Some of the nicest photo-books of recent times have come from the small East London imprint, Hoxton Mini Press. In fact, their title On The Night Bus by Nick Turpin is one of my all-time favourites (I featured it in my Christmas 2016 "Book Club" post), and the more recent London Underground 1970-1980 by Mike Goldwater is a real grit-in-the-eye, air-blast of nostalgia for anyone who remembers the Tube in those days. Why, there's even a picture of the Oxford Street "Less lust from less protein" placard man [1] having a tea-break in Oxford Circus station. Their books are small, reasonably-priced, well-produced, and thematically coherent. In my view, Hoxton Mini Press is a Really Good Thing in a photo-publishing world dominated by over-priced, over-sized books containing nothing very much. However, like so many small businesses, they're in trouble now, due to the lockdown.
Consequently, co-founder Martin Usborne has launched a Kickstarter appeal to help them through this rough patch, with some some interesting rewards for backers: you can read all about it here (or see the video below). If you can afford it, I think they're well worth your support. Go on, why not?
If you're not familiar with Kickstarter, the basic idea is that the party seeking funding sets a goal and a deadline (in this case, £10K and May 20th: far too low, far too soon, IMHO [2]) and usually offers an escalating series of rewards linked to the amount of money a backer is willing to pledge. If the funding goal is met or exceeded, your pledge is paid, and you get your chosen "reward"; if not, it is void, and no money changes hands. Obviously, some Kickstarter campaigns are for startups with daft ideas and poorly-conceived business plans; this is one of the worthwhile ones.
Martin is an amusing guy, as you will see from his Kickstarter video. You won't catch Gerhard Steidl pretending to trip over a pile of stock, or keeping his awards in the office loo. The Hoxton Mini Press email newsletter has temporarily mutated into The Hoxton Corona Diaries, and is savagely funny (and includes a 20% discount code); it's well worth signing up for (you can do so here). Of course, the most straightforward way you can support them is by buying their books direct from their website. I'm really looking forward to receiving my advance-ordered copy of Hotel Carpets, by Bill Young. Doesn't that look gorgeous? And just £9.95!
from Urban Gypsies, by Paul Wenham-Clarke
1. Anyone who visited Oxford Street (London's main department-store shopping street) between 1968 and 1993 will have seen Stanley Green and his placard, warning against the evils of too much protein, with its hilarious dangling addendum, "AND SITTING".
2. Turns out I was right. I wrote this yesterday, and that £10K target was met within 12 hours... But just keep throwing money into the hat: they're worth it!
2 comments:
I recently bought "Along the Hackney Canal" by Freya Najade from them. It's no. 11 from their "East London Photo Stories" series. I really like this book, it's a little gem. Some of the pictures remind me of yours.
Best, Thomas
Thomas,
They're pretty much all little gems! Although an acquaintance with East London probably helps. Yes, I think there is a certain family resemblance between most British urban "edgeland" photography, which is hard to escape... For a while I lived in Hackney, but that was before I became a photographer. I didn't even have a camera with me! Shame, actually: Hackney in the late 70s was a very different place to the hipster hangout it has become 40 years later.
Mike
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