Craig Easton: Artist Talk
New Book/work - ‘An Extremely Un-get-atable Place’
FESTIVAL Event / Talk Photo
LOCATION: Oriel Colwyn Gallery
Date/time: 22nd OCTOBER - 7pm (doors 6.30pm)
Craig Easton’s ‘An Extremely Un-get-atable Place’ is a lyrical exploration and re-imagining of the time that George Orwell spent at Barnhill, the remote farmhouse on the Isle of Jura in the Hebrides in Scotland, where between 1946 - 1949 he lived and wrote his classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Easton’s new work is about hope, about finding joy in the small things in life and believing in a better future in a world of political turmoil.
In 2023 Craig was invited to stay at Barnhill – 8 miles from the nearest road and almost unchanged since the time Orwell lived there. The house was Orwell’s escape. His place of hope, a place of peace & calm where he could build a future.
“Orwell was dying, but after the untimely death of his wife, Eileen, he was determined to cling on to life to maintain hope and belief in the future, if not for him then for their son and for humanity. He believed in a better future and counsels us against tyrants.”
“He planted trees, grew vegetables, fished, kept chickens & had visitors galore. His diaries & letters are full of plans for the future.”
“In a similarly fractious time in world affairs, I too escaped. I was invited to stay at the house and there I made a series of landscape and still life images with my large format 10x8 field camera – the negatives then printed as hand-made silver gelatin prints and toned in strong tea in homage to Orwell’s famous obsession.”
The photographs are presented alongside extracts from Orwell's diaries & letters that he wrote during his life on the island.
An Extremely Un-get-atable Place is published by GOST Books, 2025 and available to purchase here - it is the first book of ‘An Island Trilogy’ – three monographs to be published over the next two years all made in the Scottish Islands.
Craig Easton’s work is deeply rooted in the documentary tradition. He shoots long-term documentary projects exploring issues around social policy, identity, culture and community. Known for his intimate portraits and expansive landscape, his work regularly combines these elements with reportage approaches to storytelling, often working collaboratively with others to incorporate words, pictures and audio in a research-based practice that weaves a narrative between contemporary experience and history.
In 2021, Easton was awarded the prestigious title of Photographer of the Year at the SONY World Photography Awards and in 2022 was recognised with an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.
He has published three monographs - Thatcher’s Children, GOST Books, 2023; Bank Top, GOST Books, 2022 and Fisherwomen, Ten O’Clock Books, 2020.
A passionate believer in working collaboratively with others, Easton conceived and led the critically acclaimed SIXTEEN project with sixteen leading photographers exploring the hopes, ambitions and fears of sixteen-year-olds all around the UK. This Arts Council funded project was exhibited in over 20 exhibitions throughout 2019/2020 culminating in three simultaneous shows in London.
Easton is a regular visiting lecturer at universities and runs workshops both in the UK and internationally.
His prints are widely collected by private individuals & corporations and are held in important museum collections and archives including the FC Barcelona collection, the St. Andrews University Special Collections, Hull Maritime Museum and Salford University Art Collection.
In addition to his personal documentary and art projects, he continues to shoot for editorial & advertising clients worldwide. Advertising and commercial clients include: The National Health Service, Visit Britain, Land Rover, Heathrow Airport, Wagamama, Mazda, John Lewis etc.