Launching Exposure in Waterstones bookstore was so much fun we had to do it twice.
The first night was a celebration with friends and those involved in the journey of the book to publication, and the second was in the Windsor Fringe Festival on the 27th September 2012.
On the first evening we cracked open several bottles of wine and heard the stories behind 8 of the Photographs:
Gill Aspel opened with her story behind the lady in the poppy field photograph that goes with One Morning I Awoke
Dean Feltimo told of his flying moon shot for Weave No Thoughts Round Me
Kevin Bishop told us his story behind the indigent in the door photo for And Doors Will Open
Mike Pearcy talked about the idea behind his especially shot photo for Conquistador
Ian Johnson talked of his photo of a delapidated window and his resonance with the poemLove Poem for February
Melanie Gow talked about her personal experience behind the photograph she created for For You
Angela Woods talked movingly of what her photograph meant for This World is Full of Broken Things
Marek Sikora spoke about his photograph having been conceived as a gift to the community, which was used for Timing
Jonathan Steffen read all the poems for each image and the whole book came alive. The atmosphere was friendly, inclusive and convivial, a great springboard for Exposure into the world.
The Official Launch was within the framework of the Windsor Fringe Festival and we had music from Richmond Harding instead of wine to open. Again we heard the stories behind the photographs, and it became apparent how much creativity is between the pages of Exposure.
Because it was a local audience we shone a spotlight on the talent in the area and showed the town what a pool of creativity is in their community.
13 of the photographers were found in Windsor where the book was launched.
We had a visit from Martin Beek, who showed in Windsor, at the Firestation Arts Center, on the bill above Damian Hirst over 20 years ago. He brought the pallet in his photograph used for The Colour of Love.
Mike Swift told the story of a newspaper photographer’s daily shoot schedule resulting in being included in a poetry book illustrating The Falcon to the Falconer
and Camelia Burn told of her return to her homeland of Romania resonating with This Town Has Changed
We heard from Gill Aspel and Angela Woods again, and Melanie Gow told all the stories behind the photographs for the local photographers who could not be there on the night. Richmond Harding and Becca Heaton read the poems for a throughly enjoyable evening of poetry, photography and music.
All beautifully supported by Waterstones of Windsor, through Carol Dixon-Smith. Here she is “live Tweeting” the launch of Exposure as @Windsor_wstones.
The book hit the front page of the local Newpapers, in the picture at the top are (L-R) Gill Aspel, Doug Harding, Mike Swift, Jonathan Steffen (poet), Melanie Gow, Mike Pearcy. The other local photographers are Micki Aston, Kevin Bishop, Camelia Burn, Dean Feltimo, Marian Hutchinson, Marek Sikora, Paul Douglas and Gina Soden.
Exposure is a book of poems written over the lifetime of one man on the subject of love. For two years the publishers, Falcon Editions, searched the world to find a different photographer for each of the poems
Exposure unites forty deeply personal and intimate poems on love written by widely published poet, Jonathan Steffen, over a period of thirty years, and seamlessly matches each poem with a breathtaking photograph by contemporary photographers that span the globe.
Exposure is a rare insight into a one man’s emotive three-decade journey through relationships. Jonathan can’t go back and write a poem as a 20 year old, or in the consummating or break up of a marriage, or a weekend away in hindsight, he wrote these poems at the time – over time
Then Exposure brings in forty very different perspectives through the eyes of forty different people from different cultures and ages, with different experiences of love.
Together a beautiful story is told – all through the poetical archive of a single man combined with forty photographers from around the world, brought together by the fragile concept of love.
We teamed up with Glow Magazine as a media partner so please find interviews with a mix of photographers here: www.glowmagazine.me/exposure-the-photographers
Watch Exposure poetry and photograph videos: www.youtube.com/feed?feature=context-cha
Thank you all for making the launch of Exposure so special in all your ways.
