Iain Sinclair is known for his 'dense, impressionistic, psychogeographical formulations' of London in books such as "White Chappell", "Scarlet Tracings", "Downriver" and also the recent, critically-lauded "London Orbital". A particular showcase for Sinclair's unique style are his collaborations with photographer Marc Atkins: these eccentric, manic, often moving explorations of London's hidden streets, cemeteries, canals, parks, pubs and personalities were first recorded in the highly acclaimed "Lights Out for the Territory", praised in "The Guardian" as 'one of the most remarkable books ever written on London'. "Liquid City" documents the duo's further peregrinations: consisting of 180 striking, atmospheric photographs by Atkins with accompanying texts by Sinclair. The book focuses on London's eastern and south-eastern quadrants. An array of famous and lesser-known writers, booksellers and film-makers slip in and out of Sinclair's annotations, as do memories and remnants of the East End's criminal mobs, as well as physical landmarks as diverse as the Thames barrier and Karl Marx's grave in Archway cemetery. The title "Liquid City" evokes the river Thames, which flows silently through both text and image, and to suggest the changes London has undergone and, like all cities, is constantly undergoing.
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Amazon Review
In their previous collaboration Lights Out For The Territory Marc Atkins' few dark, brooding photographs added focus to Iain Sinclair's dense, impressionistic, psychogeographical formulations about the city in which he loves to drift. Here Atkins' penetrating black and white portraits and his beautiful, troubling shots of a London we forget we know dominate. Sinclair adds occasional pieces in a lighter, more journalistic prose than readers of his wonderful, overwrought novels might expect, discussing Atkins, or one of his photographs, and their mutual project of attempting to pin down the story that is London. And he writes about other scribes (Peter Ackroyd, Michael Moorcock, John Healy) who share his fascination with one of the world's great cities. This attempt to articulate a truth about a space is an impossible project, and it is impossible to hold a fixed position on it--as the title Liquid City suggests. Sinclair and Atkins know this (Sinclair praises his friend for creating flux whereas his writing tries to "mould wriggling chaos") but the project proves worthwhile as it has produced words and some remarkable pictures that only such a troubled engagement could engender. This is a visual feast of contemporary photojournalism, in which Atkins' visions and Sinclair's words help the reader perceive a London that can easily be walked past daily. --Mark Thwaite
Review
`stunning photographs . . . Atkins's use of eye, paper and chemicals is an alchemical homage to the mystery of light and dark' --Jah Wobble, Independent on Sunday
`Liquid City is . . . Alice in Wonderland for urban intellectuals, a book that just gets curiouser and curiouser. Which is what makes it so particular, of course, and so utterly alluring.' --Melanie McGrath, London Evening Standard
`The London landscape that Atkins and Sinclair conjure up is a haunted one, and I suspect their imagery will continue to haunt readers long after they close this book. I have no doubt that this will become accepted as one of the most essential texts for anyone who cares for London.' --Joe Kerr, Blueprint Magazine
`Liquid City is . . . Alice in Wonderland for urban intellectuals, a book that just gets curiouser and curiouser. Which is what makes it so particular, of course, and so utterly alluring.' --Melanie McGrath, London Evening Standard
`The London landscape that Atkins and Sinclair conjure up is a haunted one, and I suspect their imagery will continue to haunt readers long after they close this book. I have no doubt that this will become accepted as one of the most essential texts for anyone who cares for London.' --Joe Kerr, Blueprint Magazine
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Liquid City manages to make London look drab, run-down, exciting, poetic and beautiful all at the same time.
What Iain Sinclair manages to capture in text Marc Atkins manages to equal in photography, even though the two seem to battle to discover more about places, moments, stories of London through prose and through the Lens.
The short punchy chapters are great for dipping into, and Sinclair's ability to cram in vast amounts of detail and tangents into one sentence is wonderful.
Initially you may feel lost, disorientated by the cryptic references Sinclair uses, but as the two trudge across to the farthest reaches of this sprawling landscape - becoming wearier with the enormity and with each other - you are entwined into a mix of reality and myth that made me, for one, fall in love again with this big drty monster of a city called London.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The London only a Londoner can know
1 Jun 2000
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book told me more about London and Londoners than a million travel books or books about the legends and myths of London. Sinclair and Atkins are interested in the scenery and people that nobody ever notices. The spaces between highways, for instance, and what kind of people live in them. I read his book on Ballard's Crash and it seemed to me then that while Ballard is noticing the abstract geometry, the beautiful curve of the elevated highway, Sinclair is more interested in who lives under that curve. If you think you know London, think again. You'll know it a lot better after you've read this book. I did and it's a city I've lived in. A book which will become, I suspect, a cult classic.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
The lack of gratitude in me is staggering
5 Sep 2004
By Gooch McCracken
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
IAIN SINCLAIR ON JOHN HEALY'S CRITICS: "The thing that really disturbed them was this: if the man was alive and well, chipper as a cricket, cranking out novel after novel, then the emotion they had invested in the lowlife was misplaced. An early death, coughing his guts up, was the least they could expect. The lack of gratitude in this creature was staggering. The reviews had been written under false pretences. The raves were disguised obituary notices."
Uh-huh. Well at least Wilfred Owen had the good manners to get himself croaked by Krauts. And thank God that Sylvia Plath clinched her lit cred by offing herself. But then there's Iain Sinclair. Who cranks out the sort of cartoon-paranoia fiction that's otherwise associated with Don DeLillo & Thomas Pynchon. And it's just a darn shame. Cause some of us are just plain noided out (as it were). Fortunately, LIQUID CITY is a temporary respite from Sinclair's usual subject-matter.
Uh-huh. Well at least Wilfred Owen had the good manners to get himself croaked by Krauts. And thank God that Sylvia Plath clinched her lit cred by offing herself. But then there's Iain Sinclair. Who cranks out the sort of cartoon-paranoia fiction that's otherwise associated with Don DeLillo & Thomas Pynchon. And it's just a darn shame. Cause some of us are just plain noided out (as it were). Fortunately, LIQUID CITY is a temporary respite from Sinclair's usual subject-matter.
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