A new book mixing landscape and portrait photography with stories from one of Scotland’s longest walks is to be published, with all proceeds donated to refugee relief efforts in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Thunder Road – voices from the Cape Wrath Trail features portrait and landscape images that photographer and writer (and Walkhighlands regular) David Lintern made while walking the trail in May 2021, alongside the personal testimonies of those he photographed – both visitor and resident.
The 240 mile Cape Wrath Trail begins in Fort William and ends at the lighthouse at the most north-westerly point of Scotland, Ministry of Defence controlled Cape Wrath. It has a reputation as Britain’s toughest long distance walk, something which David was keen to investigate with the project; “There’s a lot of romanticism and machismo associated with these big walks, but the trail is far more than any individual effort to complete it. It’s a complex web of old paths and stories that connect us to the past and to each other in the present.
“I talked to both locals and hikers about their experiences in the Highlands, post lockdown. They told me about their need to reconnect with nature and themselves, about the pressures of modern tourism, and personal stories of community and migration. It was a humbling journey because of the people I met, not just the miles travelled.”
It will be the third photobook published through artist, curator and photographer Alex Boyd’s own imprint Dusk Press, which has also featured contributions from Nick Cave and poet Sorley MacLean. David said, “Alex has an enviable background in making and curating Highland relevant photographic work and was my first choice for a publisher, as someone sympathetic to the subject matter.”
The book’s title, Thunder Road, pays homage to the famous Bruce Springsteen song, which was in turn borrowed from a 1950’s Robert Mitchum film of the same name. David said, “Both the song and the film are evocations of another western myth, wild places shown to be more complex and multi-storied than their natural beauty might initially suggest. Springsteen sings, ‘We’re riding out tonight to case the promised land’ but the freedom of his open road is laced with sadness.”
The book will be a small run edition printed at Wells of Bath, signed by the author, and all proceeds will be donated to the refugee efforts currently underway in Ukraine and Afghanistan, via Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). Kingussie based David, who has a background in both refugee arts and environmental communications, said, “It’s impossible to walk the Cape Wrath Trail without reflecting on the displacement caused by the Highland Clearances in the 1800’s. Both the publisher and I wanted to help people displaced from their homes in the present day by donating the profits from the book.”
Thunder Road: Voices from the Cape Wrath Trail is available to pre-order from Dusk Press, priced £14, with all proceeds to DEC.
Order here: https://www.duskpress.com/product/thunder-road-voices-from-the-cape-wrath-trail