Atlas of Remote Islands

Judith Schalansky's wonderful book Atlas of Remote Islands, 50 Islands I Have Never Set Foot on and Never Will is the inspiration for this developing series of images. In the book, Schalansky provides lovely, poetic accounts of 50 remote islands around the world, paired with a map of each island. The book instantly captured my imagination - I've had a fascination with castaway stories and uninhabited islands since I was a kid. Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Jules Verne's Mysterious Island - all provided great fodder for the imagination when I was young. My family history even includes a grand (and sordid) island adventure. One of my ancestors was Alexander Smith, a mutineer on the HMS Bounty back in 1789. He and the rest of the mutineers, along with a number of women injudiciously kidnapped from Tahiti, lived out their lives marooned on Pitcairn Island in the south Pacific. So, with Schalansky's book as a guide, I set out to photograph some remote islands of my own. Of course, traveling to the most remote islands in the world is a bit outside of my travel budget. I also tend to get seasick. So, in keeping with the spirit of the book, my images are also of islands I've never set foot on. The work is a quixotic voyage of discovery based entirely on fiction. An adventure!  

Click on the first image to enter the slideshow.