscape where it's hard to tell what's real from what's imagined.

Rivers have always carried mythology, from the Styx marking the passage into the underworld to Dartmoor's own stories: a river said to demand a heart each year, and the Wisht Hounds said to roam the moor.

These aren't illustrations for the photographs. They're part of the landscape's accumulated memory, part of how we've always tried to make sense of places we don't fully understand.

Pre-order now via link in bio.

Image from The White Wood © Andrew Nadolski

#AndrewNadolski #TheWhiteWood #raft #Dartmoor #Photobook #Folklore by @raftpress

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20 days ago

THE WHITE WOOD by Andrew Nadolski

The photographs in The White Wood were all made in the depths of winter, when bare branches reveal the underlying structure of the woodland and the relationships between tree, stone, water and growth.

The conditions become part of the images themselves. Long exposures hold movement and stillness together: branches exposed to the wind dissolve into traces of motion, while sheltered forms stay sharp and clear.

The result is a balance between what's revealed and what's concealed, the immediate moment sitting alongside something far older.

Pre-order now via link in bio.

Image from The White Wood © Andrew Nadolski

#AndrewNadolski #TheWhiteWood #raft #Dartmoor #LongExposure #BlackAndWhitePhotography #Winter by @raftpress

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23 days ago

THE WHITE WOOD by Andrew Nadolski.

Dartmoor is often thought of as a landscape of tors, great granite outcrops rising from the open moor, many instantly recognisable and endlessly photographed. But one tor lies hidden, deep in a remote valley at the edge of the moor.

Luckey Tor can only be glimpsed from a few points across the river, almost swallowed by the trees around it, themselves a remnant of the ancient woodland that once covered much of the moor.

A journey to the tor was the starting point for this work. Over time, the descent into the valley became more important than the destination itself, a crossing into a far older landscape.

THE WHITE WOOD is, in part, an exploration of this hidden Dartmoor: a landscape beneath the landscape we think we know.

Pre-order now via link in bio.

Image from The White Wood © Andrew Nadolski

#AndrewNadolski #Tor #TheWhiteWood #raft #Dartmoor #Photobook #BlackandWhitePhotography by @raftpress

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25 days ago

Coming October
THE WHITE WOOD by Andrew Nadolski

The White Wood lies in the Dart Valley, where the river cuts through steep wooded slopes. It's a fragment of Britain's rare temperate rainforest, its richness held both above ground, in branches and roots, and below it, in unseen networks beneath the forest floor.

Shallow oak roots force their way through granite boulders, tree and rock becoming almost one. Fallen trunks feed the soil and support new growth. The wood persists through cycles of collapse and renewal that outlast any single human life.

Pre-order now, link in bio.

Image from The White Wood © Andrew Nadolski

#AndrewNadolski #TheWhiteWood #Dartmoor #TemperateRainforest #Woodland #Photobook #raft by @raftpress

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a month ago

COMING SOON

THE WHITE WOOD by Andrew Nadolski, published by raft this October.

Created over more than a decade, the book is a photographic study of a hidden ancient woodland valley on the edge of Dartmoor, exploring how a landscape reveals its complexity through time and repeated observation.

"On the edge of Dartmoor is a deep valley that holds the remains of an ancient wood," says Andrew Nadolski. "To descend into it is to cross a threshold and enter a far older landscape."

Pre-order for special price of £42 now via link in bio.

Image from The White Wood © Andrew Nadolski

#AndrewNadolski #TheWhiteWood #raft #Dartmoor #LandscapePhotography #Photobook #PreOrder #BlackAndWhitePhotography by @raftpress

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a month ago

SHIPPING NOW!

All pre-orders for the second printing of Ray's Sheds are on their way to you now.

Still want a copy? Order via the link in bio.

Image from Ray's Sheds © Jem Southam

@jemsoutham

#JemSoutham #RaysSheds #RayExworth #Cornwall #SecondPrinting #NowShipping #DocumentaryPhotography #Sculptur by @raftpress

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a month ago

SHIPPING SOON

Second printing of Ray's Sheds by Jem Southam.

A photographic study of the seven sheds in which sculptor Ray Exworth (1930–2015) worked in west Cornwall. Few have seen them in person, and few ever will. Part archival record, part tribute, the book documents a lifetime of creative toil by a man once called a "sculptor of probable genius" by Bruce Bernard, yet rarely exhibited.

Image from Ray's Sheds © Jem Southam

@jemsoutham
#JemSoutham #RaysSheds #RayExworth #Cornwall #SecondPrinting #ShippingSoon #DocumentaryPhotography #BritishPhotography #PhotoBook #Sculpture #ArtBook #FineArtPhotography by @raftpress

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2 months ago

RAY'S SHEDS

THE CIRCUS DRAWINGS

In 1969, Ray left art school and lost the studio, the routine, and the community that had shaped a decade of his work. Unsure he'd sculpt again, he shut himself in his shed and told no one, not even his wife Susie, what he was making.

What emerged were the "dark" drawings: charcoal built up, then worked back into life with chalk and bare hands. Slowly the mood lifted. Jugglers toppled off ladders, clowns cavorted, a ringmaster cracked his whip, though shadows still lingered at the edges.

These Circus Drawings were how Ray found his way back.

Pre-order your copy of Ray's Sheds second printing now via link in bio. Coming soon.

@jemsoutham
#CircusDrawings #ArtistLife #Sketchbook #CharcoalDrawing #StudioPractice #ContemporaryArt #BritishArtist #WorkInProgress #ArtOfInstagram #SculptorsLife #DrawingASeries #ProcessArt by @raftpress

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2 months ago

‘Raft’ is delighted to be returning to BOP 26, and also to be running a @bop_bristol Instagram takeover.

This year we will be launching a new book ‘The White Wood’ by Andrew Nadolski.
‘The White Wood’ follows the descent into a hidden wooded valley on the edge of Dartmoor - a small area of temperate rainforest which is a remnant of the wood which once covered the whole of Dartmoor before it was cleared by our Bronze Age ancestors.
At the bottom of the valley is a remarkable granite tor, lost amongst the trees and resembling a monument from an earlier civilisation.

I imagined when setting up ‘raft’ a year ago that we would publish books by other artists whose work reflects our philosophy - ‘to publish books featuring philosophical studies relating to Life, Art, Natural History and the Earth Sciences’.
@bop_bristol
@martinparrfdn
@jemsoutham
#dartmoor
#temperate rainforest
#landscape photography by @raftpress

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2 months ago

RAY'S SHEDS

In the new book Jem Southam takes the reader on a journey through the seven sheds in which for fifty years Ray Exworth relentlessly pursued his artistic vision. This vision was first inspired during a student field trip to Paris, when Ray entered the Rodin Museum and realised in a moment that he would spend the rest of his life working as a sculptor, that he was born to be a sculptor.

Read more from Another Story // Part 3
on Raft website, link in bio

Pre-order the second printing of the sold-out Ray's Sheds now, coming end of August.

@jemsoutham
#RaysSheds #JemSoutham #RayExworth #PhotoBook #Sculpture #Rodin #BritishSculpture #Cornwall #RaftPress #OutsiderArt by @raftpress

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2 months ago