CROWFINGER
SJ Fowler and Bård Torgersen
Buy https://sampsonlow.co/2020/11/23/crowfinger-sj-fowler-and-bard-torgersen/
A collaborative booklette of photopoetry. Made by myself and Norwegian avant-garde powerhouse Bård Torgersen during the summer lockdown of 2020. My first proper photopoetry publication, 36 photos beset by 36 poems.
Published December 2020. ISBN 978-1-912960-65-1
36 printed pages. Full. Colour
Print run of 200 Price – £4.99
From the publisher “The boldest take on photopoetry and corvids of the last decade, Crowfinger is a book that offers more than meets the eye. Juxtaposing Torgersen’s candid and striking photographs of Norwegian forests with Fowler’s precise and unrelenting poetry, it comes at you like evening fog between the trees. The poems see you before you see them, and unless you’re careful they’ll lure you off the path. It is lucky then that Crowfinger is here to guide you home. Because you may not know Crowfinger, but Crowfinger sure knows you.”
“This is menacing and funny and antic and accusatory and gorgeous and just the best kind of collaboration. It gives us a new way into ekphrasis and a new maze to lose ourselves in. Were you having beautiful thoughts in the beautiful place? Can you just be f*cking honest for once in your life?” Luke Kennard, poet
“The only thing I could compare this book to is going for a run in the forest in the middle of the night. Surrounded by pitch black you hurtle yourself into a little pocket of light whilst trying your best to ignore whatever it is that’s watching you from the shadows. I’m not sure if I read the book or the book read me.” Mikael Buck, photographer
Below, the launch of CROWFINGER, at Kingston Quaker’s Centre on December 3rd 2020, as part of Writers’ Kingston’s celebration of Sampson Low press. Plus a long-form interview with Bård Torgersen for the European Poetry Festival 2020, where CROWFINGER is discussed.
Bård Torgersen is Associate Professor at Kristiania University College, where he teaches creative writing, experimental writing, sound poetry and narrative approaches to storytelling. He is a novelist, poet and musician. His latest publication is the novel Lengter knuser slår, Forlaget Oktober, Oslo (2019). He has published eight novels and eight volumes of poetry. Moreover, he has made various contributions to literary antologies and journals. He has also published five musical albums, in collaboration with others and alone, that explore the relations between literature and sound/music. He has performed extensively in Norway and Europe.