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Murmurations (First Edition)
Billy Barraclough
With poetry by Lue Mac
Standard first edition — (Sold out - Second edition now available here)
Special edition with triptych of 8x10” giclée prints (last copy) — £200
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Press:
C4 Journal
PH Museum
Awards
Nominated for the 2022 International Marianne Brandt Award
'Murmurations' by Billy Barraclough is, in its simplest expression, a study of the shape and form of starling murmurations, which he observed daily throughout winter 2020-21. The project is presented alongside newly commissioned poetry by poet Lue Mac.
Billy's desire to visit this mass gathering of birds came about during the first lockdown of 2020, after he opened a box of photographs left behind by his late father, John Barraclough. In that archive, Billy stumbled upon an album of pictures that showed him as a young boy chasing starlings on the beach in Blackpool.
As the winter lockdown hit, Billy began visiting a local murmuration as an almost daily ritual to reconnect with nature; the long trek to the wetlands serving as a moment to reflect on the surreal situation imposed by the pandemic. At this time of worldwide crisis - when individuals are asked to sacrifice their freedoms for the sake of something larger - murmurations can be seen as an apt metaphor.
“The ‘normal’ functioning of nature and the environment had continued and despite our lockdowns, mask wearing, and mass sanitisation, the trees were still losing their leaves, the birds were still migrating for winter and the murmurations were still happening in the same place and same time every day.”
Freezing a moment from the murmurations' ever-shifting flow creates something distinct from the experience itself. The images become sculptural; ever-morphing forms are rendered static, and we're able to study the birds' unique creation as it existed for only a split second. The form and flow of the book echoes the natural progression of the starlings as they murmurate: the images start out sparse, with just a few birds gathering, and then reach a crescendo before quieting back down as the starlings go to roost.
The tone is beautifully complemented by a series of poems written by Lue Mac, reflecting on their own experience of watching starlings murmurate at a beach by Little Sea, near their home in rural Dorset, during the same time that Barraclough was making his photographs. The resulting poems touch on themes of separation, reconnection, the moment of touch, and life across seasons.
Standard Edition
Saddle stitch binding
Screen printed soft cover
22 pages with 2 gatefolds and 2 large fold-out sections
210mm x 280mm
First edition of 225
Special Edition I
Signed copy of Murmurations special edition of 50
With 8x10” giclée print (edition of 40)
Special Edition II
Signed copy of Murmurations special edition of 50
With a triptych of 8x10” giclée prints
(edition of 10)
Billy Barraclough is a photographic artist based in London. His work to date explores ideas around identity, emotion and personal history.
www.billybarraclough.com
Lue Mac is a poet and teacher from rural Dorset. They write about the landscape and its denizens: human, animal, vegetable and so on.
International delivery: The customer is responsible for all import fees, tax, charges or duties incurred on international postal orders. Besides press is unable to cover these costs at present.
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Murmurations (Second edition)
Keywork
Every Cross On Cross Mountain