4 inspiring photobooks

and how they have influenced my work

Jan 13, 2025

Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.

You Can Find Inspiration in Everything - (And If You Can't, Look Again) so says the title of a book by fashion designer Paul Smith. While I am not particularly excited by this books genre I do feel that the sentence sums up perfectly my attitude to creativity. If I ever find myself in a creative rut I will take a walk and that is usually enough to inspire some ideas.

At this time of year when the days are dark and grey it can be challenging to find the motivation to get out with the camera. When we do it can be equally challenging to find any sort of creative spark. Sometimes it can feel as if the reasons for making photographs are as elusive as good compositions.

This week, I have been without my camera (something I will talk about in next weeks post) and between juggling other work I have found time to sit down and have a look at some of my favourite photo books. I felt I needed something to ignite my creativity again and I always find a huge amount of inspiration in books.

I thought it would be interesting to discuss four of these and talk about how they have influenced my work.

I will begin with my favourite which is From the Seahouse by Linda Lashford. Published after a Kickstarter campaign in 2022.

This book is without doubt the most beautiful book I own. It comes in a box case and consists of two separate volumes which are printed on thick art paper with a lay flat design. The images and words build a portrait of a remote Scottish beach and explore the power of landscape to evoke memory and emotion. This article published in On Landscape magazine talks a bit more about the project and shows some of the beautiful images contained within the book.

I bought the book because I love anything related to the West Coast of Scotland and I was familiar with the beach at Mellon Udrigle where the images were made. When it arrived I was blown away by the work inside - the mix of dramatic landscapes rendered in soft subtle tones combined with more detailed finds of seaweed and stone are truly beautiful.

This book sparked the idea behind one of my projects - At the edge of permanence. In terms of images and style both books are very different but Linda’s work definitely influenced how I approached the project and the type of images I made.

At the edge of permanence was photographed over a week in July 2022. It was a spontaneous short project that grew from an idea about permanence and the transitory nature of life. I was so captivated by the landscape and the story that I was trying to tell that I felt a book was an appropriate conclusion for my project. Looking back I think if I hadn’t have come across Lindas project I wouldn’t have been inspired to create my own. They are ultimately very different but it is a good example of how someone else’s work can be the catalyst to create your own.

Staying in Scotland my next book is From the land by Ian Lawson. As well as being beautiful this book is the biggest photo book I own. At 400+ pages and weighing over 5kg it is definitely not easy to read but the images are stunning.

What most struck me about this book was the way Ian had combined images of the landscape and Harris tweed based simply on the colour combinations that existed within both. This is a concept that really caught my imagination and I was inspired to produce something similar, combining colour shots of natural elements with those of the landscapes they were found in. I have developed this further into colour pairs which I have written about before.

Combining images in this way has been a great challenge. I always photograph the pairs on the same day in the same conditions and the discipline of this has definitely helped me with book projects and selecting images for display.

Ian’s beautiful book is still available from his website

My third choice is Rhythm of Nature by Sandra Bartocha. I have admired Sandra’s work for a long time and I have both her books ( Lys and Rhythm of Nature) They are both equally beautiful and inspiring and it was difficult to choose between the two. However I think the images in her second book have probably had more impact on my own work.

The thing that strikes me most about Sandra’s work is her love of nature and her connection with the subjects that she photographs. Her images all portray mood and emotion which she achieves by selective focus and a wonderful mastery of light. She has a fantastic ability to portray feeling and a sense of place and I greatly admire her work. Her style has definitely influenced my own work over the last few years and I now spend a lot of time out in the landscape with my macro lens.

My next choice is Mystical by Neil Burnell. This book was the first woodland photography book that I bought. It documents Neils unique photographic vision of Wistman’s Wood in Dartmoor and was photographed over a period of 4 years. The images depict the fairytale-like atmosphere created by the thick fog, gnarled trees, and moss-covered stones that can be found within the wood.

I love the combination of fog and darker tones within the images which together with the gnarly shapes of the oak trees really gives the book its atmosphere. This publication had a big impact on me when it first came out and was part of the inspiration behind my own woodland project - Rooted.

The book really brought home to me the importance of mood in storytelling and how the choices we make in composition and post processing can either enhance the story or detract from it completely.

If, like me, you love photobooks and are inspired by the work of others here is my list of other publications that I either own or aspire to own:

Wild by Jo Stephen

Stillness in Motion by Sally Mason

Forgotten Souls by Matt Oliver

Shaped by the sea by Theo Bosboom

The sound of snow by Bruce Percy

If you have your own recommendations please share them in the comments below. Also I would love to know how you get your own inspiration and what photographers inspire you.

Please join the conversation and leave a comment.

For the Love of Landscapes

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