In the Pines
A novella by Paul Scraton
Photographs by Eymelt Sehmer

‘The fragmented stories and haunted photographs in Paul Scraton and Eymelt Sehmer’s In the Pines feel like field recordings from the shadow forest of their imaginations.’
– Jeff Young, author of Ghost Town

In the Pines is author Paul Scraton's story of an unnamed narrator's lifelong relationship with the forest and the mysteries it contains, told through fragmented stories that capture the blurred details and sharp focus of memory.

Accompanied by eerie images created using a 170-year-old technique of collodion wet plate photography by Eymelt Sehmer, In the Pines is a powerfully evocative collaboration between image and text.

Praise for In the Pines

‘Paul Scraton's haunting novella traces the arc of lives on the edge of the forest...For Scraton, the forest is full of stories.’
– TLS

‘The fragmented stories and haunted photographs in Paul Scraton and Eymelt Sehmer’s In the Pines feel like field recordings from the shadow forest of their imaginations, transcribed into the pages of an old Explorer's Journal. I felt like I had gone into the forest, rucksack packed with Binoculars, Compass, Penknife, Whistle, Magnifying glass, Notebook, Pencil... and this haunting, collodion-eerie book.’
– Jeff Young, author of Ghost Town

‘Called to mind Alan Garner’s reimagining of the gnarled landscape around Alderley Edge in Cheshire, the historic legends of Wales captured in the Mabinogion, and the folktales that persist about moorland landscapes.’
– What I Think About When I Think About Reading

About the Author

Paul Scraton is a Lancashire-born writer and editor based in Berlin. Paul is the editor-in-chief of Elsewhere: A Journal of Place and the author of Ghosts on the Shore: Travels Along Germany's Baltic Coast (Influx Press, 2017) and the novel Built on Sand (Influx Press, 2019). His essays on place and memory have been published as the pocket book The Idea of a River: Walking out of Berlin (Readux Books, 2015), and in Mauerweg: Stories from the Berlin Wall Trail (Slow Travel Berlin, 2014). Elsewhere, his work has appeared in The Lonely Crowd, New Statesman, Literary Hub, Caught by the River, SAND Journal and hidden europe magazine, among others.
T: @underagreysky W: underagreysky.com

About the Photographer

Eymelt Sehmer is a Berlin based professional photographer, artist and filmmaker. Growing up in a densely wooded area in West Germany the forest always fueled her imagination.

In her works she mainly focuses on mythology, fairy tales and folklore. She is particularly interested in old analogue photographic techniques. Together with icelandic artist Mr. Arnarson she runs an art gallery and photo studio in Berlin.

In the Pines is her second collaboration with writer Paul Scraton. For this book she made Paul drag her mobile darkroom through the woods of Brandenburg. Yet, she hopes that there will be more projects with Paul to come.

Paperback ISBN: 9781910312858

Ebook ISBN: 9781910312865

Publication date: 21 October 2021

Formats: Paperback / eBook