Steve Pyke | I Could Read The Sky | Intro
I Could Read the Sky, a work of fiction by Steve Pyke and Timothy O Grady, captures an unsentimental view of Ireland, one defined by the tensions between deep tradition and the intrusions of the modern world, among them the alienating effects of emigration. At the same time, there are unexpected continuities, a feeling of reverence for the past, particularly in the form of music, that sustains a connection to older values, as important to those at home as to generations of Irish immigrants in London. The images present an atmospheric, emotionally charged view of the people, landscapes and traditions that have shaped diverse experiences of Irishness, in Ireland and abroad, past and present.
“First published in 1997, this modern classic of Irish emigration is republished now with extra photographs and an audiobook featuring breathtaking music by the peerless Martin Hayes […] Steve Pyke’s photographs are magnificent chiaroscuros of Becketty emptiness, looming cloud, crashing breakers on ragged coasts [...] These pictures are not only about what you see, but what you feel. John Berger’s introduction invites the reader to ‘listen’ to the photographs. A few pages in, you know exactly what he’s getting at [...] The faces in the images are looked at with care, without judgement [...] This book is a high example of the portrait as a form of storytelling. But it’s also an act of reclamation […] People have been trying to read the sky a long time. Rare masterpieces like this help us do it.'“
– Joseph O’Connor, Irish Times