GOST
GOST is a visual arts and photography publishers based in London. Gemma works with photographers and artists to curate a selection of work that evokes a strong visual narrative of the project to be produced as a book. Working with a small team of creatives, Gemma’s role covers editing, sequencing, design, layout, typography, cover design and creative direction.
The Parallel State, Guy Martin
Published in December 2018
Press: Flash Forward Flash Back, L’oeil de la Photographie, Medium
The Parallel State by photographer Guy Martin is a multi-layered project which began life as an examination of the Turkish soap opera and film industry, but evolved over the course of five years, into a semi-fictional study of truth, reality and lies in contemporary Turkey.
Edited and designed by GOST: Katie Clifford, Gemma Gerhard, Justine Hucker, Allon Kaye, Eleanor Macnair, Claudia Paladini, Ana Rocha and Stuart Smith
Freedom or Death, Gideon Mendel
Published November 2019
Press: The Guardian, BJP, Collector Daily
Thirty years ago, photographer Gideon Mendel left a box of negatives and transparencies in storage in a friend’s garage in Johannesburg. At some point the box was rained upon and the top layers damaged. The affected photographs were from Mendel’s documentation of the final years of apartheid when he had witnessed the nationwide township uprising and scenes of mobilisation, conflict and tragedy. This act of happenstance led to Mendel revisiting and re-engaging with his archives, and the gradual creation of this book Freedom or Death.
Edited and designed by GOST: Katie Clifford, Gemma Gerhard, Justine Hucker, Allon Kaye, Eleanor Macnair, Claudia Paladini, Ana Rocha and Stuart Smith
Kiss it!, Abbie Trayler-Smith
Published 25 May 2023
Press: AnOther, i_D, Dazed, British Journal of Photography, The Times, Publico, Blind magazine, Libération, The Guardian, Creative Review, CNN
Kiss it! is the result of a long-term collaboration between photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith and Shannon, a young woman living with obesity. Over the course of 12-years, Trayler-Smith documented Shannon’s journey from teenager to adult—navigating friendships, family, first-boyfriends, prom nights, holidays and jobs. Shannon has been the central inspiration for Trayler-Smith’s long-term project, ‘The Big O’ examining the issue of obesity in school-age children and young adults.
Edited and designed by GOST: Katie Clifford, Gemma Gerhard, Justine Hucker, Allon Kaye, Eleanor Macnair, Claudia Paladini, Ana Rocha and Stuart Smith
Drummies, Alice Mann
Published November 2021
Press: Creative Review, The Eye of Photography, Bilderstrum, Herald Scotland, The Cut, CNN, Wallpaper,
Independent, Glorious, FT How to Spend it, Lensculture
This long-term project, by South African photographer Alice Mann, explores the unique sport of drum majorettes. The images depict the aspirational subculture surrounding all-female teams of drum majorettes affectionately known as ‘Drummies.’
Edited and designed by GOST: Katie Clifford, Gemma Gerhard, Justine Hucker, Allon Kaye, Eleanor Macnair, Claudia Paladini, Ana Rocha and Stuart Smith
Weathering Time, Nancy Floyd
Published February 2021
Press: Nearest Truth, The New Yorker, FT Weekend, i_D, M magazine (Le Monde), Dazed
Awards: ICP / GOST First Photo Book Award – Winner | Shortlisted for the Rencontres d’Arles Book Award, Author category 2021 | Shortlisted for First Photobook Award in the Paris Photo / Aperture Photobook Awards 2021
Nancy Floyd has been photographing herself since 1982, with the aim of taking a photo a day. The resulting project, comprised of over 2500 images, is a meditation on the passage of time, loss and the ageing female body. Weathering Time is the winner of the inaugural ICP / GOST First Photo Book Award.
Edited and designed by GOST: Katie Clifford, Gemma Gerhard, Justine Hucker, Allon Kaye, Eleanor Macnair, Claudia Paladini, Ana Rocha and Stuart Smith
Terre à l’Amende, Mark Power
Published October 2021
The photographs in Terre à l’Amende by Mark Power were made on Guernsey and show a side of the island far removed from traditional picturesque representations of blue skies and beaches. Territorially and politically, the Channel Islands—of which Guernsey is the second largest—are complicated and this is reflected in this series of photographs.
Edited and designed by GOST: Katie Clifford, Gemma Gerhard, Justine Hucker, Allon Kaye, Eleanor Macnair, Claudia Paladini, Ana Rocha and Stuart Smith
From the Heads of the Hollers, Shelby Lee Adams
Published August 2023
Every summer for over 40 years, Shelby Lee Adams travelled to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky to take photographs. Now in his 70s, Adams has returned to his archive of unpublished images taken between 1974 and 2010. His aim was to print those which may have been previously overlooked, concerned that if he did not print them in his lifetime, the photographs would never be made. Nearly 90 of these unpublished photographs are included in his new book From the Heads of the Hollers—portraying the culture and people of his native land. Adams’ intention when he first began to take pictures had been to ‘photograph what I knew’ . His annual summer trips allowed him to renew and relive his childhood in these mountains. He began by taking photographs of his grandparents, uncles and aunts, neighbours and friends. He then asked for introductions when he brought back photographs to distribute to those whose portraits he had taken. Introductions led to further introductions and over the course of four decades he continued to work in this manner, photographing three, four or sometimes even five generations of the same families.
Edited and designed by GOST: Katie Clifford, Gemma Gerhard, Justine Hucker, Allon Kaye, Eleanor Macnair, Claudia Paladini, Ana Rocha and Stuart Smith