VIDEO ● SUSTAINABILITY ● IMAGES

Published in May 2021

116 pp, 51 images, 240x130mm

Paperback cover, coptic hand binding

5 limited edition giclee print inserts on recycled paper 7.5x5"

The book is housed inside a handmade phase-box

Handmade edition of 58*

ISBN 978-1-8384772-0-2

The Ordnance Survey’s (OS) mapping of Great Britain in the late eighteenth century was a landmark in human attempts to know the land. Seeking defence against a feared French invasion, the priority was to survey the South Coast of England, and anything that could be hidden behind. Walking up to 40 miles a day, the field surveyors were tasked with categorising the landscape they passed through according to a list of predefined rules.

From the earliest map sheets, the ‘rock features’ were treated as ornament. Formations observed on the surface of the earth are not simply decorative surface features but represent the intersection of the earth’s surface with the body of the earth. The processes of weathering and erosion, coupled with the human hand, shape the visibility of rocks on the surface and can move the rocks from one category to another.

Using a combination of archival material, open source data and photographs, the project follows these rock features as a guide. Following in the footsteps of the surveyor she oscillates between seeking to know and name the land, and melting into aimless wandering, loosing sense of time and scale. The process of ordering the images into these pre-defined categories throws up questions as pebbles become boulders, flowing water becomes outcrop. As with all classification systems, the rules are subjective, leading to their own telling of the story.

The work was made on the South Coast of England where Tamsin has been walking for more than 20 years. She returns again and again, spending time with the path; walking, pausing, sleeping. The South Coast is the edge of our contact with the nearest continent, a border of particular significance with the contraction of boundaries we have all been experiencing.

The book references the physical properties of the OS map; it’s format, tactility, and folding.

Public Collections
The Victoria & Albert Museum - Special Collections, National Art Library
The British Library

Exhibitions
FORMAT21: Presents, Derby (2021)
Photofusion: SALON/21, London (2021)

Awards
Glover Rayner Environmental Prize - Shortlist (2021)
Photofusion Select/21 Award + SALON/21 Commendation (2021)

Press
RPS Journal

“Tamsin Green’s work uses graphic representations of landscape to act as a pathway into how we map the world, how we see the world, and how we feel the world. It’s work where the distant representation of an Ordnance Survey map is transmitted into the feel of the earth, the sand, the grit beneath our feet.”

Colin Pantall, Writer, Photographer and Lecturer

"Tamsin Green's book focuses on exploring the dissonance between categorised space and emotional experience of the landscape, but it also has a particular resonance with the contraction of boundaries we are experiencing due to the Covid 19 pandemic and Brexit. As the South Coast is the edge of our contact with the nearest continent a close interrogation of it feels very timely."

Jennifer Reeves, National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum

"The complex combination of illustrations based on ordnance survey maps/archival material along with Tamsin's evocative black and white landscapes and the highly considered design/production of the book incites curiosity and wonder in equal measure. I really admire the way Tamsin engages with representations of landscape that are knowingly subjective yet evoke a sense of universality by dealing with broader questions of mapping, classification and our entangled and complex relationship to our natural surroundings."

Dafna Talmor, Artist and Lecturer

“Tamsin Green’s attention to detail and ability to weave beautiful and sensitive imagery into the most wonderfully engineered publication so that they become one, is extraordinary. As a fellow artist I also admire the tactile methods used to convey the deeper narrative of her practice – demanding you pick this book up and never ever let go of it!”

Steve Macleod, Photographer and Director of Metro Imaging

*NOTE. Each edition is made entirely by hand by manual.editions and may display imperfections due to this manual bookmaking process.

THIS IS HOW THE EARTH MUST SEE ITSELF: A walk with natural features - Tamsin Green

BORROW: this is how the earth must see itself - Tamsin Green

BORROW: Born of the Purest Parents - Tamsin Green