Photographer Jem Southam will give an MPF artist talk to launch a new and revised edition of his iconic photobook, the Red River. Originally published by Cornerhouse in 1989, this new edition is published by RRB Photobooks, 2024.

The photographs in the Red River follow the course of a small stream, red due to the waste from tin mining, in the West of Cornwall from its source to the sea. Jem Southam first came across the stream whilst walking his dog not far from his home, and returned continually to photograph it over a period of six years. Photographing the homes and gardens, the surface of the land, tourism, farm animals, and the legacy of mining present in the stream, the work became an allegorical journey through a series of myths that have shaped the perception of the land.

Jem will give an overview of this work, followed by questions from the floor and a book signing.

From the Red River © Jem Southam

‘The making of the Red River established a methodological template for making a body of work which I have used ever since. Having established an interest in a site, always with proximity to water, I return to photograph over and over again. There is no pattern to this, it changes for each new study and as each picture is made I reflect what it might offer to the whole, how it might find a place in a structured sequence that is unfolding in my imagination.‘ – Jem Southam

Copies of the Red River will be available from MPF bookshop, where Jem will be signing copies after the talk. This new rendition contains 50 remastered images and revised texts, with a new afterword written by Jem.

This event is part of our ongoing series sponsored by WEX Photo Video.

From the Red River © Jem Southam

From The Avonmouth + Severn Beach and Portishead Branchlines © Jem Southam