Press Release

Jan 2015

The spaces we inhabit are often shaped by, and in some way reflect the people who inhabit them.

This new book of photographs by Northern Irish photographer Stephen Wilson uses images of church buildings in County Antrim to look at the Protestant people who shaped them. A people set apart by their faith, part British part Irish, yet not wholly either.

Liminal places are moved through on the way to somewhere else. A train station for example is not a destination but a place that allows us to transition to the next stage of our journey. So here we have church buildings that are a kind of liminal space, existing only to be moved through on a spiritual journey. They were in some way created to be easily ignored, appearing almost uncomfortable with receiving any attention. In these often uncomfortable or awkward images we focus on the mundane and the everyday. These are not photographs of classical architecture they are more images of uncomfortable existence. Like the sacred spaces they have created these are a people who are caught between two identities appearing sure of where they came from but less confident of where they are. Here we take time to look at those liminal spaces that, like the people who use them, seem to ask not to be looked at.

Liminal is a high quality limited edition hardback photo book with 96 full colour pages published by Fall Line Press Atlanta. Designed by Stephen Hamilton of Sort Design Belfast, drawing its inspiration from the old blue linen covered Presbyterian hymn books featured in one of the photographs inside. The book is also punctuated by a series of short poems by Paul Hutchinson and a reflection by Bryonie Reid. With an introduction by author and philosopher Peter Rollins and a short essay on faith in the presence of absence by David Capener.

Quotations by Stephen Wilson.

“This book looks at the Protestant people of Northern Ireland by looking at the one thing they believe that sets them apart more than any other, their faith.”

“As the name suggests in order to protest they are somehow defined by their otherness, but at the same time actively rejecting the outsiders' gaze. Often when I asked to photograp inside a church people would say, "You can photograph away but sure there's nothing important to see here." As legendary American photographer Gary Winogrand said he photographed to see what the world looks like in photographs. I thought that’s it, if nothing is so important to you, let's take time to see what nothing looks like when photographed. And in some way that’s what this book is, photographs of nothing.”

“Protestant people here are very clear about what they’re not, but they’re not very clear about who they are”

As a railway station tells the big story of industrial revolution and man's battle to overcome the elements it also tells thousands of smaller stories of the feet that have worn down the concrete steps of the platform as they go about their daily lives. 
The photographs in this book look at the people who occupy these spaces telling thousands of smaller but important stories.

Stephen Wilson Bio.

Stephen Wilson is a Northern Irish artist whose work has been exhibited internationally and featured in numerous worldwide publications. Following an early career as an editorial photographer in London, Stephen returned home to work in post conflict Northern Ireland. After completing his Masters and a teaching qualification he moved into education.

 Stephen continues to work on projects often using landscape and the built environment as a way of looking into the relationship between faith and identity in the Protestant community in Ireland.  Stephen was commissioned by Sky Arts to create a piece of public art. The resulting artwork Peace Wall Stories is a 15m long installation that combines photography with sculpture using Augmented Reality to bring photographs and stories to life. In 2022 Peace Wall Stories was exhibited in Bratislava as part of the Off Photo Festival. A version of this work was installed on Belfast longest peace wall to create a giant outdoor exhibition. Stephen continues to teach and work outside of formal education inspiring people to explore their own stories through the medium of photography, this involves running photography workshops with community groups in interface areas as a means of communities exploring their environments and identities.

Reviews

Irish News

To request a review copy of the Liminal book email stephen@stephenwilsonphotography.com

A pdf version of the book and a selection of high resolution images and text are available to download on request.

For further information contact stephen@stephenwilsonphotography.com

General Information: info@falllinepress.com

Sales + Order Information: orders@falllinepress.com

More info at: stephenwilsonphotography.com/liminal-photo-book

Available to buy at: Art Data Books https://artdata.co.uk/book/36614/

About Fall Line Press

Fall Line Press is an independent publisher based in Atlanta, Georgia, renowned for its dedication to innovative and impactful photobooks. Founded in 2015 by Bill Bowling Fall Line Press has championed emerging and established photographers, fostering a vibrant community around the art of the photobook. Known for its commitment to artistic excellence and social responsibility, they have published acclaimed titles such as Documentum with Stephen Shore & David Campany, Sweetheart Roller Skating Rink by Bill Yates and The Bully Pulpit By Haley Morris-Cafiero

More info Here:

By opting for an empty space over an object, they sought to protect that which can never be rendered visible. Rejecting any positive images that might become a Golden Calf.” 

Extract from introduction, by Peter Rollins

The dust rests between the tightly woven threads of a stain-guarded, polyester-wool mix, designed-by-committee blue church carpet. The dust of years. The dust of ages. The dust of the faithful. The dust of the unfaithful. This is the dust of christenings, weddings, funerals, centenary memorials, dwindling congregations, organ fund-raisers, Christmas services and the week-in-week-out ritualisation of life in all its fullness. This is the dust of a thousand stories.

This is my dust; the dust of disappointment. The dust of the presence of an absence that may never have been a presence at all.

We live in dust. Dust is what remains.

Extract from, Very Little, Ultimately Nothing by David Capener

A cup implies both emptiness and fullness, absence and presence. It is nothing until full, and always-already something. Women have figured as a kind of nothing in two millennia of Christian thinking. Of course we too are always-already something. Thus, every nothing is a site in which something is already present, and if we care to stay and look, that something may become apparent. Nothing and something, emptiness and fullness, absence and presence, can co-exist. For me they are intimately entangled – indivisible, in fact.

Extract from Nothing and Something. by Bryonie Reid

As the prayer extended to cover 
the death of a faithful parishioner,

national debt and global salvation,

I wondered about

the purpose of

the blue string tied

taut to pew 33,

and what if I took

a pair of scissors to the tension.

Poem by Paul Hutchinson