Eivissa · Ibiza
Island out of Time
by Martin Davies

THIS TITLE IS LONG OUT OF PRINT. IT CAN, HOWEVER, BE CONSULTED IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY AND IN THE PRINCIPAL PUBLIC LIBRARIES/ARCHIVES ON IBIZA.

Following the success of Eivissa-Ibiza: a Hundred Years of Light and Shade (2000), its author continued searching for exceptional photographs of Ibiza and Formentera in half a dozen countries, and has located fifty more archives containing first-class material. Important discoveries include the Berlin-based baron, Gustav von Estorff, the original archive of German travel-writer Hans Helfritz, American photojournalist couple Franc & Jean Shor, the Swiss photographer Henriette Grindat, the Dutchman Dré Brenneker, long-time island residents Brian Pollard and Robert Cairns, and two Spanish photographers, the Marqués de Santa María del Villar and Josep Planells. The investigation of prints and negatives went hand-in-hand with detailed research on texts. The book begins with two introductions, the editor's being followed by Robert Cairn's specially commissioned 'The Lost Lane-End'. Many captions have been amplified with the help of islanders old and new, for whom the pictures invariably evoked powerful memories. A selection of sixty literary extracts from novels, travel books and journals counterpoint the strong visual element, elucidating subjects presented in the photographs. The final section contains sixty-six biographical résumés, for which information and portraits were gathered from photographers, friends and relatives, books, journals and websites. All biographies and captions are in Catalan, Spanish and English, while literary extracts are in the original language with Spanish, Catalan and/or English translations as appropriate.

The book contains several overlapping themes, but the principal subject is undoubtedly Ibicenco culture, above all traditions, crafts and activities which have rarely been captured on film. A second theme is the 1955-80 transition to an economy based on tourism, a time during which the old and the new (beatniks/hippies) created arresting juxtapositions. A third theme is the rich variety of Ibiza's cosmopolitan community (or communities), seen both in photographs and biographical entries: the photographers themselves represent thirteen different European and American countries. A fourth theme is the beauty of Ibiza's landscapes and townscapes, and here early colour photographs play a special role. The final theme, time, is underlined by the book's subtitle, with its different nuances in each language. Over the past half-century tourism, immigration, affluence and technology have combined to alter many of the things which once set Ibiza apart. Island Out of Time both celebrates what was unique about the island in the past, and presents a plea for sustainability with regard to our common future.

The Author

Martin Davies, editor and writer, was born in Liverpool in 1961 and spent much of his childhood in South America and the South Seas. After studying history at Oxford University and librarianship at Newcastle Polytechnic, he worked in the National Art Library (Victoria and Albert Museum), where he wrote Romanesque Architecture: a Bibliography (New York, 1993). In 1993 he moved to Ibiza, where he has worked for ten years as an English teacher. His photographic anthology, Eivissa-Ibiza: a Hundred Years of Light and Shade (2000) was edited and published with Philippe Derville, and he is also the author of a study of the island's traditional architecture. He has contributed articles to IbizaNOW, the Enciclopèdia d'Eivissa i Formentera, Quadern del TEHP, The Mini Rough Guide to Ibiza & Formentera (2001), Arquitectura y espacio rural en Ibiza (2002), and the online cultural journal, The Electronic Ibiza History Culture (www.ibizahistoryculture.com). Together with Björn Lindholm he has translated Gerald Mulder's Literair Ibiza (1989; English edition Dutch Writers and Painters in the Pityuses, 2002) and Leif Borthen's Veien til San Vicente (1967, English edition forthcoming, The Road to San Vicente). The Barbary Press is his first solo foray into the world of publishing.

Blurb

"Ibiza, though smaller than Menorca, plays at being a continent," observed a British travel writer in 1911. This sequel to Eivissa-Ibiza: a Hundred Years of Light and Shade shows the hidden corners of a Mediterranean microcosmos in which man has lived in close communion with nature for millennia, and where customs and folklore from the distant past have survived right up to the present. Since the 1930s, Ibiza and Formentera have been known as a refuge for writers and artists, but it is the photographers who have perhaps done most to record the archipelago's unique beauty and charm. The present anthology celebrates the vision of seventy such 'light-painters', enabling today's reader to roam again through the islands that time forgot.

Publisher: Barbary Press, Ibiza.
Dimensions: 372 pages, 280 full-page photographs (85 colour), map endpapers, 24 x 28 cm
ISBN / Price: 84 609-4095-0 / 50 euro (cloth)
Languages: Catalan, Spanish and English throughout.
Introductions: German, French and Italian.
Launched: Centro Cultural Can Ventosa, Avenida Ignacio Wallis, 26 Ibiza Town, Wednesday 19th October 2005 at 20.30.

How to purchase this book

This intriguing book by Martin Davies is available for purchase by directly contacting this office either by e-mail, fax, letter and telephone or in person. Payment is accepted by cash, traveller's cheques or by VISA and MasterCard.

The price of this book, which if requested can be personally signed by the author, is 50 euro plus the cost of postage and packaging (Spain 8 euro, UK/Europe 30 euro (airmail 33 euro), US and Canada 27 euro (airmail 41 euro), Australia and New Zealand 29 euro (airmail 46 euro).

Martin Davies

martindavies@ibizahistoryculture.com