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 Generations of the Batten family have lived and worked in Newlyn, their lives centred on the harbour and the fishing industry.
Joy Batten has dedicated her book to her grandfather, a Newlyn fisherman who, in 1934 when the decision was made to replace the cottages clustered around the harbour with a modern housing estate some distance from the sea, was one of the crew of the Rosebud, a Newlyn pilchard driver, who took their boat on the 450 mile journey to London and up the Thames to Westminster pier to present a petition to Parliament.
Joy’s book of her photographs also centres on the life of the harbour, not the conventional pictures of boats or fishermen but a succession of images of ropes, water, fish, rigging and all the detail of harbour life seen through the lens of a true artist.
The first impact of the book is that of colour, one might think of a harbour as being a rather drab, grey area with only sunlight to add brightness, but these photographs pulsate with colour and texture. Strong designs are outlined against the sky or reflected in the sea. Some of the pictures, as with the cover shown here, are composed of the play of light on water.
Many people will be familiar with the photographs on the greetings cards that Joy has been producing for several years now, these photographs, some fifty of them, take a step further towards the abstract. This is not just a book of photographs to be looked at once and set aside, but pictures which if returned to again and again will not fail to please and probably, if you are fortunate enough to live in or close to Newlyn, send you walking down the north pier to discover for yourself this festival of light. The pictures have witty and thought provoking titles, the only text in the book.
Blessings of the Light at Newlyn Harbour by Joy Batten is published by Lowena Crafts and can be found in local bookshops at £16.
ISBN: 0-9551572-0-X
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