The Bookshelf - #3 - Forty Farms

Forty Farms

Amy Bateman

Jake Island Ltd

Available on Amazon from £27.05

I think that Forty Farms by Amy Bateman is one of those books that, if you’re a landscape photographer in the Lake District, then it is criminal not own a copy! This is an amazing book, written by Amy Bateman who is both a prominent photographer and also a farmer, so there are few (if any!) more qualified to write this book.

In Forty Farms, Bateman looks at the changing face of farming in Cumbria across 40 different farms over the course of 12 months between 2021 and 2022. She interviews the farmers and tells us about the details of these conversations, which she describes as “…frank, sometimes funny, occasionally painful but always fascinating”, she also talks about the narrowing the gap between the farmer and the consumer, and this something that this book does incredibly well.

The interviews, for me, are fascinating and give a great insight into the farms that I see all of the time whilst doing landscape photography in the Lake District, but also explores the wider county of Cumbria (remember it’s the 3rd largest county in England, lots of people forget about the bits that aren’t Lake District) and talks to farmers from a variety of backgrounds, running a variety of farms.

Ok so the images. These are great. Really great. And they tell some awesome stories, each set of photos for each farm has a narrative that goes with them. They tell the stories of the people, the landscape and the incredible work they do as farmers. Oh and there are plenty of photos of animals - it’s a book about farming in Cumbria, so this is a bit of a given.

This book includes a bit of everything, there’s wildlife, portraits, drone photos and some shots that could almost be considered lifestyle/travel with a sprinkling of everything else.

A lot of the photo books that I have are informative, but this is informative in a different way. There are some objectives set out at the front of the book, which Bateman absolutely meets throughout the 336 beautiful pages of this book. \

If you’re looking for a photo book you can read as well as just look at, then this is for you.

You can get a copy in just about every bookshop (and lots of others) in Cumbria and they often have it in Booths as well! If you can’t get to one of these places then it’s also available nationally and of course, on Amazon.