Pages from a hand printed book of images of the Loire Estuary. The individual prints measure 19.5 x 56.5 cms, and all are priced £70. Edition numbers are all less than fifteen.
loire page1
After a shower near the sandworks just the other side of the bridge, migrant wheatears are feeding amongst dead thistles and sea holly.
loire page 2
Not far from the wheatears a small flock of yellow wagtails feeding amongst a limited community of wasteland plants. Goosefoot, bistort, scentless mayweed and the alien plantain
loire page 3
Behind the sea wall a mosaic of small salt pans. Banks covered with mats of sea purslane. Big patches of Salicornia turned a warm blood red. Egrets against this an oriental picture. From the coast the 'tu-tu-tu' of greenshank. A few other migrant waders rest in the pans, amongst them a little stint.
loire page 4
On the marshes around La Briere cattle graze amongst sedge clumps, bounded by channels full of coypu. Marsh harriers are ever present. The rushes hum with flocks of tits, reed buntngs and surprising numbers of migrating whinchats.
loire page 5
On the coast at La Guerande cockles are being collected. Groups of people forking, sieving and bagging. In the channels lines of fishing egrets. Small groups of ringed plover and dunlin whisk by like blown paper. Worm casts and old shells pock the surface around me.
loire page 6
On the south side of the estuary are files of piers. Waterlogged, weathered timbers. These lead out to drop nets. As the tide falls godwits line the water's edge.
loire page 7
Below the Pont St Nazaire avocets, shelduck and blackheaded gulls are feeding on the mud revealed by the receding tide. In the many creeks and channels common sandpipers bob next to swimming teal.
eel fisherman
Around high water Monsieur Vilaine is fishing for eels. First he trawls for shrimps to bait the eel pots. Then he goes round the estuary hauling in his 45 pots. A variety of containers hold the different catches.