• The Longest Way Round<br /><span style='text-transform:none;'>Chris Dorley-Brown</span>
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round
  • The Longest Way Round

The Longest Way Round
Chris Dorley-Brown

£35

A visual investigation of the author’s family history, The Longest Way Round is a construct of historical images woven together with new photographs. Uncovering a treasure trove of archive material not intended for the family album, Dorley-Brown presents a multi-layered alternative narrative for the course of events that shaped the late 20th century.

FIRST EDITION Trade Softcover, 168 pages, 27 x 21.5 cm portrait
Section‐sewn with exposed binding; French fold dust jacket / poster
183 colour + 43 duotone illustrations
Published November 2015 | ISBN: 9780994791900

Description

Central themes are love and war; Chris’s father Peter was a prisoner of war in Germany during WWII, his mother was a GI bride, and the after-effects of the war lingered within the family. Simultaneously revealing a disappearing history and connecting past experience with the present, Dorley-Brown has assembled his own contemporary photographs alongside his deceased parents’ historical pictures, family letters and wartime documents.

Themes in this intimate book are universally identifiable within the European experience since the Second World War. Addressing subjects of personal identity and memory, the narrative reveals a painful family legacy while offering potential for a sense of closure.

Edited + designed by Tiffany Jones
Type + jacket design by Wayne Ford
Printed in Germany by optimal media

The Author

London-based Chris Dorley-Brown is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and archivist. He has published and exhibited widely and his work is held in public collections of the Wellcome Trust, Museum of London, V&A Arts Library, BBC Archives, London Borough of Hackney Archives and Tower Hamlets Archives.

www.modrex.com

Reviews + Press

“It is not my family, yet its history is so intriguing and absorbing that I feel I belong to it… the universality of the story makes you unable to put the book down – it could be about any of us.”Marcin Grabowiecki Writer/critic, Innocent Curiosity

“A gorgeous photobook… intimate, sad and magical.”Matthew Lee Editor, Delayed Gratification

“The book blows my mind. It’s the best photobook of this year to me. The details, quality of papers, design… I feel the passion of the photographer, publisher and designer. This book is absolutely for life.”KS (buyer)

“It was one of the best encounters during my visit in Paris [for Paris Photo] in November. Thank you for this beautiful book.”
Yumi Goto Curator, Reminders Photography Stronghold

“Très belle surprise de fin d’année!” (Very nice surprise of the end of the year!) – Claude Lemaire Bookseller

“Thank you for your amazing book. I keep going through it and finding different ways to enjoy it. You created a beautiful visual chronology that intersects so many things: life, war, childhood, happiness, friendship, even architecture. The photos and the editing sequence is superb.”AK (buyer)

See more
Interview with Cultural Kapital
Feature in the Guardian, “Secret history: my father’s hidden past at the hands of the Nazis”
Photobookstore Best Photobooks of 2015 – Yumi Goto
Review by Marcin Grabowiecki on Innocent Curiosity (Polish and English)
Review by Guillotine (French)
Review by Gabriela Cendoya (Spanish)
Review by Colin Pantall on Photoeye
Favourite Photobooks of 2015 – Innocent Curiosity / Marcin Grabowiecki
Photo-eye Book of the Day 18 Nov
Josef Chladek’s Virtual Bookshelf – Best of November 2015

Special notes

*Curated selection Fiebre Photobook Festival 2021 – Erika Goyarrola, Curator & Professor
*Curated selection Fiebre Photobook Festival 2021 – Eneka Fernandez, Curator
* Bestseller, Fiebre Fest 2020 Bookmarket
* TOP 20 RECOMMENDED PHOTOBOOKS from UNSEEN Amsterdam Book Market 2018, selected by Richard Sporleder of Café Lehmitz, Cologne
* HIGHLY COMMENDED, British Book Design & Production Awards 2016 Photographic Books, Art/Architecture Monographs category
* Selected for ‘The best photography books of the year’ exhibition at The National Library of Spain, PHotoEspaña 2016 (Madrid)
* Exhibition, “Archive: Between The Public And The Private”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, MedPhoto Festival 2019
* Exhibition, Rencontres d’Arles 2016 Book Awards (Arles, France)
* Shortlisted and exhibited, Athens Photo Festival 2016
* Selected for exhibition, ‘First Book Table’ at Photobook Bristol 2016
* Curated selection, Photo Independent Art Fair 2016 (Los Angeles)
* Selected in Photobookstore’s Best Photobooks of 2015
* Selected by Marcin Grabowiecki, Favourite Photobooks in 2015

The Longest Way Round is held in the following collections:
AGO Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives (Toronto, CA)
The British Library (UK)
Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts Library (Germany)
L’école Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (Arles, FR)
George Eastman Museum, Richard & Ronay Menschel Library (Rochester, USA)
Hellenic Centre for Photography (Athens, GR)
ICP Library (New York, USA)
Library & Archives Canada (Ottawa)
LIBRIS (Stockholm, SE)
The National Art Library at the V&A (London, UK)
The Library Project (Dublin, Ireland)
LIBRIS (Stockholm, Sweden)
San Telmo Museum – The Gabriela Cendoya Bergareche Collection (ES)
Tate Library and Archive (UK)
University of the Arts London (UK)
Walker Art Center Library (Minneapolis, USA)