A Book Of Photographs Of Richard Alston Dance Company, ALSTON NASH, To Be Released

Photographer Chris Nash and choreographer Richard Alston's creative relationship began in 1995 with a photoshoot which set the tone for Richard Alston Dance Company's visual identity for years to come. Since then they have created an extensive body of work, collaborating on over 30 photoshoots working with exceptional dancers to produce thousands of images.

Alston Nash is a 108-page book of 50 photographs chosen by Nash, Alston and Martin Lawrance (originally a dancer with RADC then its rehearsal director and associate choreographer). The images range from the iconic through the experimental to the personal, each with its own story. Accompanying conversations offer rare insights into the creative relationship between choreographer and photographer, the art of the successful photoshoot, and the life of a dance company. The stories and the creative processes behind the images, as well as the importance of individual dancers, are revealed through a mix of anecdotes, advice and memories.

Writer Judith Mackrell (who became The Guardian's dance critic in the same year Alston and Nash took their first photos together, a role she held for 23 years) has written an opening essay for the book which covers the aesthetics and careers of Alston and Nash, key moments in the history of dance photography and her take on some of the images in the book (including her own favourite).

Mackrell says in her foreword: "Choreographers can conjure extraordinary immediate beauty simply from the lines, curves and rhythms of a body moving through space. But they can also evoke the deep, unspoken hinterland of memory, feeling and experience that the body carries within it. The greatest of all dance photographs are surely those which capture this dual aspect."

Alston Nash is conceived by Chris Nash, keen to record and celebrate his relationship with Richard Alston Dance Company, and is the first publication from his Fiat Lux imprint. An art student who took his first dance photograph in 1977, Nash quickly became recognised as one of the new radicals of the artform and is now one of its grand masters. The book is designed by another long-time Nash collaborator, Allan Parker of Pure Land.

From 19 October, Alston Nash will be available to buy from Amazon and from www.chrisnashphoto.com/shop for £30+pp

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