Using a ‘battered medium format camera’ once belonging to Fay Godwin, Alex Boyd captures the archipelago of St Kilda in a new light, from a 21st century perspective. From the crumbling Cold War military base to the wild beauty of the natural landscape, this collection of photographs is both an ode to the history of the islands and an insight into the modern day lives of those who live and work on St Kilda today.

What a remarkable book this is: testimony to a commitment of method, a brilliance of eye and a subtlety of spirit. Made of what Rilke calls 'heart-work' as well as 'the work of the eyes', vigilant against nostalgia and ruin-lust, it explores and records the forces that have shaped contemporary St Kilda. Alex Boyd's images represent a major addition to the tradition of modern landscape photography, of which Fay Godwin - on whose camera these images were taken - was such a crucial twentieth-century figure. ROBERT MacFARLANE

DR ALEX BOYD FSA(Scot) is a photographer, academic and writer who grew up on the west coast of Scotland. His work has been widely exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at the Scottish Parliament, as well as group exhibitions at the Royal Academy, the Royal Ulster Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy. His work is held in the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland, the Royal Photographic Society, the Royal Scottish Academy, the V&A and the Yale Centre for British Art in the US. His first book, St Kilda: The Silent Islands, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book Award in 2018. He spent several years living on the Isle of Lewis.