The Brooks Press Of Wirksworth
Dublin Core
Title
The Brooks Press Of Wirksworth
Shelfmark - 163.DOC.BROOKS
Subject
Other
Description
For almost ten years Brooks has been returning to his childhood home in Derbyshire to photograph the land and research the story of his family’s printing press, a business which he knew very little about due to the death of his father when he was a teenager.
An imprint founded in 1898 by his great grandfather, F.W. Brooks, The Brooks Press published a wide range of material from travel guides and poetry to books on self-improvement. It finally closed its doors in the early 1970s, having passed from father to son for three generations, winding up just before Brooks was born.
By employing a mixture of exquisitely composed, atmospheric, large format colour portraits and landscapes combined with archival fragments and pages of letterpress, Chris Brooks examines the pull of history and the complicated nature of belonging and family.
By doing so, he draws our attention to the constantly changing meaning of what it is to be ‘in’ and ‘of’ England. The Brooks Press of Wirksworth is thus a timely meditation on changing notions of nationhood, identity and the power of place.
An imprint founded in 1898 by his great grandfather, F.W. Brooks, The Brooks Press published a wide range of material from travel guides and poetry to books on self-improvement. It finally closed its doors in the early 1970s, having passed from father to son for three generations, winding up just before Brooks was born.
By employing a mixture of exquisitely composed, atmospheric, large format colour portraits and landscapes combined with archival fragments and pages of letterpress, Chris Brooks examines the pull of history and the complicated nature of belonging and family.
By doing so, he draws our attention to the constantly changing meaning of what it is to be ‘in’ and ‘of’ England. The Brooks Press of Wirksworth is thus a timely meditation on changing notions of nationhood, identity and the power of place.
Creator
Chris Brooks
Publisher
The Brooks Press
Date
2019
Format
Hard back, cloth cover.
64 Colour plates, 18 pages of letterpress.
64 Colour plates, 18 pages of letterpress.
Book Item Type Metadata
Dimensions
29.5, 24.5, 2 cm
Number of Pages
136
Number of images
64
Edition Size
500
Place of Publication
U.K.
Designer
Modern Activity
Editor
N/A
Printer
Optimal and Paekakariki Press
ISBN
978-1-5272-2770-5
Website
https://chrisbrooks.net
URL Link to project
https://chrisbrooks.net/project/brooks-press-m
Where to buy
thebrookspress.com, Photobookstore.co.uk, https://www.printedmatter.org and all good book sellers
Links to reviews
‘Chris Brooks photographs the revival of his family’s lost printing press’
https://www.documentjournal.com/2019/02/chris-brooks-photographs-the-revival-of-his-familys-lost-printing-press/
Above the fold, Document.
‘Chris Brooks has spent a decade rediscovering his family’s 100-year-old printing press’
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/chris-brooks-the-brooks-press-of-wirksworth-photography-220219
by Lucy Bourton, It’s Nice That.
‘Chris Brooks: The Brooks Press Of Wirksworth’
https://www.pylotmagazine.com/chris-brooks-the-brooks-press-of-wirksworth/
by Wini Charity, Pylot.
‘The Brooks Press of Wirksworth’
https://tankmagazine.com/tank/2019/03/brooks-press/
Tank Magazine
https://www.documentjournal.com/2019/02/chris-brooks-photographs-the-revival-of-his-familys-lost-printing-press/
Above the fold, Document.
‘Chris Brooks has spent a decade rediscovering his family’s 100-year-old printing press’
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/chris-brooks-the-brooks-press-of-wirksworth-photography-220219
by Lucy Bourton, It’s Nice That.
‘Chris Brooks: The Brooks Press Of Wirksworth’
https://www.pylotmagazine.com/chris-brooks-the-brooks-press-of-wirksworth/
by Wini Charity, Pylot.
‘The Brooks Press of Wirksworth’
https://tankmagazine.com/tank/2019/03/brooks-press/
Tank Magazine
Collection
Citation
The Brooks Press, “The Brooks Press Of Wirksworth,” Photo Book Cafe Archive, accessed April 30, 2025, https://www.photobookcafe-archive.co.uk/items/show/163.