★☆

“When I started this project, I had a hard time just being here. Life can be so excruciating and nauseating and exhausting. But someday something changes, you live through something quietly, and you feel at peace. A lot of this book is me working through all these feelings. There are whole years I can tuck away quietly, and there are things that happened in between. I care about them all. 

When I moved to Toronto, I started to photograph all the people I met through a friend - meeting up in Kensington, following sunlight, making conversation. It was a casual practice; a way of being somewhere and feeling like I was suppose to be there.

Over the next two years, some of the people I met became people I love. my focus shifted, got closer to home. I took photos of my friends frequenting the same neighbourhoods, sleeping in my bedroom, existing under firelight and still-water lakes; walking down empty streets and walking home together. the photos accumulated in my desk drawers, a box in my closet, on my phone. Taking a photo was an act of devotion - it kept me engaged in the feelings of loss and gratitude, handed me confidence, and made me feel real. or it made the world feel real to me.

When I moved away from the city, I was left with this handful of years all mixed up and bruised and gleaming. I thought if I could fit them back together I could find myself in there.

I pasted the photos in journals, made little directionless books. Marked them up all black and blue with ink. Bleeding out pen after pen to find a way of knotting words together. I don't say much out loud. I'm dependant on this to make me feel okay. I don't mind though. Flipping through my notebooks, I watched the words echoing across see-through paper. It clicked to me then how this book would come together.”

★☆

• 252 pages featuring film photographs and journal pages

• Open-stitch binding

• Soft-cover

• 110mm x 148mm x 22mm

• ISBN: 978-0-6454066-3-4

• Printed in Canada.

Made between 2019-2022. Published independently by Sarah Berglund, 2023. Originally funded through Kickstarter. Supported and distributed by Pure Nowhere.

★☆

For customers outside of Australia/New Zealand, you can grab a copy from Sarah’s website. Limited numbers available.

★☆

Top 5 Finalist in the Goodreads Poetry Book of the Year Awards, 2022!

“On Sun Swallowing is a sweet and bloody collection of poetry, dancing in the spaces between skinned knees and red wine, satin and switchblades, rosaries and Dionysian ecstasy. Her writings are haunted by the ghosts of girlhood, god/s, lovers and the landscape of childhood, but Warren is unflinching - she haunts her ghosts in return, with sharp lyricism and cutthroat vulnerability.

On Sun Swallowing explores shadowy emotion, at times in a whisper, at times in a scream. Think: cheap cigarettes, even cheaper wine, and an oath to reach hell by midnight and be home in time for work in the morning.”

Compiling five years of poetry, prose and journal extracts, On Sun Swallowing is the debut release of Australian poet Dakota Warren. Winding through unflinchingly raw snapshots of her youth, Warren’s words are accompanied by original illustrations from Lydia Stone and curated photography from Francesca McConnell, Caroline Dare, Leche de Arte and Clara Slewa.

Details:

• 45 poems

• 145 x 210mm

• Full-colour

• Perfect Bound, softcover

• ISBN: 978-0-6454066-0-3

• Limited edition

Credits:

• Words by Dakota Warren

• Curation and Production by Kyla Rain and Abby Strangward

• Editing and Copywriting by Ria Kealey

• Cover collages by Kyla Rain

• Cover photo by Francesca McConell

• Design by Abby Strangward

• Illustrations by Lydia Stone

• Photography by Francesca McConnell, Caroline Dare, Leche de Arte and Clara Slewa.

• Special thanks to Levii Wishart and Karen Lawson

• Printing: E-Plot Printing

Independently printed, packed and shipped with love from Melbourne, Australia.

Have a question concerning On Sun Swallowing or Dakota Warren merch? Check here!

NOTE - If your country is not available for shipment, send us a quick email and we'll get it sorted!

Though Sold Out through Pure Nowhere, books may still be available directly from J. You can contact him through Instagram here.

A photo book by J Davies.

Available in Softcover or Hardcover limited edition.

“Half of my Whole Life Was Just a Dream presents a series of interconnected moments, people and places, linked by commonalities of colour, texture, time or feeling. J offers their lens to the viewer, and in doing so, a unique perspective on time and memory. Are the subjects of these images connected by something external, or is it simply a construction of the photographer’s mind? Would one or the other offer more truth?

J invites the viewer to question connection, and how the stitching together of disparate images might reflect a broader understanding of the passage of time. Subjectivity is at its centre; it is rare to be able to share in something as ephemeral as an artist’s internal workings, but through expertly transcribing their perspective into images, and tying these images to one another like a string of their own thoughts, J does just this.

This book is biographical in the dreamiest of ways, capturing queerness and community (friends, lovers, self) in ways that are simultaneously intimate and unknowable. Prepare to find yourself in these pages too, or some rippling reflection; perhaps in the richness of a certain tone or the twist of a certain body on a midnight dance floor. There is a breadth to these images that cannot help but entrance the imagination.”

120 pages.
200mm x 270mm
150gsm Silk Insides
Colour Indigo Printing
Perfect Bound
Printing: E-Plot (Melbourne, Australia).
Hardcover: First edition of 50, hand-numbered. ISBN: 978-0-6454066-4-1
Softcover: First edition of 150, hand-numbered. ISBN: 978-0-6454066-1-0

Photos by J Davies
Curation by J Davies + Abby Strangward
Design by Abby Strangward + Kitty Huang
Introduction by Violet de Graauw

Themed around youth, freedom and suburbia, this magazine was a year-long labour of love.

• 100+ pages long

• A4 sized

• NO ADS

• Printed on thick, beautiful, 100% recycled paper.

Featuring work from Josh Kern, Brook Mckeon, Britta Burger, Hannah Logic, Nadz Banaag & so many more, there are no words to describe the love, heartbreak and vulnerability within these pages. For a sneak peak inside, click here - and then jump back here to grab your copy!

Support independent print <3

Due to COVID-19, shipping timeframes remain unpredictable world-wide! Currently, we expect orders to arrive within 1-4 weeks after they’re shipped.