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North by North East

North by North East

by Ian Macdonald

£50.00 GBP
£50.00 GBP
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Pre-order. Expected December 2026.

Described by Martin Parr as the 'quiet man of British Photography'; North by North East, is a comprehensive survey of renowned British photographer Ian Macdonald’s extensive career. The book delivers from a number of established and renowned projects whilst unveiling lesser-explored yet equally significant previously unpublished photographs.

The book spans the first twenty years of Macdonald’s photographic practice (1968-1989). His lens has followed the rise and decline of industry through the creation of an extensive archive of the region, creating a body of work that stands firmly within the tradition of British documentary photography that flourished in the late 1970s and 1980s — a period defined by political upheaval and social change. 

More about this book

The work provides a considered visual narrative that validates people and places. This well-produced black and white photography book features high-density tritone printing, precise tonal gradation from deep blacks to crisp highlights and careful page sequencing, with a number of fold-out pages encapsulating Ian’s unique ethos and renowned practice.

He says, “North by North East is a reflective distillation of the first twenty years of my photography. Relating people to their immediate environment is very important to me and is a way I have found to express something of this story. The book provides a sequence and rhythm to guide the reader from each of these visual statements.”

Published December 2026
233 x 280 mm
112 pages, 81 images
Hardback clothbound
ISBN 978-1-80598-053-7

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From the author

  • Ian Macdonald (b. 1946) is an internationally acclaimed photographer based in North Yorkshire, UK. He studied Graphic Design and Printmaking at Teesside College of Art in 1968 and went on to study Painting and Photography at Sheffield School of Art, Photography and Graphic Design at Birmingham Polytechnic and Education at Lancaster University. He pursued photography alongside drawing – his first love - painting and printmaking. Ian consistently made work around Teesside, in response to the change that he experienced during this time. His love of the region, the beauty of the landscape – great expanses of wildness nestling among the complexity of vast industrial settings - and his solid admiration for the people working and living amongst this environment has resulted in a completely honest and passionate depiction of a place and its community.

    Macdonald’s photographs have been exhibited at leading institutions including the Royal Academy, The Photographers’ Gallery, and the Serpentine Gallery, and now form part of major public and private collections worldwide: the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Danish Royal Library (Copenhagen), the Navigation Foundation (Boston, USA), Side Gallery (Newcastle), the Martin Parr Foundation (Bristol), the Shipley Art Gallery (Gateshead), and the MIMA Collection (Middlesbrough).

  • 'North by North East is a reflective distillation of the first twenty years of my photography. Relating people to their immediate environment is very important to me and is a way I have found to express something of this story. The book provides a sequence and rhythm to guide the reader from each of these visual statements.'

    - Ian Macdonald