I love it when a successful business collaborates with an artist. The artist receives patronage and publicity, the business shows that life isn't entirely a search for profit and reinforces the creativity and skills that have gone into making its products.
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| The Balvenie bar and James Stroud's art |
The Balvenie Commission brings together a distillery, The Balvenie, which has been making whisky since 1893, with a variety of talented crafts people from around he world. For this particular project, they worked with photographer, James Stroud, to record the manufacturing processes and the people who make the whisky in their distillery in Banffshire through a project called 'Succession'.
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| James Stroud (bearded) tells us about his work |
Succession started when James Stroud approached The Balvenie in 2014 with the idea of photographing the distillery using a innovative emulsion technique to develop the images. Working on the project in his spare time, James took over a year to finish the collection of eleven images, each in a bespoke frame from wood recycled from an old church.
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| The barrels in which the whisky is aged are repaired and maintained by the ancient skills of coopers |
The theme centres on Time; how things improve with age [which will resonate with Grey Fox readers]. The whisky process is started by one person and finished a generation later by someone else. The skills are passed on through generations, many within the same family, with the tools of their trade often outliving the user; hence the name Succession.
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| Stephen works as a maltman on mashing and fermentation |
James used many cameras and unique angles to capture, from birds' eye to ground level, views of the distillery and the objects and people in it including casks, tools, the river that provides the water, the barley and structure of the distillery itself. The unique way in which he has manipulated the emulsion on the prints gives them an earthy, three dimensional quality that spoke to me of timelessness, reflecting the beautiful patina of age he saw around him at The Balvenie.
With a variety of other bloggers, crafts people and creative types, I was invited to an event in London last week at which Succession was introduced by The Balvenie and James Stroud over a lunch combining the best food and whisky.
With a variety of other bloggers, crafts people and creative types, I was invited to an event in London last week at which Succession was introduced by The Balvenie and James Stroud over a lunch combining the best food and whisky.
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| Enjoying the art, the whisky, the food and the company |
We tried the wonderful whiskies produced in The Balvenie distillery, enjoying the product of generations of expertise alongside the remarkable photographic work of James Stroud. He has so skilfully captured the essence of this great Scottish drink, its origins and the people and materials responsible for its creation.
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| Entering the spirit of the event |
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| A cooper's hammer |
I'm an occasional great fan of whisky, but had never tried The Balvenie before. From the rum/oak flavours of the Caribbean Cask to the complexity of the Doublewood, they are whiskies I look forward to revisiting soon. Thanks to The Balvenie for setting the context for such photographic creativity, for producing such wonderful spirits and for a very enjoyable event.
Links:
James Stroud Photographer
