Bluecoat Press

📕BOOK OF THE MONTH 📕

Introducing Book of the Month, our latest monthly newsletter offering available exclusively to our subscribers. Each month we will be highlighting a book from our catalogue and telling you stories from behind the scenes of making the book and a deeper dive into the work itself.

Our first Book of the Month is Children by Markéta Luskačová, first published in July 2023 in tandem with her solo show at Stills Edinburgh of the same name.

For the month of September we are offering £5 off this incredible title, sign up to our newsletter to find out more and receive the discount code.

📘: Children by Markéta Luskačová
🔗: Available through our website

We’re excited to announce our exclusive Summer Sale, packed with fantastic savings just for our subscribers! For a limited time, enjoy £10 off when you spend £40 or more, and £20 off when you spend £100 or more.

It’s the perfect opportunity to grab those photobooks you’ve had your eye on or treat yourself to something new. This offer is available until September 1st, so don’t miss out on these great savings.

Sign up to our newsletter through the link in our bio and we will send you the discount codes.

REPOST - kirstygmackay Leighanne, 13 Dec, 2023.

I met Leighanne at the drop in centre in South Shields where she was volunteering. I thought I’d be able to collaborate with her son. I planned to give him one of my cameras to take his own photos. He’s 14 and wasn’t interested. I kept going to visit, not taking photos, popping in for a chat & a cuppa.

I only realised last week that Leighanne is my collaborator. She wants to tell her story and we are collaborating on how to do that, what she wants to say, her own words and some of her own photos. The picture of Leighanne’s situation builds slowly with each visit.

Leighanne’s story will be part of The Magic Money Tree - a collaborative photography exhibition, documenting
the cost-of-living crisis, whilst asking the question ‘to what extent is poverty a political choice?’. Funded by opening at in March. There will be a book in Autumn 2024.

📚 : The Magic Money Tree ⁠
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🔗 : Support our kickstarter through the link in our bio

REPOST• ‘Kirsty Mackay’s pictures are important. They bear witness to the reality of living in times of hardship and poverty. In a country where there is great wealth for a few, this is a political choice: to support an economic system in which gross inequality is an inevitable consequence. Look at the faces, look at the environments, look at the detail. These are lives of struggle, where choices are limited. To bring up a family in a way we would all wish, to live lives of dignity and security, and with future prospects assured is almost unimaginable for many. Look again at Kirsty’s pictures, it is time we recognised our collective strength and made a few changes.’ Ken Loach

📕 : The Magic Money Tree
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🔗 : Support our Kickstarter through the link in our bio

REPOST• ‘I just want to not worry about where my next meal comes from’. I spoke to people using the food bank on Filton Avenue, Bristol.

There is so much shame and stigma around poverty here in the UK. It means that in the midst of this cost-of-living crisis we don’t hear enough from those most effected.

I wanted to take these experiences out to the public, share these stories and allow people’s voices to be heard. I painted their words across bus shelters and pavements on Filton Avenue.

This work comes from a commission from picturing high streets across the city. Many exhibitions and events are coming up in September from a great line up of photographers and artists.










⏰: The Kickstarter for “The Magic Money Tree” launches tomorrow!

REPOST from - My portrait of Dylan, one of the young people I’ve been working with in Knowle West in Bristol. Alongside his self portrait, taken on one of the cameras I handed out.

I’ve been working with this group for the past 9 months. We’ve had the most incredible conversations, made protest signs, talked about finding their voice, the issues they care most about & taken many photos together.

I really like having these two viewpoints. My camera looking at Dylan and Dylan taking up a camera and pointing back to himself and also out into the world.

It’s important this story is told through the voices of the many people I met last year making this work. My photographs sit together with drawings, protest signs, photographs & testimony from my many collaborators. (Too many to list in this post, but more of them soon).

These photos of Dylan will be shown in The Magic Money Tree exhibition opening March 9th
The exhibition will run until July 28th, before touring to other galleries and outdoor venues across the country. I hope you can make it.

Supported by National Lottery project grant. Sponsored by

We had a wonderful launch and one day exhibition for This Was Then last night at .

It was lovely to see so many of you there to support us and listen to and talk.

Thank you to all who joined us and bought a book, and thank you to and the team who made this all possible! Looking forward to the next event.

“I was a grassroots photographer,” Charlie says. “I was just an ordinary Black guy from the ghetto – a bit radical, part of the alternative culture of that time."

Support our Kickstarter for Charlie Phillips — A Grassroots Legacy

🔗 : 1854.photo/CP

Exciting news! 'This Was Then' by Mike Abrahams is now available for pre-order! Subscribe to the Bluecoats newsletter for £5 off the book and £20 off Special Edition prints. Offer ends in a week.

🔗 : bluecoatpress.co.uk/subscribe/

Fantastic to see Mikes work from ‘This Was Then’ in today 🎉
Looking forward to the launch on the 6th June , hope to see you there.

REPOST• Very pleased to see 3 page spread in this morning of a selection of my pictures from This Was Then to be published by . Big thank you to for making this happen. The book will be launched T Four Corners, 121 Roman Road, London E2 0QN, nearest tube Bethnal Green. Please join me at 6.30pm for a chat with Tom Booth Woodger the designer and editor at Bluecoat. There will also be an exhibition of a selection of photographs from the book from 2pm on through day.
Hope to see you then.

This bank holiday weekend Bluecoat is offering a discount on our latest Bert Hardy publication. Get Britain Through His Lens 1938— 1957 for £15 with free shipping included.

Any other book in your order will also be part of the free shipping deal, so treat yourself.

Don't miss out on this limited-time offer. Simply enter HOLIDAYBERT at the checkout to have your discount and free shipping applied.

This deal is only available until midnight on Monday, so don't wait around.

🔗 : 1854.photo/BertHardy

Great to see our latest book Vulcan’s Forge by Janine Wiedel featured in the .
The books have been printed and bound and will be shipping out over the next few weeks. So not long until you get your hands on a copy!

Check out the review by through the link in our.

Just a quick update, we postponed the planned Janine Wiedel: Vulcan’s Forge, Book Launch, Talk and Signing at The Photographers’ Gallery this Thursday 21st March.
The event has now been rescheduled to Thursday 25th April 2024 and you can re-book to reserve your place through the link in our bio. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and hope you are still able to make it.

Great to see Janine’s work from our latest book Vulcan’s Forge featured in various magazines. Thank you and for delving into this fantasic work.

Pre order your copy of the book through the link in our bio.

Reposted f8documentary This is Janine Wiedel on my last day of the F8 Documentary take-over with a selection from my new book Vulcan’s Forge, published this month by .

Photo: Salter’s Lane Footrill, nr. Stoke-on-Trent , Staffordshire 1978

Salters Lane Footrill was one of the few remaining ‘independent’ mines. It was run by nine men and worked almost entirely by hand, as it would have been in the past. The men laboured long, hard hours and had none of the security of the NCB miners. They had no salary but were paid by the tonnage.

It took many early morning visits to persuade the men to take me down. Finally, I was handed a hard hat and headlamp was allowed to take my camera and tripod but no lighting. The men ran down ahead, leaving me to figure out how to navigate my way down the steep, pitch-black, narrow tunnels lit only by my headlamp and clutching onto the overhead beams so as not to slip. On reaching the face, I managed to photograph by leaving the camera shutter open for three minutes. Removing my helmet, I ‘painted’ everything with the small headlamp beam. To my amazement it worked.

I emerged, head to boots covered in black coal dust, and made my way through the centre of Stoke to the public baths where I had to pay extra to fill the large tub four times to get rid of the ingrained coal dust.

I hope you have enjoyed the quick trip into the pits. Thank you so much for looking at them. I have really valued your feedback.

link to Vulcans Forge Book: https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/vulcans-forge/

There will be a book launch at The Photographers Gallery on the 21st March. If you would like to come please get in touch with me

Reposted• This is Janine Wiedel. I am now on day 4 of my F8 Documentary take-over with a selection of photographs on coal mining from my new book Vulcan’s Forge, published this month by .

Photo: End of the shift, Florence Colliery, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire 1978

Florence Colliery, built in 1874, was at the centre of the community for 120 years. When I took these photos, like many of the pits across the country, Florence was beginning to be embroiled in the era of strikes that spelled the beginning of the end of mass mining in the UK.

Despite drawing a million tons of coal out of the earth, the writing was on the wall. In 1994, British Coal marked Florence as “not required”, and the pit and the overground structures were wound up. The ground was levelled and shafts filled in. Today, you’d never know it ever existed.

Over the years, thanks mostly to the internet, I have been in touch with some of the miners as well as the children and grandchildren of those I photographed. It’s been incredibly exciting and rewarding to be able to give them back photographs of their past. At the time, people’s work life was rarely recorded and therefore had never been seen by their families.



link to Vulcans Forge: https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/vulcans-forge/

Reposted from f8documentary It’s Janine Wiedel and I’m on day 2 of my F8 Documentary take-over with a selection on coalmining from my new book Vulcan’s Forge, published this month by .

The book is a documentary on the industries of the West Midlands 1977-1978, a critical turning point in Britain’s industrial history.

At this time, the coal and steel industries had already started a period of fierce industrial action with national protests and strikes proving a mere prelude to the struggles to come. Even in these years, the storm clouds of Thatcherism were gathering.

This photo was taken on an eye-opening journey underground along the dark roadways to the depths of the pit face at Littleton Colliery in Staffordshire. A journey of a couple of miles. Occasionally crouching in small metal railcars, but mostly on foot, often bent double with only the narrow beam of headlamps to show where to step. There were many times when I was not allowed to photograph.

Photo: A miner ‘having his snappin’ (a traditional mining word for a break). Miners used to take a tin box with their food in it down into the mines. The sound of the tin snapping open and shut led to the meal itself being referred to as ‘snap’.



link to Vulcans Forge: https://bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/vulcans-forge/

Check out these four fantastic Special Edition Print options for our latest title, Vulcan’s Forge by Janine Wiedel. The photographs have been expertly printed on Hahnemuhle paper by

The photographs by are striking documentions of the West Midlands industry in the late 1970, showing the workers within their working environments.

We only have a few of the print options left as they are very limited. So don’t miss the chance to own one of these beautiful prints, along with the groundbreaking book. Grab yours before they are gone!

The wait is almost over - something new coming next week from Marilyn Stafford. If your sign up to our newsletter you’ll get first access and an exclusive price on this new book👀

📩: Newsletter sign up in our bio
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We’ve loved seeing all the winning Portrait of Britain images out in the world on the screens over the last week - if you see one in the world take a picture and tag us so we can see it.

Volume 6 of Portrait of Britain was published by us this year and features all 200 shortlisted photographers. We have less than 100 copies still available, so don’t wait around if you want to get your own copy.

Here is one of our favourite images from - which was seen and photographed by Yoshida Naoto✨

📚: Available on our website
📸: © Anthony Luvera ( )

 

Book of the Road has been named in two other end of the year lists, by both Alys Tomlinson and Russ O’Connell. We’re over joyed that everyone has been loving the book and the exhibition - if you missed the show make sure you get the book.

“The book is designed in a unique format, which is an ode to the original Readers Digest AA Book of The Road. It’s full of images of wonderful characters interspersed with reportage from the areas Meadows visited, giving the reader an insight in to the diversity of life in England in the 1970’s.”
⁃ Russ O’Connell for Lens Culture

“Cleverly designed by Tom Booth Woodger to replicate the size and shape of on old AA road atlas, the book offers an insight into Daniel’s process and the political and social climate of Britain in the 1970s. I’m a big fan of Daniel Meadows and this book celebrates the 50th anniversary of his Free Photographic Omnibus, a highly original project where he travelled the length and breadth of England in a double decker bus, allowing photography to reach the everyday person on the street and creating cultural collaborations.”
⁃ Alys Tomlinson for Photobook Store

🔗: Book of the Road available the link in our bio
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Matt Stuart selected Daniel Meadows’ Book of the Road as one of his favourite books of 2023 for Photobook Store - we are so happy about this! Today is the last day to get a copy in time for Christmas…

“A redo of Meadows amazing bus portrait journey. Designed like the old fashioned AA Book of the Road road atlas. Book of the Road celebrates the 50th anniversary of Daniel Meadows’ pioneering 1970s documentary project Free Photographic Omnibus. Driving over 10,000 miles in a double-decker bus, the wild-haired young Meadows spent 14 months mapping the length and breadth of England. Beautifully designed by Tom Booth Woodger who is singlehandedly turning Blue Coat around the right corner.”
- Matt Stuart

🔗: Book of the Road available the link in our bio
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📣 14 HOURS TO GO - to secure a copy of This Was Then at a reduced price plus if you supported one of our previous Kickstarter projects – such as ‘s LIFE or Vulcan’s Forge by – if you also back This Was Then, you will receive a free signed print from the book.
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🔗: Link in bio to back the Kickstarter⁠
📝: Child in 10th floor tower block corridor, London 1977
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3 DAYS TO GO - Don’t miss out on your chance to be a part of Mike Abrahams’ new book, support it on Kickstarter and get your name printed in the book...

🔗: Link in bio to support the Kickstarter⁠
📝: Tenement, Glasgow, 1986
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A child at the window of a traveller’s caravan at the border with the Republic of Ireland at Strabane, Northern Ireland.

This is the last 5 days to get in your support for This Was Then, don’t miss out on discounted books and prints.

🔗: Link in bio to support the Kickstarter⁠
📝: Strabane, Northern Ireland, 1990
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“There’s a tremendous sense of belonging; these are people who know who they are, where they are and why they’re there. Nobody is present by accident or chance. Although geographically separated and spread across 30 years the people in these pictures share a common bond which most of us would recognise as “community.” ”
- From the essay in the book by Stephen Mayes

🔗: Link in bio to support the Kickstarter⁠
📝: Mr Zippy, Ardoyne, Belfast. 1987
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Here is one of the reward prints we are offering on the This Was Then Kickstarter - The “Peace Line” at Bombay Street, separating the catholic “Falls” from the protestant “Shankill”, Belfast 1988.

Abrahams extensively documented in Northern Ireland during the troubles and the images feature heavily in the book, you can see more images and read about this incredible body of work through the link in our bio
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🔗: Support our Kickstarter⁠ for This Was Then
📝: Belfast 1988
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Another image from our latest kickstarter book, This Was Then. A sleepy Sunday in Blackburn is very fitting for this Sunday morning.

Read more about Mike’s work and the book at the link in our bio - and support it on kickstarter to get exclusive offers only available to backers.

🔗: Link in bio to support our Kickstarter⁠
📝: Children playing on street, Blackburn, 1985
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Just a warning - this is your last chance to sign up to our newsletter get early access to our Kickstarter for Mike Abrahams’ new book which launches tomorrow.

Be the first to see the great rewards and get first dibs on the print edition which you prefer. Last time we completely sold out of prints - so don’t miss out this time…⏰

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🔗: Link in bio to sign up to the newsletter⁠
📝:  Cranhill Estate, Glasgow, 1999
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We’re on the Eurostar (not pictured) on our way to Paris today - we will be at all weekend long with lots of books and special editions. We’re excited to meet lots of new faces and see old friends there. Please stop by and say hello if you’re down for Paris Photo🇫🇷

We will have some of our last remaining copies of LIFE by Ian Beesley there, don’t wait around if you want to make sure you get a copy of the book.

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