Publication: Tartaruga Press pay homage to London's scrubland in beautiful new book The Marshes

Date
15 July 2013

The marshes of Hackney, Walthamstow and Leyton are a borderland between the great industrial landscape of London’s city centre and the boundless countryside that flourishes beyond. In these once untouched patches of fertile scrubland, it’s possible to make out remnants of London’s past industrial history; criss-crossed canals, train lines and the filter beds laid down to strip pollutants from the water all contribute to the unique landscape.

This coexistence of the natural and the industrial led photographer Josh Lustig to start documenting the area, creating hazy, monochromatic images that seem to have been captured exclusively in the hours where the light is either rising or falling.

For his first book, The Marshes, Josh has shared these images with close friend and writer Samuel Wright, allowing him to create narratives that support and add depth to Josh’s images. The two worked collaboratively, passing images and texts back and forth, creating work in response to each other’s at various stages of the process.

The result is a beautiful work of bleak, melancholy fiction, that bathes some of London’s most well-used areas of vegetation in a dark but ethereal light. Beautifully printed and bound, The Marshes is a wonderful example of a work that utilises print to the very best of its capabilities, bringing writer, photographer and designer together to make something uniquely tactile and extraordinary.

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Above

Samuel Wright and Josh Lustig: The Marshes

Share Article

About the Author

James Cartwright

James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.